Awards Overview

The D2L Awards tool enables instructors to issue badges and certificates manually or based on release conditions to recognize student achievements. Use this tool to reward students and introduce an element of gamification to your course (e.g., obtaining a high score, submitting a discussion post, helping classmates). D2L provides a library of badges to choose from or instructors can create their own.

Badges and awards are not academic records. They are intended to provide a fun way to gain recognition of activities, participation and learning. Badges awarded in courses help track learning progress and recognize achievements, but are not considered nor formulated as formal assignment grades.

Common uses for digital badges:

• Motivational
• Extracurricular Activities
• Alternative or Competency-Based Credentials
• Digital Representation of certificates

To access the D2L Awards tool, navigate to Assessments > Awards. On the first tab, Classlist Awards, you’ll see the students in your classlist and any awards earned.

Creating an Award

To create an Award, navigate to the second tab, Course Awards.

Click “Add Award to Course.” 

On this screen, you’ll see the Awards that you’ve added to your course. To create a new award, click “Create.” 

 Give the Award a name and description.

Then choose your award type.

• Badge – a small token that signals completion or mastery of a task. A simple icon image with description of achievement.
• Certificate – a printable PDF certificate that recognizes the user for their accomplishment. See section “Certificate Templates” below for additional information.

Use Case Example: Often a set of badges equals a certificate. For example, a student might be required to complete a series of modules on the chemical safety in the lab. For each topic or module that is successfully completed, a badge might be awarded. When the student completes all of the safety modules at a satisfactory level, a certificate may release that the student can print and use as documentation of their accomplishment.

Leave the Availability as the “DEFAULT SELECTION.”

You can add expiration to the award, if desired.

 

Update the Issuer Information. It’s recommended that you add your name as the “Issuer Name” and email address as “Issuer Contact.” You can leave the “Issuer URL” as the default or change it KU (www.kutztown.edu).

 

Click “Save and Close” to create the award and add it to your course.

Issuing an Award

To manually issue awards, navigate to the Classlist Awards tab.

 

Select (check) the students that have earned the award and then click “Issue.” 

On the popup window, select the award that was earned and enter the criteria. Click “Issue.”