IMS Final Release

Open Badges 2.0 Implementation Guide
IMS Final Release


Date Issued: 18 October 2018
Status IMS Final Release
Latest version: https://www.imsglobal.org/spec/ob/v2p0/impl/


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The following participating organizations have made explicit license commitments to this specification:

Org name Date election made Necessary Claims  Type
Campus Labs March 20, 2019 No RF RAND (Required & Optional Elements)
Credly March 14, 2019 No RF RAND (Required & Optional Elements)
Mozilla Foundation March 14, 2019 No RF RAND (Required & Optional Elements)
Digitalme March 11, 2019 No RF RAND (Required & Optional Elements)
D2L Corporation March 10, 2019 No RF RAND (Required & Optional Elements)
Credly March 18, 2018 No RF RAND (Required Elements)
Pearson November 21, 2017 No RF RAND (Required Elements)

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Documents Name: Open Badges 2.0 Implementation Guide

Revision: 12 April 2018



Introduction

Scope

The Open Badges 2.0 (OBv2) specification describes a method for packaging information about accomplishments and recognition, embedding it into portable image files as digital badges, and establishing resources for its validation and verification. It includes term definitions for representations of data in Open Badges. These term definitions appear in the current JSON-LD context (v2.0) for the OBv2 specification.

This document aims to provide recommended practices, gathered from real-world implementations and experience, that an implementation of the specification should consider following.

Context

Overview

Open Badges put learners in control of how and where they share verifiable evidence of their skills and achievements with people, organizations, and social platforms.

Open Badges enable learner-control of sharing their credentials and communicating their meaning to educational institutions and employers. These credentials show evidence of rigor of the academic achievement through the inclusion of criteria, assessment details, learner’s evidence, alignment with external frameworks, accreditation details, and endorsements.

OBv2 introduces features that significantly improve the verifiability, portability, reliability, and discoverability of Open Badges.

Open Badges workflow illustration

Use Cases

The following use cases are supported:

  1. Creating a BadgeClass - BadgeClass objects can be created to build a catalog of badges that may be available to earn from the issuer. They may include information about the achievement including how to earn it or learn more about the issuer and achievement itself.
  2. Issuing badge Assertions to recipients - With a catalog of badges (BadgeClasses) prepared, you can issue those badges to recipients by creating Assertion objects. The Assertion is the representation of an awarded badge and may include evidence and supporting information on how the recipient became eligible for it.
  3. Displaying Open Badges - Typically, when an Open Badge is displayed, the Assertion and related objects are displayed on a screen in human-readable format. Supporting this enables the recipient to showcase their earned achievements and choose to allow others to view those.
  4. Importing Open Badges - Badge Hosts must support the function of importing Open Badges. This involves a process by which an Assertion and related objects are validated for format and integrity. Import of Open Badge data normally results in the subsequent display of that data.

These recommended practices are in addition to the information provided in the specification document and certification requirements document. Please refer to each of these resources for comprehensive implementation details.

Accessibility

Badge Issuer

Issuing Badges

Publishing Badges

Ending Badge Services

Badge Displayer

Badge Host

Hosting Badges

Importing Badges

Sharing Badges

Other

Extensions

Definition of Key Terms

The following terms are used throughout this document. Explanations of many other related terms appear within the specification document.

List of Contributors

The following individuals contributed to the development of this document:

Revision History

Release dateComments
18 October 2018Recommendations for urn-based identifiers; Recommendations for deletion of BadgeClass
12 April 2018Original Release