Report Findings Show Open Badges Issued Tops 74 Million Globally

A new report from 1EdTech and Credential Engine highlights the continued growth of digital badges

LAKE MARY, Fla., February 16, 2023 — Today, 1EdTech and Credential Engine released the third bi-annual Open Badge Count report highlighting the tremendous scale and continued growth of digital badge practices leveraging the 1EdTech Open Badges standard around the world. Collectively, badge product providers reported a total of 74,780,775 issued badges, an increase of 73% from the previous 2020 report. The number of badges being offered also increased by ten percent to 521,070 badges available. For the first time, the Open Badge Count also includes information concerning badge issuers, counting 26,285 badge issuers worldwide.

Open Badges are verifiable and shareable digital credentials that can help power learner potential across K-12, higher education, and professional learning and development. Open Badges contain detailed information, including the organization or individual who issued the badge, the criteria that the badge was assessed against, evidence, when the badge was issued, a verifiable reference to the recipient, and several other required and optional properties. Some badges also contain links to detailed evidence, expiration dates, searchable tags, and alignments to educational standards or frameworks.

“The worldwide use and continued growth of badges as a way to digitally document and share individual achievements is impressive. I am particularly excited about the potential for Open Badges to provide more context about the value of these achievements and their connections to high-priority pathways,” said Credential Engine CEO Scott Cheney. “By giving individuals richly-described, trusted evidence of their accomplishments, the badge ecosystem can support a merit-based foundation for dignity and career advancement.”

“In 2016, the Mozilla Foundation asked 1EdTech to become the steward of the Open Badges standard, charging us with scaling adoption across a broad education to work spectrum, and thus opening up opportunities for all learners and enabling better hiring,” said 1EdTech CEO Dr. Rob Abel. “It is clear from this report, and the vibrant participation in our Open Badges and related Comprehensive Learner Record work that the future we hoped to create is now enabled. The time has come for credential issuers to open up opportunities for learners and employers by offering credentials that meet the Open Badges standard.”

The latest version of the Open Badges standard, Open Badges 3.0, will be demonstrated along with the Comprehensive Learner Record Standard™ (CLR Standard™) at 1EdTech’s Digital Credentials Summit, February 27 - March 1, in Dallas, Texas. The updates align the two standards more closely with each other and will allow suppliers to provide digital credentials that are more easily shared between wallets.