Digital Badges at National American University
Digital Badges at National American University
Show your learning. Share your skills. Advance your career.
Every step in your education can count. NAU issues verified digital badges so you can demonstrate skills and progress before graduation.
What is a digital badge?
A digital badge is a verified and portable credential that explains what you achieved, how you earned it, and who issued it. Each badge includes trusted metadata that employers and graduate schools can review.
- What you achieved: verifiable proof of earned knowledge, skills, and abilities.
- How you earned it: courses, assessments, or projects that were completed.
- Who issued it: National American University, verified through Open Badge Factory.
Why Earn a Badge?
Digital badges give you more than recognition — they give you an edge. At National American University, every badge is a verified credential that highlights what you know and what you can do. Whether you’re advancing in your current career or preparing for the next step, badges help you:
- Stay competitive. Keep your skills sharp by upskilling or reskilling as industries evolve. Badges show you’re committed to continuous growth.
- Strengthen your story. Each badge adds depth to your professional narrative, giving you a clear way to communicate your abilities to employers, colleagues, and peers.
- Stand out. Badges are portable, shareable, and verified. Add them to your résumé, LinkedIn profile, or digital portfolio to demonstrate your expertise with proof employers can trust.
- Keep learning forward. Every badge you earn can be a stepping-stone — some stand alone, others stack together into milestones, and many connect directly into degree pathways.
What Types of Badges Can You Earn?
NAU badge types
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Stand-alone: Single badges you can earn outside a course or program. Examples: Library Training, Training on Research/Writing/Sourcing & Citing, Orientation Completion.
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Stackable: Individual badges you can earn by completing tasks within a course, completing tasks within a group of courses, or at key milestones within a degree program. These stackable badges typically combine and result in a milestone badge.
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Milestones: Larger recognitions earned by completing a defined set of badges or outcomes across a course or sequence of courses.
Earn it. Claim it. Share it. Powered by Open Badge Factory.
Earn: complete a course, certificate, or project.
Claim: accept it in Open Badge Passport so your badge includes verified metadata.
Share: post to LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. Add it to your résumé and email signature.
NAU issues badges using Open Badge standards so your credentials are portable and verifiable.
- Open Badge Passport: store all your badges in one free account.
- Share everywhere: post to LinkedIn, Facebook, and X directly from the platform.
- Control visibility: make a badge public when you want to showcase it.
Questions
Can employers verify my badge? Yes. Each badge links to evidence and issuer details so employers can confirm authenticity.
Do badges replace a degree? No. Badges complement your degree and help you show progress and specific skills along the way.
Do badges stack into certificates or degrees? Many badges at NAU are stackable. Skill or focus area badges can be built into milestone badges for certificates or Credentials of Graduate Studies; at the graduate level, the degree represents mastery.
Badges are issued by NAU using the Open Badge standards. Program availability and requirements may change.
