2026 Badge Summit

We’ll explore how credential transparency and portable value can be enhanced with well-designed credentialing frameworks that support more inclusive notions of recognition, well crafted metadata that leverages the superpowers of OBv3 and the contribution of human connection to building value. It will also discuss what stands in the way of "one framework to rule them all." There will be tons of examples and participants can apply for a Reflective Participant badge as a learning capsule!

Digital credentials were supposed to democratize opportunity—providing a faster, more accessible signal of skills than traditional degrees. Yet a decade into the microcredential movement, employer adoption remains stubbornly low. Many hiring managers still default to degrees, and the proliferation of badges from providers of varying rigor has created a signal-to-noise problem that undermines the entire ecosystem.
This session confronts an uncomfortable truth: the credentialing community must take responsibility for rebuilding trust, not just expanding volume.
We'll explore three dimensions of credential integrity: 

1. pedagogical rigor (are learners genuinely developing capabilities?)
2. assessment validity (can we verify skills in an era when AI can pass most knowledge tests?)
3. ecosystem accountability (how do we distinguish meaningful credentials from credential theater?).

Rather than offering easy answers, this session will share IBM's evolving approach—including our shift toward role-based, industry-contextualized learning and performance assessments designed to demonstrate applied capability. 

Faculty engagement is critical to building credible and scalable microcredential ecosystems. This session explores how institutions can move faculty from initial buy-in to meaningful co-creation through multiple engagement pathways, including structured design bootcamps, service on microcredential review bodies, faculty liaison roles, and opportunities for faculty to earn microcredentials themselves. Participants will leave with practical strategies for lowering barriers, legitimizing participation, and sustaining faculty involvement across credit and non-credit contexts.

This session explores how a workforce intermediary supported a statewide effort to build the nation’s first universal, competency-based Certified Direct Care Worker credential. Learn how centering worker voice, using stackable skills-based design, and ensuring credential value can elevate undervalued work, strengthen career pathways, and improve workforce stability at scale.

Integrating peer review into ESP classrooms can enhance students' critical thinking skills through intervention and apply both aspects of the zone of proximal development and blooms taxonomy thinking orders without missing to mention CLT and TBLT methods which are crucial to move students critical thinking from lower thinking order to the higher order 

See Colorado’s innovate pathway into the field of behavioral health, with fast and affordable microcredentials that equip people to begin work, gaining experience and income, while continuing to stack credentials and move into higher-level, higher-paying positions. CCCS co-designed the Behavioral Health Pathways with regulatory agencies, employers, and educators, defining competencies and scopes of practice to ensure entry level roles are viable and, in some cases, Medicaid reimbursable.

This expert leadership panel will convey their diverse perspectives from organizations that are bridging divides with digital credentials. We will discuss shared themes, including co-design, engagement, collaboration, and strategy. 


Moderator: Melanie Booth, Nectary Solutions


Panelists:
Chris Newlon, CEO, Team Democracy
Jennifer Fong, Director, Continuing Education, IEEE
Sonia Malik, Global Program Director, IBM Skills Build