Traditional continuing education and certification efforts have typically culminated with a printed certificate of completion, but learners at Southeast Missouri State University can now showcase their successes with a digital badge.Thanks to a partnership withAcclaim, an award-winning digital professional recognition platform backed by Pearson, Southeast Missouri State Universityis launching an initiative to make educational accomplishments clearly understandable and quickly verifiable via digital badges offered by the Economic and Business Engagement Centers Continuing Education program.The effort is beginning with badges for Nano Bio-Engineering under the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics."We commend Southeast Missouri State University for being an early adopter of digital recognition for its students," said Jarin Schmidt, director of Acclaim services. "With its badge program launch, the University shows its commitment to both students and employers through increased transparency of professional competencies."Once earned, digital badges can be shared on social networking sites, email signatures, digital resumes and internal corporate profiles or websites. The metadata underlying the digital credential provides much more robust, secure and credible evidence of what has been achieved and when it was achieved."Southeast is committed to providing workforce development solutions to the regions employers, said Dr. Carlos Vargas, president of Southeast Missouri State University. This digital credentialing program is one innovative way that we can provide a value-added opportunity not only to those receiving a digital credential through one of our various programs, but also to employers who need to quickly verify the competencies of current and potential employees.Acclaim allows certifying agencies, employers, supervisors, managers and educators to immediately see the competencies each badge earner has achieved."We are excited tooffer an alternative to traditional credentialing," said Crystal Jones director of Southeast's Economic and Business Engagement Center. "Acclaim has a strong reputation of partnering with other educational institutions and companies to document the competencies and skills of learners. Implementing a digital badge program isjustone way that Southeast can help supportpeople in their career endeavors."For more information about obtaining a digital credential or professional development courses, please contact Christy Mershon, assistant director of Continuing Education at (573) 986-6879.