Digital Badges: Are You Ready For What’s Next?

This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full list of disclosures here.

Digital Badges are Resume Worthy Credentials

NOTE: If you just want to jump to the 40+ badges you can earn for FREE, click HERE.

BONUS: Earn a badge in just 20 minutes, click HERE.

I have earned 21 digital badges. They have served me well in my current endeavors of building the Upskill Create Community.  They have helped establish my expertise in this area as well as give me a broad general knowledge of new technologies and skills.

I help others in our community earn badges, learn, share resources and connect with others.

My first two badges were IBM Cloud Essentials and Blockchain Essentials. Both courses are 3 hours long. All of the courses in this blog post are available for anyone to take and are 100% FREE.

The courses were enjoyable with good videos and learn-by-doing exercises. The exercises were easy to follow along with and helped fill in the gaps of my knowledge of Bluemix and Blockchain. Most of the videos are hosted on Youtube. Here’s an example from the Bluemix Essentials Course (if you can’t see the video below, click HERE):

Course Design

Each course was broken up into modules and activities in collapsible sections. I was able to take the course in chunks as my schedule allowed and I was informed of my progress at the bottom of each module (e.g. “completed 7 out of 33 modules”). At the end of each module, I was given a knowledge checkpoint question. At the end of the course, I had to correctly answer 80% of the 10 quiz questions to collect my badge. If I got less than 80%, I was able to re-take the quiz as many times as I wanted to get 80% or better.

Here’s an example of the expandable modules from the Bluemix Essentials course:

Course Requirements: As an example, here are the details for what is required to earn the Blockchain Essentials Badge:

1. Coursework: Successful completion of the Blockchain Essentials course.
2. Demonstration: Successful completion of the associated practical lab demonstrating the ability to create a working chaincode and deploy it to a blockchain network.
3. Assessment: Completion of the end-of-course test and received a score of 80% or higher.

Convenient: I wake up early on most weekend mornings and while the rest of my family is asleep, I thought I could use this time to make a small investment in my career by learning every weekend. Most courses average about 5 hours each so this is easy to complete.

Addictive: As a fan of the highly addictive collection game called Pokemon Go during the summer of 2016 (slogan – “Gotta Catch ’em All!”), I found myself feeling a similar addictive desire to get more IBM badges!

Want to earn a Digital Badge?

Here are several sources for taking courses and earning badges:

• Badges Mindmap (8 categories of courses including Blockchain, Data Science and Cloud): http://bit.ly/uc-mindmap
• Data Science Courses: https://cognitiveclass.ai/badges/
• Watson Academy: https://bit.ly/uc-watsonacademy
• IBM Skills Gateway: https://bit.ly/uc-ibmskills
• Learn Cloud and AI with IBM Badges by Mihai Criveti

My badges list: LINK

1. IBM Cloud (Bluemix) Essentials (3 hours) ✔
2. Blockchain Essentials (3 hours) ✔
3. Node-Red: Basics to Bots (4 hours) ✔
4. Watson Discovery Service Foundations Badge (1.5 hours) ✔
5. Data Science Foundations (3 hours) ✔
6. Big Data 101 (3 hours) ✔
7. Watson Conversation Service Foundations (3 hours) ✔
8. Hadoop Foundations Level 1 (5 hours) ✔
9. Python 101 for Data Science (5 hours) ✔
10. Data Science for Business – Level 1 (1.5 hours-5 hours) ✔
11. IBM Cloud Garage Explorer (1.5 hours) ✔
12. Docker Essentials: Extend your app with containers (3 hours) ✔
13. Getting Started with Kubernetes (2.5 hours) ✔

BONUS: Here’s a complete list of over 2100 badges you can earn from IBM: LINK. And here’s a list of IBMers that have earned badges: LINK.  Check out the Linkedin Post.

Grab my eBook to learn everything you need to know about earning digital badges.  Click the graphic to learn more about what’s included.

IBM Badges Wall of Fame (minimum badges required = 29)

Last update: 13-Feb-2020.  Badge Count increase (+x) is based on badge increase from 12-Nov-2019.  103 members.

300+ (1 member)

• Oliver Bodemer (achieved 1-Mar-2020) – 300 badges (+10): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/oliver-bodemer

200-299 (0 members)

• no members (yet!)

