Learners can share their awards with a Public URL directly from the Awards tool using the Awards Sharing option.
Earning an award is something to be proud of! From girl scout badges and first-place ribbons to Oscars and Nobel Prizes, awards symbolize an achievement worth recognizing, and awards issued through Brightspace are no different. So why not share them? For any award earned in Brightspace, you can now generate a public link to share your achievement with the world digitally. On the My Awards page, simply locate the award you’d like to share, click the Share option, and click Create Link. A public page will be generated with the image of your award and the basic information: your name, the award description, criteria, issuer, issue date, and expiration date (if applicable). You can then copy the link, open the public award page in a new tab, or delete it, making the award private again.
Figure: Example of the Public Award page.
Do you have questions about this new feature? We have answers! Check out the FAQs, and feel free to add your own question to the comments section below.
FAQs on Awards Sharing
Q: Why don’t I see this sharing option?
A: This feature has to be turned on by an administrator, and instructors can turn it off for their course. It is enabled by the following config variable: d2l.Tools.Awards.PublicAwardsEnabled (Org). When the config is turned On, a checkbox appears on the Course Awards page that allows the instructor to determine whether or not awards from that course can be shared via a public link. By default, this sharing option is On. If the checkbox remains on, users in the course can create a public link for their award. If the checkbox is unchecked, this option is removed for awards issued in that course.
Q: Can I un-share an award once it has been made public?
A: Yes, you can click the Delete option in the Share Award modal to delete the public URL. If someone visits that URL after it has been deleted, they will see an error.
Q: Do deletions of the award, course, etc., in Brightspace cause the public award to be deleted?
A: No. Deletions of the award, the course, or the user in Brightspace have no impact on the public award. One exception is if a user or institution formally requests a data purge. In this case, any data purged from Brightspace (i.e., a user’s name) will no longer appear on publicly shared awards pages.
Q: What happens to the public award if my institution or company stops using Brightspace?
A: If an institution or company no longer uses Brightspace as their LMS and their entire Brightspace site is deleted, then the public awards pages shared from that site will become unavailable. Continuing to display these awards may be supported in the future, but it is not currently supported.
Q: What happens if my award expires?
A: The issuer sets the award’s expiration date when they create the award. It can be a static date or a relative date (for example, 3 months after the date the recipient earned the award). The public award page lists the expiration date, and the page continues to persist after the expiration.
Q: What happens if my award is revoked? A: If your award is revoked (i.e., manually “taken back” from you by your instructor or institution), then a message is added to the public award page to indicate the award has been revoked by the issuer.
Q: Can I share a Certificate as well as a Badge?
A: Yes. There are two types of Awards in Brightspace: Badges & Certificates. Badges are represented by a badge image, while Certificates include a PDF. You can share the award via a public URL, whether it is a badge or certificate. However, the PDF for the certificate is not currently included on the public page. The information about the award (issuer, name, description, etc.) is displayed, but the PDF is not included.
Q: What other options are available for sharing my award?
A: Sharing options depend on your site’s configuration, but if all options are turned on by an administrator via config variables, you can share your award in a few ways. You may have the option to share your award internally within Brightspace by adding it to your ePortfolio or your Profile. You may also have the option of sharing it externally to Badgr. Note that this option requires you to log into or create a Badgr account.
Q: Who is the “issuer” of the award?
A: The Issuer name, email, and website are set by the award creator on an award-by-award basis at the bottom of the Create/Edit Award page. Defaults for these fields are set by an administrator via the following config variables: d2l.Tools.Award.IssuerName, d2l.Tools.Award.IssuerContact, and d2l.Tools.Award.IssuerURL. Note that this is existing functionality and has not changed with the introduction of this feature.
Q: How are the award’s “criteria” determined?
A: If your award is issued automatically in Brightspace by Release Conditions, like earning a certain score on a quiz or completing certain content topics, then these Release Conditions are listed as the criteria. If your award was manually issued, the issuer could enter the criteria with a statement, “The recipient was observed demonstrating XYZ skills.”
Q: How is it determined which language to display on the Public Awards page?
A: The language of the headers on this page (like “Recipient” and “Issue Date”) is determined by the user’s language preference set in their browser. The language of the award title and description comes directly from how they were entered it into Brightspace. I.e., if the award creator gave the title of the award a name in Spanish, that name will persist and will not be translated regardless of the viewer’s browser setting.
Q: What version of my name will be shown under “Recipient”?
A: The Public Award page displays the recipient’s Preferred Name from Brightspace. If no Preferred Name is set for the user, it will display the user’s Legal Name. This is consistent with other areas of Brightspace.
Q: Does the issuer’s logo appear on the public award page?
A: The issuer’s name appears, as well as the badge image, which can be a custom design that may include the issuer’s logo. Additionally, the page uses a version of the issuer’s URL, and it will display the same favicon as the issuer’s Brightspace site, which may be their logo. However, the page does not contain the issuer’s logo in the header or page content. Instead, the D2L logo appears in the top left corner of the page to represent the system powering the public award.
Resources
Video: Share Awards with a Public Link | Learner
