Presented by Daniel Villalba Algas. Most universities have been working on identifying skills that their graduates will achieve after graduation, regardless of the programme of studies. Some examples of those skills are teamwork, communication, critical thinking, etc. Employers have identified those skills as essential in the current job market.

Those skills are typically called graduate attributes, and in the case of The University of Sheffield, there are 12 graduate attributes and 3 sub-attributes for each, making the total sum of 36 skills.

One of the problems that we have discovered is that because of the number of attributes and how some attributes are described, they are difficult to identify, and students don’t know when they have achieved them. In this practical session, I will demonstrate how self-made badges have been used to make students and staff aware of those graduate attributes and identify what activities are working towards achieving them.


This session is aimed at Learning technologists, Course Designers and Employability Managers who seek ways to promote those graduate attributes among their students through the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This project is an example of the use of internal badges and how those can evolve so they become a tool that can help students outside the university environment; it is also a case study where the VLE has been used to increase student engagement and add extra functionality.

After this session, you will be able to start using badges to identify soft skills and possibly apply the same or similar approach to your institution.