2026 Badge Summit

For centuries, higher education has invested in learners enabling them to build economic, social and cultural capital through a variety of settings. How can institutions help students write and share their narratives with evidence that says, “This is what I practiced and how”? This session asks attendees to reimagine howlearner experiencescan be digitally transported and verified by using Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE), Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) and Open Badges together.

Credentialing programs aim to signal durable skills, yet decision-making is often expected of learners without being explicitly named, taught, or recognized. In this Dream Makers’ Lounge session, participants will explore Decision Education as a practical framework for making judgment, reasoning, and decision-making more visible across badges, credentials, and learning pathways.

Through a real-world example, a workforce-skills exercise, and an interactive experience with the Confident? board game, attendees will identify where decision-making may already be embedded in their own programs. The game offers a hands-on example of how Decision Education can be taught and recognized through engaging learning experiences—not as an added burden, but as a practical layer within work already underway.

The session will also share emerging Alliance approaches for connecting standards, learning experiences, evidence, and recognition, helping participants identify one practical next step for making decision skills more visible in their own credential ecosystems.