Dear Canvas Credentials Community!
We’re excited to introduce a new feature designed to give you more control, clarity, and confidence in the badge creation process. As part of our ongoing mission to simplify and strengthen digital credentialing, we’re launching Achievement Type Management—a smarter way to manage how achievement types appear and function across your organization.
🆕 What’s Changing
Before: Too Much of a Good Thing
The Open Badges standard came with a powerful idea: achievement types. Instead of just handing out a “badge,” you could describe exactly what it represented—an achievement, a micro-credential, or even an apprenticeship.
But with great flexibility came… chaos. Over 30 different types, each with formal definitions that often felt technical or unfamiliar. Most users were met with a wall of jargon and unclear options. And the result? Many organizations didn’t use achievement types at all. They were supposed to bring precision. Instead, they brought confusion.
Now: Tailored, Focused, and Flexible
That’s why we built Achievement Type Management.
It puts the power back in your hands—so you can control what’s visible, how it’s used, and how it appears during badge creation.
You can now:
- Show only what matters: Enable just the achievement types relevant to your organization.
- Organize your way: Reorder types to match how your teams work.
- Guide your issuers: Tooltips explain each type so no one’s left guessing.
- Set the rules: Allow (or restrict) issuer-level overrides when more flexibility is needed.
It’s a smarter, cleaner, more intuitive way to work—with just the right level of control.
❓ Why the Change
Credentialing should be powerful, not paralyzing.
Achievement Type Management simplifies the badge creation experience, helping organizations:
- Eliminate clutter and focus on what matters
- Maintain consistency across departments
- Reduce errors and confusion with built-in guidance
- Balance control and flexibility, so teams can adapt without losing alignment
This is credentialing built for real-world workflows—not just standards on paper.
🌟 Key Benefits
- Simpler badge creation experience
- Increased control over what appears during badge setup
- Cleaner workflows for both admins and issuers
- Consistent standards with room for optional flexibility
- Built-in guidance that demystifies complex achievement types
⚙️What to Expect:
Achievement Type Management is already available in the beta environment, so you can explore and test it today.
It will go live in production on May 12, giving all users access to this streamlined badge creation experience.
Enabling Achievement Type Management is quick and easy. Organization admins can activate the feature directly from their settings, then configure which achievement types are shown, how they’re ordered, and whether issuers can customize further. Here’s a step-by-step look at how it works:
🔧 For Organization Admins:
- Head to the Organization Settings. Click on “Allow Achievement Type” then choose “Manage”
- In the tray enable/disable achievement types.
- Reorder how they appear using drag and drop or the arrows.
- Decide whether issuers can override your config.
🔄 For Issuers:
- If overrides are allowed, choose between:
- “Use Organization Settings”
- Or define your own list and order
- The badge creation flow only shows what’s relevant—clean, clear, and in the right order.
And don’t worry—if your org later disables overrides, issuer settings revert automatically and safely.
💬 We’d Love Your Feedback
We’re building this with your needs in mind, so don’t hold back—let us know in the comment section how it is working for you, how it alters your credentialing experience and what you'd love to see next.
Thank You and Happy Credentialing!
Achievement Type Management is just one step in our mission to make digital credentialing smarter, simpler, and more scalable.
Thanks for building the future with us.
— The Canvas Credentials Team