100-199 (15 members)

• Sudip Lamichhane – 162 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/sudip
• Georges Maamari – 151 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/georges-maamari
• Gourav Banerjee – 141 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/gourav-banerjee.651b536a
• Mauricio Cadavid – 129 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/mauricio-cadavid
• Bernd Schlosser – 124 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bernd-schlosser/badges
• Giulio Montenero – 118 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/giulio-montenero
• Hossam AlTurkey – 113 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/hossam-alturkey/badges
• Siddhartha Sood – 110 badges (+8): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/siddhartha-sood
• Tanut Karnwai – 107 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/Tanut-Karnwai
• Mariya Gul Khand – 105 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mariya-gul-khand/badges
• Santiago Lovera – 104 badges (+18): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/santiago-santiago-lovera-gmail-com/badges
• Martin Dvorsky – 103 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/martin-dvorsky
• Tom Halvorson – 103 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/tom-halvorson
• Mihai Criveti – 102 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/mihai-criveti
• Ranjith Radhamananohar – 101 badges (+14): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/ranjith-radhamanohar
• Alessandro Rodrigo Marialva – 100 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alessandro-rodrigo-marialva/badges

70-99 (12 members)

• Alain Airom – 96 badges (+12): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alain-airom/badges
• Omar Dasser – 95 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/omar-dasser/badges
• Ludmila Kantova – 91 badges (+13): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ludmila-kantova
• Kenneth Cheung – 90 badges (+11): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kenneth-cheung.6c69552d
• Cristiano Borges – 88 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/cristiano-borges-de-oliveira/badges
• Samer Fouad – 80 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/samerfouad/badges
• Catalin Modovan – 77 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/catalin-moldovan/badges
• Neil Dick Beltran – 74 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/neil-dick-beltran
• Nandan Kumar – 73 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/nandankumar/badges
• Francisco Naranjo – 72 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/francisco-naranjo
• Rafael Mello – 71 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/rafael-mello.72d25238
• Theo Thomas – 71 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/theo-thomas
• Mihail Stanescu – 70 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mihail-stanescu/badges

50-69 (25 members)

• Andrea Weber – 69 badges (+14): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/andrea-weber/badges
• Raydo Matthee – 67 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/raydo-matthee/badges
• Marshal V. Khosa – 66 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/marshal-v-khosa
• Muhammad Ali Raza – 65 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/muhammad-ali-raza/badges
• Vincent Perrin – 65 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/vincent-perrin/badges
• Somnath Das – 64 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/somnath-das.ebbce072
• Scott Kennedy – 64 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/scott-kennedy
• Juha Ekstrom – 61 badges (+13): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/juha-ekstrom/badges
• Chris Phillips – 60 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/chris-phillips.bdd87ec5/badges
• Luis Alejandro Valle – 60 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/luisvalle
• Chip Van Alstyne – 58 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/chipva
• Daria Korenkova – 58 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/daria-korenkova/badges
• Francisco Gomeztagle – 58 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/francisco-gomeztagle
• Tom Bosmans – 57 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/tom-bosmans
• Roy Bruijns – 57 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/Roy-Bruijns/badges
• Derek Hubbard – 57 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/derek-hubbard
• Johnnie Ng – 55 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/johnnie-ng/badges
• Handoko Lie – 55 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/handoko-lie
• Radek Volf – 55 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/radek-volf/badges
• Marko Ekelo – 54 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/marco-ekelo
• Shreyas Mulay – 52 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/shreyasmulay23
• Andre Gusmao – 52 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/andre-gusmao
• Kimmo Kaskikallio – 51 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/kimmo-kaskikallio
• Claudia Degli Esposti – 51 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/claudia-degli-esposti.0239309b
• Victor Kazuyuki Shinya – 51 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/vshinya/badges
• Jeffrey Curtiss – 50 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jeffrey-curtiss

40-49 (17 members)

• John McNamara – 49 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/john-mcnamara.1ef76c24
• Juan Montalvo – 49 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/juan-montalvo
• Leslie Rodriguez – 49 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/leslierodriguez
• Nilabja Haldar – 48 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/nilabja-haldar/badges
• Andreas Graef – 48 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/andreas-graef
• Ashraf Ali Tajudeen – 48 badges (+8): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ashraf-ali-thajudeen/badges
• Indradeep Kama – 46 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/indradeep-kama
• Amit Srivastava – 46 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/amit-srivastava.d0435a52/badges
• Kavitha Suresh Kumar – 45 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kavitha-suresh-kumar/badges
• Carlos Matos – 45 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/carlos-matos.2e614c04/badges
• Rafael Arturo Ramirez Sus – 43 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/rafael-arturo-ramirez-sus
• Pramod Singh – 43 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/pramod-singh.f475cea1
• Wayne Kimble – 42 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/wayne-kimble/badges
• Subrata Chakraborty – 42 badges (+12): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/subrata-chakraborty/badges
• Patricia Miranda – 42 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/patricia-miranda/badges
• Hycind Santhibhavan – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/hycind
• Laurent Sene – 40 Badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/laurent-sene/badges
• Ganbadrakh Danzan-Ayush – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ganbadrakh-danzan-ayush/badges
• Felipe Gama – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/felipe-gama/badges
• Jody Burks – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jody-burks
• Rishabh Chandak – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/rishabh-chandak/badges
• Paulo Uecho – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/paulo-uechi/badges

