Digital Badges are Resume Worthy Credentials
And, they are motivational! Check out this Linkedin Poll completed on 17-Aug-2020. 59% of those that took the poll said that digital badges helped give them motivation to complete a course (sample size = 207).
NOTE: If you want to jump to the Leaderboard, click HERE.
BONUS: If you just want to jump to the 40+ badges you can earn for FREE, click HERE. Or, Earn a badge in just 20 minutes, click HERE.
What are Digital Badges?
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. They indicate that you have acquired a skill that can be verified online.
Digital Badges are usually visually represented in the form of a graphical image that resembles a physical badge like this:
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:
- Coursework: Successful completion of the Blockchain Essentials course.
- Demonstration: Successful completion of the associated practical lab demonstrating the ability to create a working chaincode and deploy it to a blockchain network.
- 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/
- Popular FREE Badges: https://www.ibm.com/skills/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
- IBM Cloud (Bluemix) Essentials (3 hours) ✔
- Blockchain Essentials (3 hours) ✔
- Node-Red: Basics to Bots (4 hours) ✔
- Watson Discovery Service Foundations Badge (1.5 hours) ✔
- Data Science Foundations (3 hours) ✔
- Big Data 101 (3 hours) ✔
- Watson Conversation Service Foundations (3 hours) ✔
- Hadoop Foundations Level 1 (5 hours) ✔
- Python 101 for Data Science (5 hours) ✔
- Data Science for Business – Level 1 (1.5 hours-5 hours) ✔
- IBM Cloud Garage Explorer (1.5 hours) ✔
- Docker Essentials: Extend your app with containers (3 hours) ✔
- 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: 8-Aug-2020. Badge Count increase (+x) is based on badge increase from 11-May-2020. 138 members, +9.
400+ (1 member)
Osamu Iwata – 470 badges (+29): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/osamu-iwata/badges
300-399 (1 member)
- Oliver Bodemer – 305 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/oliver-bodemer
200-299 (1 member, +1)
- Georges Maamari – 204 badges (+25): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/georges-maamari
100-199 (21 members, +3)
- Gourav Banerjee – 182 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/gourav-banerjee.651b536a
- Bernd Schlosser – 144 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bernd-schlosser/badges
- Mauricio Cadavid – 142 badges (+10): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/mauricio-cadavid
- Siddhartha Sood – 141 badges (+21): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/siddhartha-sood
- Hossam AlTurkey – 138 badges (+11): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/hossam-alturkey/badges
- Guido den Hollander – 137 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/guido-den-hollander/badges
- Mariya Gul Khand – 137 badges (+23): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mariya-gul-khand/badges
- Giulio Montenero – 134 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/giulio-montenero
- Alain Airom – 130 badges (+15): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alain-airom/badges
- Santiago Lovera – 126 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/santiago-santiago-lovera-gmail-com/badges
- Elez Bislim-Jonny – 120 badges (+19): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/elez-bislim/badges
- Mihai Criveti – 120 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/mihai-criveti
- Tanut Karnwai – 115 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/Tanut-Karnwai
- Martin Dvorsky – 111 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/martin-dvorsky
- Ludmila Kantova – 110 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ludmila-kantova
- Omar Dasser – 104 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/omar-dasser/badges
- Alessandro Rodrigo Marialva – 104 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alessandro-rodrigo-marialva/badges
- Tom Halvorson – 103 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/tom-halvorson
- Ranjith Radhamananohar – 102 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/ranjith-radhamanohar
- Muhammad Ali Raza – 101 badges (+19): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/muhammad-ali-raza/badges
- Rafael Mello – 101 badges (+25): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/rafael-mello.72d25238
70-99 (23 members, +8)
- Mihail Stanescu – 97 badges (+13): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mihail-stanescu/badges
- Gabriel Pessine – 94 badges (+17): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/gabriel-pessine/badges
- Kenneth Cheung – 94 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kenneth-cheung.6c69552d
- Catalin Modovan – 93 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/catalin-moldovan/badges
- Cristiano Borges – 90 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/cristiano-borges-de-oliveira/badges
- Neil Dick Beltran – 90 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/neil-dick-beltran
- Samer Fouad – 89 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/samerfouad/badges
- Francisco Naranjo – 87 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/francisco-naranjo
- Raydo Matthee – 84 badges (+8): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/raydo-matthee/badges
- Thilo Dotzel – 82 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/thilo-dotzel/badges
- Mark Bray – 80 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mark-bray/badges
- Vincent Perrin – 80 badges (+12): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/vincent-perrin/badges
- Wayne Kimble – 79 badges (+15): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/wayne-kimble/badges
- Afroz Khan – 79 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/afroz-khan.fa210bcc/badges
- Juha Ekstrom – 78 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/juha-ekstrom/badges
- Theo Thomas – 75 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/theo-thomas
- Andrea Weber – 75 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/andrea-weber/badges
- Nandan Kumar – 74 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/nandankumar/badges
- Ahmed Abdel-Baky – 73 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ahmed-abdel-baky/badges
- Roger Eriksson – 72 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/roger-eriksson.79b58d1b/badges
