Awards

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The Awards tool enables instructors to provide merit-based awards to students in the form of Badges or Certificates.

Badges and Certificates can be automatically awarded based on release condition criteria, or can be manually awarded.

Types of Awards

Badges

Badges can be awarded based on nearly any criteria chosen by the instructor. They are meant to provide digital markers that represent accomplishment throughout a course or program. Badges can’t be associated to a Grades item, but badges awarded for achievements can contribute to the type of work ethic that results in a passing grade. For example, an instructor might create a badge based on making 15 Discussion posts in the first month of a course, or on perfect attendance, or on academic excellence. These items are the types of trends that can help a learner to succeed in a course or program.

Certificates

Certificates are also awarded based on criteria determined by the instructor. Certificates are similar to Badges, but they include a PDF that students can print. Certificates typically indicate the achievement of an official certification or award at the end of a program, but can be awarded during the course for other criteria as well. Certificates can be awarded based on achieving a milestone that a learner can use for further academic or career success, such as passing a practical exam. Certificates also cannot be associated with a Grades item.

Note: To prevent plagiarism and protect an organization’s intellectual and branding copyrights, all earned certificates downloaded from the Awards tool are password-protected from editing. Each certificate is generated with a random password that is not displayed to users, preventing anyone from editing the certificate in Adobe® Acrobat® or Adobe Reader®. This makes it unnecessary to manually add password-protection to uploaded certificates.

Create an Award

You can create awards that can be shared with other users in other courses, or restricted to the course in which it’s created. If you restrict the award, it can only be added to the course offering in which you create the award.

  1. Within the course, do one of the following:
    • On the navbar, click Assessments > Awards
    • Click Course Admin, and then select Awards
  2. Click Add Award to Course
  3. Click Create Award
  4. Enter a name and description for the new award
  5. Select an award type from the dropdown list (Badge or Certificate – usually Badge)
  6. Select the appropriate check boxes to indicate if you want the award to be available to other instructors
  7. Select the expiry options:
    • If the award will not expire, select “Never”
    • If the award will expire on a specific date, select “Fixed date”
    • If the award will expire on a day relative to the day the award was granted, select “Relative Day of the Month”
  8. If you want to notify the award recipient before an award expires, select the check box and indicate the number of days of lead time
  9. In the Choose Award Image area, do one of the following:
    • If the image already exists in the image library, click From Existing Library
    • If you want to add a new icon to the image library, click Upload New Icon
    • To launch the OpenBadges website, click Create your own award image; OpenBadges is a free website that allows you to create custom icons
  10. If you are creating a new certificate, in the Choose Certificate Template area, do one of the following:
    • If the PDF template already exists in the image library, click From Existing Library
    • If you want to add a new template to the image library, click Upload New Template
  11. Verify that the Issuer Information is correct
  12. Ensure that the “Associate this award to the [current course] on creation” check box is correctly set
  13. Click Save

Add Release Conditions to an Award

You can add release conditions to an award and release other content or another award to learners when they satisfy the prerequisite.

  1. Within the course, on the navbar, click Assessments > Awards
  2. On the award, click Edit Properties
  3. Click Create
  4. From the “Condition Type” dropdown list, select the release condition
  5. Complete the associated Condition Details
  6. Click Create
  7. Click Save

View Awards for a Classlist

You can view the awards that you’ve granted for all students in the Classlist

  1. From within a course, on the navbar, click Assessments > Awards
  2. Click Classlist Awards
  3. To filter the awards that appear in the list, click All, Badges, or Certificates
  4. Select the sort order
  5. Review the Classlist and associated Course Awards

Manually Grant an Award

You can also manually grant awards, E.g., if a student succeeds on a practical test.

  1. From within a course, on the navbar, click Assessments > Awards
  2. Click Classlist Awards
  3. Select one or more learners in the Classlist
  4. Click Award
  5. From the dropdown list, select an award
  6. In the “Award Criteria” field, enter a reason for granting the award
  7. Click Award

Revoke an Award

In some cases, you may want to revoke a previously granted award. You can use the Search Classlist function to search for a specific student.

  1. From within a course, on the navbar, click Assessments > Awards
  2. Click Classlist Awards
  3. Select one or more learners in the Classlist
  4. Click Revoke
  5. From the dropdown list, select an award
  6. In the “Revoke Reason” field, enter a reason for revoking the award
  7. Click Revoke

How Can Students Share An Award between Courses?

To make an Award achieved in one course visible in another (E.g., the LSSC course completion badge), students can share Awards to their Profile page. Students should use the following steps to share an Award to their Brightspace Profile.