TAPP ed (short for The A&P Professor Education) is the professional development focus of everything we do here at The A&P Professor. One big feature of TAPP ed is providing micro-credentials that document your learning experiences. Among the many types of learning experiences:
Podcasts — audio presentations that provide content updates, teaching strategies, and education perspectives.
Seminars — audiovisual presentations that focus on a particular topic and serve as as sort of micro-course
Book Club — book readings that help you grow as the best A&P educator you can be
NOTE: Not all learning opportunities have their credentials available yet. It’s a process.
What are Micro-Credentials?
Digital micro-credentials are portable documents that affirm and certify your participation in specific learning activities and/or mastery of specific learning objectives. They are an emerging phenomenon in business and education that allows individuals to demonstrate competence at a more granular level than traditional transcripts and degrees. They also document all those little skills and added knowledge that we pick up here and there as we participate in both formal and self-directed professional development.
Micro-credentials usually take the form of digital badges or certificates. The micro-credentials issued by TAPP ed are a combined format (badges and certificates) powered by Canvas Badges (Badgr), a major player in the micro-credentialing ecosystem.
It’s best to register for a personal Badgr account. Then, look for the micro-credential link in any TAPP ed resource (podcast, seminar, book club review, etc.) and fill out the form to claim your credential. It’s pretty easy. Keep in mind that we’re still building out this function, so not all resources have the credential form linked yet.
Display, Print, & Use Micro-Credentials
The Canvas Badges (Badgr) Knowledge Base has all kinds of information about how to use your Badgr Backpack or other backpacks, how to display or share your badges (or only select badges), and how to print them in the form of a certificate.
Your TAPP ed micro-credentials can be used as documentation for your employment applications, your promotion file, your professional development documentation, your submissions for continuing education units, to display in your home next to your spouse’s bowling trophies, and more.
Anatomy of a TAPP-ed Badge
Minor imperfections enhance the hand-crafted quality of every TAPP-ed badge.
Badges and Credential Groups
As you can see in the diagram that dissects the badge design, the TAPP ed badges are weird. You expected normal? Weird, yes, but full of information.
Notice that there are two important bits of information at the bottom: the group letter and the sequential number. The group letter signifies one of the credential groups listed below. Think of it as the alpha prefix in a course number—like the BIO in BIO 250. The sequential number is like the 250 in BIO 250. Thus “P 078” designates a badge as related to podcast episode 78.
Each group listed here has its own page with a table listing all the credentials for that group.
