Open Badges 3.0 for registrars and continuing-education offices

An Open Badges 3.0 credential is a digital record that an organization gave one person for one achievement, signed so that anyone can check who issued it and that it has not been altered. 1EdTech released Open Badges 3.0 publicly on May 29, 2024, “after final community approval”, designed as W3C Verifiable Credentials and developed alongside CLR 2.0 (1EdTech release). 1EdTech, formerly IMS Global, maintains the specification. Its Final Release is document version 1.4.5, issued June 29, 2026 (specification).

The W3C, the web standards body, published its Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 as a Recommendation on 15 May 2025. It defines a verifiable credential as a “tamper-evident credential whose authorship can be cryptographically verified” (W3C).

An Open Badges 3.0 credential has one credential subject, the recipient. It may contain evidence. It carries a proof (spec §1.5, §2.2). In plain words:

• Who issued it. The issuer profile. Only an id and a type are required.
• What was achieved. The achievement must have a name, a description and criteria. Criteria can be a link to a human-readable page, a written narrative, or both.
• Evidence, if any. Optional. It can be a link or a narrative.
• Alignment, if any. Optional. It points at an outside target by name and URL, for example a standard within an educational framework.
• When it is valid. A valid-from date is required. A valid-until date is optional.
• The proof. A cryptographic signature. At least one proof mechanism must be present, either a VC-JWT or a Linked Data Proof.

An image, an achievement type, credits available and field of study are optional too. The standard does not require an image, evidence, an expiry or a framework alignment. A recipient can be identified by a salted hash of their email address rather than the plain address. Credentials may also be exchanged as PNG or SVG files with the credential encoded (“baked”) inside.

Sources: Open Badges 3.0 specification (appendix B.1.1, B.1.2, B.1.5, B.1.6, B.1.9, B.1.14, §5.3, §8.1), implementation guide §2.1.

To check a badge, a verifier fetches the issuer's public key from a web address and checks the signature. The specification only requires verifiers to support HTTP URLs; DID URLs are allowed but optional. It leaves out of scope how keys are minted and distributed. One method, did:web, turns an identifier into a web address that returns a document containing the key.

So verification depends on that key being published somewhere a verifier can reach. Ask who publishes it, and where. For revocation, the standard describes an issuer updating a list of revoked credential IDs and noting the reason. Expiry is the valid-until date.

Sources: spec §8.4, §8.5, §3.12, B.1.2 and the implementation guide §2.1, §3.1.1.

An Open Badge records one achievement. This page makes no statement about credit hours, CEUs or transcripts.

The related standard is CLR 2.0, Final Release, document version 1.1, issued October 14, 2025. A ClrCredential is itself a Verifiable Credential that packages a set of assertions for one learner, and achievement definitions are shared with Open Badges 3.0 (CLR 2.0). 1EdTech notes that Open Badges include a visual image and CLRs do not (1EdTech).

AACRAO posted “Alternative Credentials: Considerations, Guidance, and Best Practices” on July 12, 2022, written by its Alternative Credentials Work Group for admissions, enrollment and registrar staff. The announcement says it covers the registrar's role, effects on student information systems and academic records, and digital and open standards (AACRAO). We have read only the announcement, not the report, so we do not summarize what the report itself recommends.

UPCEA and The EvoLLLution published the “2026 Institutional Perspectives on Microcredentials Report” (press release, February 3, 2026). The release says 85% of respondents said they design microcredentials for workforce development and 84% for professional advancement, and that “adoption has plateaued”. The release does not mention badges (UPCEA).

These matter more than a feature list. Ask them of every vendor, including us.

1. Who holds the signing keys?
2. Where is the issuer's public key published, and can it move to our domain?
3. How is revocation checked?
4. What happens to badges already issued if we leave?
5. Is the product 1EdTech certified?
6. What recipient data is stored?
7. Can recipients claim a badge without creating an account?
8. Which export formats are available?
9. What is the accessibility position?
10. What does it cost per year at our volume?

Incredify uses the Open Badges 3.0 data model and signs each badge as a W3C Verifiable Credential (VC-JWT, Ed25519). Here are the answers in the same order.

Plans and yearly limits, from the pricing page:

Issuing is one at a time, to several addresses, or by CSV class list. Read the security page, the Open Badges guide and the API docs for detail.