Guidelines for Badges Offered with Graduate Credit


DEFINITION: A digital badge is an endorsement of competency within a discrete area. At WSU, we offer both noncredit and credit bearing badges, including graduate credit. Combined together, a series of aligned badges can be used to fulfill a larger set of requirements, for either a graduate certificate and/or master’s program. Credit bearing badges are one credit or less and must focus on discrete skills. The minimum amount is 0.5 credit hours, and amounts over that must be justified and occur increments of 0.25. Based on the Federal definition and assignment of credit hours, the minimum requirement for instruction for a 0.5 credit hour badge would be 7.5 hours of direct instruction and 15 hours of out-of-classroom work. The quality of work required to earn a badge for graduate credit must be consistent with a letter grade of a B or better.

UPON COMPLETION: Badge credits are awarded as “badged” upon successful completion of the course. The course and Bg grade are included on the student’s transcript. In addition, students completing a graduate badge will receive an appropriately worded designation, such as an electronic badge, signifying that it was issued by WSU and what was required to complete the badge.

MANAGEMENT: Badges may be housed in a single academic unit or shared across units. In either case, they should be closely aligned to employer needs. As such, development and delivery of badges is a collaboration between academic departments and their faculty, the Graduate School, and the Office of Workforce, Professional, and Community Education (WPCE). In particular, the latter will assist in cultivating industry relationships, evaluating demand, and marketing of such programs. All graduate badges should be created at the 700 level or above. When using the 700 level, enrollment should be restricted to graduate students only. Like any graduate course at WSU, the Graduate School has oversight on all aspects of graduate badges, including establishment of enrollment standards, establishment of graduate faculty standards for teaching badge courses, and stacking of credentials to satisfy graduate certificate and/or degree requirements.

ELIGIBILITY: Students seeking to enroll in a graduate badge must meet the requirements for Graduate Badge Admission, where the key requirement is a cumulative (combined undergraduate and graduate) GPA of 2.75. Students who do not meet the GPA requirement may be enrolled in the badge course if reasonable evidence exists to indicate their ability to perform satisfactorily, which is based on a recommendation from the department and ultimately decided by the Graduate School.

APPROVAL PROCESS: Proposals for new graduate badges must begin with the Badge Planning Form provided by the WPCE. If the badge proposal is selected to go forward, then it should follow the standard curriculum review process.

CRITERIA FOR APPROVAL: A demonstrated need must exist in order for a badge proposal to be evaluated positively. Additionally, course work should offer clear educational objectives at the graduate level. The deans, chairs, and other administrators should address resource issues in their statement of support.

Endorsed by the Graduate Council, 11/19/15
Approved by the Dean of the Graduate School, 11/25/15
Revised by Dean of the Graduate School, 11/18/16