2026 Badge Summit

Digital badges and microcredentials are no longer new, they are ubiquitous. Yet employer trust in credentials remains uneven, not because employers resist skills-based hiring, but because too many credentials fail to provide defensible evidence of competence. This session focuses on what differentiates credentials that meaningfully influence hiring decisions from those that function only as signals of completion.
Drawing on national experience designing and deploying performance-based microcredentials in laboratory and technical workforce settings, this session will unpack how assessment design, not branding or platform choice, determines whether a badge can be trusted by learners and employers. Attendees will learn why many well-intentioned credentials collapse under scrutiny, how assessment shortcuts erode trust, and what it actually takes to build trustworthy credentials that function as signals of hiring readiness.
The session will examine three core design principles. First, defining competence in observable, high-stakes terms, including identifying failure modes and edge cases that distinguish genuine skill from procedural mimicry. Second, building assessments that remain fair, valid, and scalable without sacrificing rigor, particularly when credentials are deployed across multiple institutions or regions. Third, aligning credentials with employer decision-making realities, focusing on what information employers need at the point of hire, not what educators find easiest to measure.
Participants will see concrete examples of assessment structures that work, as well as cautionary examples of credentials that unintentionally undermine the ecosystem by prioritizing completion, volume, or convenience over evidence. The session will also address the ethical dimension of credentialing, including when it is appropriate to redesign an assessment when the system, rather than the learner, is at fault.
Attendees will leave with a practical framework they can apply immediately to evaluate existing credentials or design new ones. The goal is not to produce more badges, but to produce fewer, stronger signals that earn trust over time and materially improve learner outcomes.
This session is designed for credential designers, educators, workforce leaders, and platform partners who want their badges to function as real currency in the labor market.