Canvas and Accredible Auto Badging Feature Request Angela Greco & Rachel Miller University of Delaware Current Functionality As of Fall 2023, issuing a credential using the Canvas/Accredible integration requires a module-level prerequisite that students must meet; you cannot set an overall course grade as a prerequisite or requirement for a badge to be issued. We require digital credentials to be issued at course completion only. Issuing credentials for completing each module’s activities can cheapen the experience of receiving credentials and overload students with low-stakes achievements. In an attempt to work around these current Canvas and Accredible limitations, our team created a final module in a pilot course containing all course assignments in one place, which allowed us to set the completion of all assignments as a pre-requirement for credential issuing at the module level. We then added the link to Accredible at the end of this final module. Presumably, if the learner were to meet all the assessment requirements for the course (as contained and configured in this final module), they would be able to receive their credential by clicking this end-of-course Accredible link. However, because the Accredible link is at the end of the course, and the student would likely be completing the myriad assessments listed in the final module over a weekly structured period of time, it is possible, and probably likely, that students would complete all course content and fail to realize they must scroll down past the completed Assessment list to click the final Accredible link at the very bottom to receive their credential. In addition, if a course has assignments that are not automatically graded and thus must be graded by an instructor, the instructor would first need to input all the student grades and then notify each student to go back to the course they’ve already completed to then retrieve their badge. Otherwise, the burden is on the student to check back on the course to view their course grades and/or click the Accredible link to see if they can finally retrieve their credential. Therefore, in our use case, these digital credentials are not automatically issued once all the requirements have been completed. Each student must remember to scroll past all their completed work and click the Accredible link for a badge to be generated. And, if their final grades have not been posted, there is a high likelihood that students will forget to return to the course to retrieve their credentials when they’re able. While instructors could notify each individual student that their final grades are complete and can click the Accredible link in the course to retrieve their credentials, that communication adds an additional step to the process and a significant burden on the instructor for a process that is supposed to be automatic. Additionally, Canvas does not have a function to automatically notify an individual when all the requirements are completed to receive their badge. There is also no way for the instructor to know if a student clicked to receive their badge unless they were also an Accredible issuer with administrative access, which is highly unlikely in our organizational setup. Potential Solutions & Feature Enhancements We have identified four possible pathways to alleviate the issues identified above. Any one of these solutions will allow us to use the integration functionality in a way that limits additional work/steps and ensures adequate learner notification and user experience. However, If more than one of these proposed solutions can be implemented, we will greatly appreciate the increased functional flexibility. Solution 1: Once all prerequisites are complete in Canvas, learners will automatically be issued a Credential without the requirement to click on the Accredible link. Solution 2: Once all prerequisites are complete in Canvas, Accredible sends an automatic reminder email with the course link to Accredible, which will then issue the badge. Solution 3: Once learners receive a required final grade in a course, a process becomes available for instructors or course assistants to check off student names in individual or batch methods and issue credentials from Canvas in one step. Solution 4: Allow learners to receive badges at the course level instead of the module level. As stated, we tried to work around this by creating a dense, final module filled with assessments that have already been completed by the time a student views the list and scrolls down to click the Accredible link at the end of this final module. If we were able to issue at the course level, we could instead create a final module that contained only simple, clear instructions for learners on how to retrieve their badge now that their coursework is complete.
