Digital Badge
While students and faculty are not required to complete digital badges together, faculty mentors often ask what students truly gain from the experience. The badge itself is not the end goal. Rather, it represents the learning process that takes place behind earning the badge.
Where Research Experience Becomes Evidence of Growth
The badge becomes a digital record of that journey—linking to outcomes such as a conference poster, presentation, portfolio project or written paper. Students can share this work through a digital link on LinkedIn, the UB Portfolio or their résumé, helping them communicate the value of their research experience to future employers, graduate programs and collaborators.
The experiential learning cycle outlined by David Kolb informs the phases of the digital badge process, with opportunities to engage in new learning through research, reflect on the mentored research experience, think through new knowledge and skills, and ultimately apply the new knowledge and skills to future situations. The phases help students to build their identity as researchers and scholars in their chosen field of study.
How Faculty Mentors Engage in the Badge Process
Faculty mentors play an important role in guiding students through each phase of the research experience. The badge framework aligns with common stages of mentored research and can complement the way many faculty already support student researchers.
Preparation Phase
Students begin by setting goals and intentions for their research experience. During this phase, mentors can help students prepare by recommending readings and ensuring students have completed required training courses and attended demonstrations or workshops relevant to the project.
Engagement Phase
Students actively contribute to the research project. Mentors provide guidance, meet regularly with students and offer feedback on student research contributions.
Reflection Phase
Reflection helps students connect their research experience to broader intellectual and professional development. Faculty mentors can model reflection on research methods and outcomes, showing how research and intellectual and creative development are ongoing processes of doing, thinking and reflecting.
Integrating the Mentored Research Digital Badge into a Course
Faculty may choose to integrate the Mentored Research Digital Badge into a course when students participate in a faculty-mentored research project as an optional or required component of the course. This approach works particularly well when students produce an outcome, such as a poster, presentation, paper or other project deliverable.
The Mentored Research Digital Badge is a co-curricular credential designed to complement academic coursework. While the badge itself does not carry academic credit, faculty may choose to award extra credit or incorporate badge completion into the course grading structure. Any academic credit is awarded through the course, not through the badge program.
Students complete the same digital badge requirements and reflection process used by the Office for Undergraduate Research Digital Badge program. This ensures a consistent experience while allowing faculty flexibility in how the badge supports course learning outcomes.
Because the badge is offered independently of coursework, students may also earn the credential outside of a credit-bearing course.
The Office for Undergraduate Research is available to meet with faculty interested in integrating the badge into a course. We can help identify effective implementation strategies and provide customized instructions tailored to your students and course.
Curious to learn more?
Sources
Kolb DA. Experiental learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall; 1984.