Edmodo Part 11: Badges

Edmodo badges are easy ways to provide recognition to individual students for their achievements. Edmodo includes several pre-made badges such as Good Citizen, Hard Worker, and Participant among others. Teachers can create their own custom badges and use those as well.

Badges are not graded. They are simply another way of recognizing students. Think of badges as a way to gamify student learning. Badges can be used as rewards or as a way to let students know they’ve accomplished certain requirements. Teachers can assign badges for any reason.

Creating Badges

1. Go to https://www.openbadges.me/designer.html to design and create a badge icon. You can use the site to add text and customize the look of your badge. Download the graphic to your computer.
2. In Edmodo click on the Progress tab at the top of the screen and select My Student Badges. Click the Create Badge button.
3. Enter a title and description for your badge. Upload the picture you saved in step 1.

Assign Badges

1. From the Progress tab at the top of the screen select your class or group. 
2. Click the Badges tab.
3. Click the Add a Badge to this Group button and select the badge you want.
4. When you are ready to award a badge, simply click in the box for that badge and student.

Student View

Students can see badges they’ve been awarded from their profile page. Simply click on the small avatar in the upper right corner and select Profile.

Integration Ideas

Badges can be used to recognize students for any reason. In this presentation from the 2014 EdmodoCon a 7th grade writing teacher uses badges to help his students through the writing process.

Other ways badges can be used:

• Online Help: award to students who go out of their way to help others on Edmodo.
• Parent Badge: award to students who’s parents made their Edmodo account.
• Creative Commons: award to students who understand copyright when using images.
• Digital Citizenship: award badges to students that complete digital citizenship activities.
• 25 Posts: award to students that reach 25 useful posts or comments.
• Writing Process: award to students as they complete each step of the writing process.

Teachers can find more information about badges, including how to share badges with other teachers, at https://support.edmodo.com/home#forums/20805855-badges.

Are you ready to get started with badges? Download the Edmodo Badges Technology Integration Challenge and see what you can do!