29-39 (33 members)

• Somak Banik – 39 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/somak-banik/badges
• Deepak Koshal – 39 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/deepak-koshal/badges
• Lutz Marten – 38 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/lutz-marten/badges
• Anchal Bhalla – 38 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/anchal-bhalla.738b5c5d/badges
• Kuber Alagh – 38 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kuber-alagh/badges
• Michele Nicosia – 38 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/michele-nicosia/badges
• Adam Nowotarski – 38 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/adam-nowotarski
• Vicky Rose – 38 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/vicky-rose/badges
• Hema Cherukuri – 38 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/hema-cherukuri/badges
• Michael Rocha – 38 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mikejrocha/badges
• Nageswara Sastry Renduchintala – 38 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/nageswara-sastry/badges
• Juan Carlos Gonzalez Bosque – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/juan-carlos-gonzalez-bosque/badges
• Ayan Roy Chowdhury – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ayan_roy_chowdhury/badges
• Shikhar Kwatra – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/shikhar-kwatra/badges
• Srinivas Cheemalapati – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/srinivas-cheemalapati
• Giovanni Triunfo – 37 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/giovanni-triunfo/badges
• Pedro Soares – 37 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/pedrosoares/badges
• Emily Marucci – 37 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/emily-marucci/badges
• Alex Fleischer – 36 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alex-fleischer/badges
• Elena Fernandez – 36 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/elena-fernandez-garces
• Kodiginti Rajesh – 36 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/kodigintirajesh
• Stanley Soman – 36 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/stanley-soman/badges
• John Martin – 36 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/john-martin.71ebc4be
• Pal Krogdahl – 36 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/pal-krogdahl/badges
• Bartholomew Zhang – 36 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bartholomew-zhang/badges
• Manikanda Prabhu – 36 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/manikanda-prabhu-r/badges
• Ayan Mukherjee – 35 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/ayan_mukherjee
• Sbuhash Sardana – 35 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/subhash-sardana/badges
• Laio Curi – 35 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/laio-curi/badges
• Christian Relling – 34 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/christian-relling/badges
• Soumyajit Goswami – 34 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/soumyajit-goswami/badges
• Bedang Sen – 33 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bedang-sen/badges
• M. Ahmad Shazad – 33 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/muhammad-ahmad-shahzad/badges
• Brian Wilson – 33 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/brian-wilson.99f6a03d/badges
• Baltazar Rodriguez – 33 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/baltazar-rodriguez
• Bobbi Grace Hebermehl – 33 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bobbi-hebermehl/badges
• Yogeswaran Govindarajah – 32 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/yogeswaran-govindarajah/badges
• Muhammad Gad – 32 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/muhammad.gad/badges
• Surya Kiran Purvada – 32 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/surya-kiran-puvvada/badges
• Long Truong – 31 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/long-truong.2af92a07/badges
• Sorin Mihailescu – 31 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/sorin-mihailescu/badges
• Abhiroop Ghosh – 31 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/abhiroop-ghosh
• Leonardo Kenji Shikida – 31 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/leonardo-kenji-shikida
• Gustavo Barrientos – 30 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/gustavo-w-barrientos/badges
• Narendran Subramanian – 29 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/narendran-subramanian.9346ea89/badges

 

 

Non-IBMers Badges Wall of Fame (minimum badges required = 15)

Last update: 1-Aug-2019.  Badge Count increase (+x) is based on badge count increase from 23-May-2019.  14 members

200+ (1 member, Congratulations Wes!)

• Wes Morgan – 211 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/wes-morgan

100-199 (0)

50-99 (0)

40-49 (6 members)

• Ahmed Alsareti – 49 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ahmed-alsareti/badges
• Jochen Meixner – 49 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jochen-meixner
• Juan Francisco Martin Garcia – 47 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jfmartin/badges
• Mohamed Gamal – 44 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/mohamed.gamal
• Luciano S. Mori – 41 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/luciano-s-mori
• Ahmed El Sayed – 42 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ahmed-el-sayed/badges

30-39 (4 members)

• Christian Brandlehner – 39 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/christian-brandlehner
• Marcus Pinto – 35 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/marcus-pinto/badges
• Robert Mariano – 31 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/robert-mariano/badges
• Brandon Kutsch – 31 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/brandon-kutsch

15-29 (3 members)

• Sayan Chakraborty – 24 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/sayan-chakraborty.0f07ec11/badges
• Mohamed Marhabi – 23 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mohamed-marhabi/badges
• Robert Mapstead – 21 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/robert-mapstead/badges

 

Join a community of like-minded people who want to make time for learning and encourage others to reach their goals.

If you want to teach and learn from others, we’d like you to join us in the Upskill Create Community.

Just click this button to join today!

• Share
• Tweet
• Pin