- Andre Gusmao – 72 badges (+10): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/andre-gusmao
- Khwaja Shaik – 70 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/khwaja-shaik/badges
- Johnnie Ng – 70 badges (+11): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/johnnie-ng/badges
50-69 (40 members, +10)
- Radek Volf – 69 badges (+8): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/radek-volf/badges
- Somnath Das – 68 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/somnath-das.ebbce072
- Francisco Gomeztagle – 67 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/francisco-gomeztagle
- Leslie Rodriguez – 67 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/leslierodriguez
- Luis Alejandro Valle – 67 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/luisvalle
- Marshal V. Khosa – 67 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/marshal-v-khosa
- Roy Bruijns – 66 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/Roy-Bruijns/badges
- Scott Kennedy – 64 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/scott-kennedy
- Chris Phillips – 64 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/chris-phillips.bdd87ec5/badges
- Derek Hubbard – 63 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/derek-hubbard
- Kavitha Suresh Kumar – 63 badges (+14): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kavitha-suresh-kumar/badges
- Dilia Lindberg – 62 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/dilia-lindberg/badges
- Tom Bosmans – 61 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/tom-bosmans
- Mouad Cherkaoui – 60 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mouad.cherkaoui/badges
- Daria Korenkova – 60 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/daria-korenkova/badges
- Nilabja Haldar – 60 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/nilabja-haldar/badges
- Victor Kazuyuki Shinya – 60 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/vshinya/badges
- Carlos Matos – 59 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/carlos-matos.2e614c04/badges
- Chip Van Alstyne – 59 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/chipva
- Carlos Matos – 59 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/carlos-matos.2e614c04/badges
- Claudia Degli Esposti – 58 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/claudia-degli-esposti.0239309b
- Soumyajit Goswami – 58 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/soumyajit-goswami/badges
- Alexandre Figueiredo – 58 badges (+11): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alexandre-figueiredo.f53b8b5a/badges
- Ashraf Ali Tajudeen – 57 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ashraf-ali-thajudeen/badges
- Jeffrey Curtiss – 57 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jeffrey-curtiss
- Piotr Biskupski – 57 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/piotr-biskupski.7f2d0fe1/badges
- Marko Ekelo – 56 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/marco-ekelo
- John McNamara – 56 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/john-mcnamara.1ef76c24
- Pramod Singh – 55 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/pramod-singh.f475cea1
- Handoko Lie – 55 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/handoko-lie
- Shreyas Mulay – 53 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/shreyasmulay23
- Long Truong – 53 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/long-truong.2af92a07/badges
- Bedang Sen – 53 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bedang-sen/badges
- Juan Montalvo – 53 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/juan-montalvo
- Paulo Uechi – 52 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/paulo-uechi/badges
- Felipe Gama – 52 badges (+11): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/felipe-gama/badges
- Kimmo Kaskikallio – 51 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/kimmo-kaskikallio
- Andreas Graef – 51 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/andreas-graef
- Rafael Arturo Ramirez Sus – 51 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/rafael-arturo-ramirez-sus
- Shikhar Kwatra – 50 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/shikhar-kwatra/badges
40-49 (31 members, +3)
- Amarjeet Singh – 49 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/amarjeet-singh.87f68e31/badges
- Amit Srivastava – 48 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/amit-srivastava.d0435a52/badges
- Patricia Miranda – 48 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/patricia-miranda/badges
- Juan Carlos Gonzalez Bosque – 48 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/juan-carlos-gonzalez-bosque/badges
- Rahul Bansal – 47 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/findrahul/badges
- Laurent Sene – 47 Badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/laurent-sene/badges
- Lutz Marten – 47 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/lutz-marten/badges
- Michele Nicosia – 47 badges (+9): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/michele-nicosia/badges
- Somak Banik – 46 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/somak-banik/badges
- Christian Relling – 46 badges (+8): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/christian-relling/badges
- Indradeep Kama – 46 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/indradeep-kama
- Anchal Bhalla – 45 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/anchal-bhalla.738b5c5d/badges
- Subrata Chakraborty – 45 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/subrata-chakraborty/badges
- Giovanni Triunfo – 45 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/giovanni-triunfo/badges
- Hema Cherukuri – 44 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/hema-cherukuri/badges
- M. Ahmad Shazad – 44 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/muhammad-ahmad-shahzad/badges
- Nageswara Sastry Renduchintala – 44 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/nageswara-sastry/badges
- Pedro Soares – 44 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/pedrosoares/badges
- Kadir Meric – 44 badges (+7): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kadir-guray-meric/badges
- Jody Burks – 43 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jody-burks
- Ayan Roy Chowdhury – 43 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ayan_roy_chowdhury/badges
