Towards a taxonomy of Open Badges for City & Guilds

Earlier this year, Ilona Buchem put together a helpful Digital Badges / Open Badges taxonomy. I’ve referred to it several times in my consultancy work.

Today, Bryan Mathers and I had a think about what this would look like in a City & Guilds context. We decided to remove badges for Potential, for Commitment, and for Encouragement – leaving us with those featured in the diagram above and the list below:

  • Achievement badges
  • Capability badges
  • Membership badges
  • Participation badges

To explain our reasoning:

  1. Potential is a subjective notion based on opinions about another person’s Capability.
  2. Commitment doesn’t really seem to be helpfully demarcated from Participation.
  3. Encouragement reflects the psychological state of a learner that is outside the badge issuer’s control.

As the small logo in the corner of the image suggests, this isn’t finished thinking. We’d love your comments and feedback!

Badge taxonomy