Badges FAQ

How can teachers award site badges?

By default, teachers can only award course badges. Only users with capabilities to manage badges in the system are able to do this, so if you wish teachers to award site badges you need to create a new role as follows:

Go to Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles and click 'Add a new role'
Leave 'Use role or archetype' as No role' and click the continue button
Give the role a name e.g. "Site badge awarder"
Tick the System box to allow the role to be assigned in the System context
Set the following capabilities to "allow": moodle/badges:awardbadge, moodle/badges:viewbadges, moodle/badges:configurecriteria
Click the button 'Create this role".
Assign the "Site badge awarder" role as a system role to the teachers you wish to award site badges.

Teachers with the role of "Site badge awarder" will see a link in the Administration block Site administration > Badges > Manage badges.

Can more than one teacher in a course award the same badge?

It's not the user who issues the badge, but a role. Users with multiple roles will have an option to use both of them to issue badges. If the badge is awarded twice by different roles, both roles are displayed and criteria (ALL/ANY) is given. In some cases it will be required for a badge to be awarded by several different roles. When there are, let's say, three teachers in the course and they go to award a badge as a teacher, each of them will see the list of users who already got the badge from a teacher, so they won't need to award the badge again.

What size is a badge?

A badge is displayed in Moodle with dimensions 100 x 100 pixels. However, we recommend that you upload a larger image, such as 400 x 400, as this is the size the badge is displayed if users upload their badge to their backpack.

Can I award a badge based on a specific grade?

There are two ways of awarding a badge based on a specific grade.

Method 1:

Set a passing grade for the quiz in the gradebook, as explained in section 1.3 of Activity completion settings.

Method 2:

Create a page resource and set the restrict access conditions so that it only appears if the user obtains a certain activity grade or course total
Set the activity completion for the page as "view"
Set the badge criteria such that the page has to be completed (i.e. viewed)

How can I add badges I have earned to my backpack?

See Backpacks.

What's the difference between a backpack and a collection?

When you upload a badge to Badgr, you are adding it to your backpack, which is the general area you put your badges in (like a backpack). You then organise them into collections (like separate little bags in your backpack) and you choose which to display on your Moodle profile. So a badge may be in your backpack and not in a collection, but it must be in your backpack before it can be in a collection (note the 'public' box must be ticked too). Collections allow you to control which badges you share with people.

I previously added badges to my Mozilla Open Badges backpack. What do I do now?

Create an account on https://badgr.io.
You will receive an email from Mozilla with a zipped file of your badges, which you can upload to your Badgr backpack.

I have an account on eu.badgr.com. How can I connect to my backpack?

Go to your backpack settings (via Preferences / Badges), disconnect from badgr.io if necessary, then select eu.badgr.io and connect to it by entering your email address and password for your Badgr account.

Do I have to use my Moodle email for my backpack?

No, you can specify the email address associated with your backpack.

Which roles can see which badges?

See this forum post on viewing badges.

Can I change a badge image once awarded?

The short answer is 'no', but see this forum post on changing badge images for more information.

Can I revoke a badge once it has been awarded?

Yes - see the section on revoking a badge in Using badges.

How can I get badges with participants' profiles like on Moodle.org?

These are not badges. These are group avatars/pictures. When you create a group in your course - see the documentation on Groups - you can add a picture to represent that group. In places such as forums this picture is then displayed for each participant. If they are a member of several groups then several pictures will be displayed.

Do badges have a set language?

Yes. When a badge is created, you must state the language. This will determine the strings that will be shown when someone is awarded the badge. Once a badge has been created, you can not change its language.

Any further questions?

Please post in the Badges forum on moodle.org

Documentation