- Rishabh Chandak – 42 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/rishabh-chandak/badges
- Deepak Koshal – 42 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/deepak-koshal/badges
- Vicky Rose – 42 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/vicky-rose/badges
- Stanley Soman – 41 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/stanley-soman/badges
- Hycind Santhibhavan – 41 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/hycind
- Sheree Little – 41 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/sheree-little/badges
- Alex Fleischer – 41 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alex-fleischer/badges
- Michael Rocha – 41 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mikejrocha/badges
- Ganbadrakh Danzan-Ayush – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ganbadrakh-danzan-ayush/badges
- Sorin Mihailescu – 40 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/sorin-mihailescu/badges
29-39 (36 members, +1)
- Muhammad Gad – 39 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/muhammad.gad/badges
- Sbuhash Sardana – 39 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/subhash-sardana/badges
- Ahmed Khaled – 38 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ahmed-khaled-abdalla/badges
- Kuber Alagh – 38 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kuber-alagh/badges
- Manikanda Prabhu – 38 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/manikanda-prabhu-r/badges
- Baltazar Rodriguez – 38 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/baltazar-rodriguez
- Adam Nowotarski – 38 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/adam-nowotarski
- John Martin – 38 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/john-martin.71ebc4be
- Pal Krogdahl – 38 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/pal-krogdahl/badges
- Yogeswaran Govindarajah – 38 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/yogeswaran-govindarajah/badges
- Srinivas Cheemalapati – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/srinivas-cheemalapati
- Emily Marucci – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/emily-marucci/badges
- Elena Fernandez – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/elena-fernandez-garces
- Ivaylo Bozhinov – 37 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ivaylo-bozhinov/badges
- Pallavi Shrotri – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/pallavi-shrotri/badges
- Kenneth Safford – 37 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kenneth-safford/badges
- Kodiginti Rajesh – 36 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/kodigintirajesh
- Alexander Felbeck – 36 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/alexander-felbeck/badges
- Dustin Duran – 36 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/dustin-duran/badges
- Bartholomew Zhang – 36 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bartholomew-zhang/badges
- Santosh Dash – 36 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/santosh-dash/badges
- Ayan Mukherjee – 35 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/ayan_mukherjee
- Laio Curi – 35 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/laio-curi/badges
- Brian Wilson – 35 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/brian-wilson.99f6a03d/badges
- Mahmoud Helmy – 35 badges (+5): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mahmoud-helmy.095f5618/badges
- Surya Kiran Purvada – 35 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/surya-kiran-puvvada/badges
- Leonardo Kenji Shikida – 34 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/leonardo-kenji-shikida
- Bobbi Grace Hebermehl – 33 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bobbi-hebermehl/badges
- Kolla Ravikanth Yadav – 33 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/kolla-ravikanth-yadav/badges
- Yassine Sarsari – 33 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/yassine-sarsari/badges
- Abhiroop Ghosh – 32 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/abhiroop-ghosh
- Gaurav Bhargava – 31 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/gaurav-bhargava-19/badges
- Gustavo Barrientos – 30 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/gustavo-w-barrientos/badges
- Narendran Subramanian – 30 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/narendran-subramanian.9346ea89/badges
- Iliya Gatsev – 30 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/iliya-gatsev.69f72b88/badges
- Marcus Braga – 29 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/marcusbraga30/badges
Non-IBMers Badges Wall of Fame (minimum badges required = 15)
Last update: 8-Aug-2020. Badge Count increase (+x) is based on badge count increase from 11-May-2020. 18 members
300-399 (1 member, +1)
- David Llerena – 317 badges (+137): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/bdllerena/badges
200-299 (1 member, +0)
- Wes Morgan – 212 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/user/wes-morgan
100-199 (none – yet!)
50-99 (4 members, +1)
- Ahmed Alsareti – 84 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ahmed-alsareti/badges
- Mostafa Nabieh – 70 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mostafa-nabieh/badges
- Jochen Meixner – 59 badges (+4): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jochen-meixner
- Christian Brandlehner – 51 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/christian-brandlehner
40-49 (5 members, +1)
- Juan Francisco Martin Garcia – 48 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/jfmartin/badges
- Martin Anderson – 47 badges (+6): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/martinanderson/badges
- Ahmed El Sayed – 46 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/ahmed-el-sayed/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
30-39 (4 members, +1)
- Marcus Pinto – 37 badges (+2): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/marcus-pinto/badges
- S M Nazmuz Sakib – 36 badges (+3): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/s-m-nazmuz-sakib/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 – 26 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/sayan-chakraborty.0f07ec11/badges
- Mohamed Marhabi – 24 badges (+1): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/mohamed-marhabi/badges
- Robert Mapstead – 21 badges (+0): https://www.youracclaim.com/users/robert-mapstead/badges
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