All faculty (tenure-track, affiliate, visiting, adjunct) and staff are eligible to participate in our programming and apply to earn a badge. The requirements for every badge are different, but in general there are two fundamental steps, (a) engagement in a professional development activity and (b) submission of evidence of application.

Many badges require submission of a written reflection to the indicated Badge Coordinator. Guidelines and suggestions for reflections can be found here. 

Unless otherwise specified, the deadline for submission of a badge application is the end of the semester after the badge-worthy activity: either Fall, Spring/Summer, Winter.

Credly is the badging platform that is used to store, display, share, and manage digital badges. Credly alerts individuals who meet the established criteria via email with instructions on how to accept the badge. The instructions include information about creating an account with Credly. Once accepted, the badge will be publicly available on your profile. If preferred, you can change the visibility of a badge from public to private. Credly displays not only the badge icon but provides additional metadata that describes the accomplishment and the criteria that the earner was required to meet. Credly is free to use and it makes it easy to share badges with individuals and post to personal websites or social media platforms such as LinkedIn. The Pew FTLC provides coordination for Credly. For technology support, please visit the Credly Help Center. For helpful guidance on displaying your badge in LinkedIn, visit this Credly article for details.

To reflect the range of faculty professional development programs at Grand Valley, the FacultyBadges@GVSU program issues three unique levels of badges:

• Bronze for basic achievements wherein individuals become familiar with the essentials of a topic and submit a written reflection

• Silver for development of proficiencies wherein individuals participate in more extensive learning and submit evidence of implementation

• Gold for more advanced and integrative activities wherein individuals continue to refine implementation, disseminate findings or exhibit campus leadership around a topic.

Badges are currently offered by:

• Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center
• eLearning and Emerging Technologies
• University Libraries