Supporting student development through digital credentials

In an always-on digital world, students may find it challenging to stay engaged with their learning and translate their academic experience into demonstrable skills. A session, held in partnership with D2L, at the 2026 THE Digital Universities UK event explored innovative approaches to building engagement and skills among students. During the event, the University of Suffolk in the UK showcased how it uses digital credentials, offered through D2L, to motivate students and make the learning journey more engaging. 

“We are one of the UK’s youngest universities,” said Mary Cornelius, educational development and innovation manager at the university. “We gained university status in 2016 and shortly after introduced our block and blend model of delivery.”

Blend refers to strategically incorporating different tools and educational technology to allow greater flexibility and agency within learning and teaching. Block stands for the mode of delivery, where the university offers one module at a time in a series of four blocks across an academic year. “[Blocks are] six weeks each. Students have the opportunity to focus solely on one subject, take their assessment and then move on to the next block,” Cornelius said. 

However, keeping students engaged and focused can be challenging under this model. In response, the university introduced digital badges and credentials, powered by D2L’s Brightspace learning management system. Educators use badges within modules to recognise specific skills, offering students verifiable credentials they can share on LinkedIn, portfolios and CVs. 

Brightspace enables university staff and educators to create awards within a course through a feature called conditional release. A certificate is issued to students once they complete the requirements. “Our certificates and badges help students to show the skills that they have developed. It helps promote engagement within the module,” said Cornelius. “It also helps you get clean data sets for reporting.”

“For a games design module, we decided to use badges as a form of gamification. What we wanted to do was give students a taste of gaming,” said Cornelius. “We have set up a series of activities and interactions so that as students interact with the module and engage with each other, they get to level up their badges.”

Staff can also earn digital certificates that support onboarding, fellowship applications and promotion pathways. To enable staff members to keep up with the different digital tools and provide a great learning experience for students, the university designed a three-faceted programme called DigiPath. “This is aligned to advance the UK’s Professional Standards Framework, and we use it as evidence for members of staff going through probation or for promotion,” said Cornelius. “We can track in real time who has completed all three parts of the pathway.”

Some of the university’s mandatory, institution-specific training is delivered directly within Brightspace. “If it’s mandatory training, we need to be able to report on whether or not people have completed it,” Cornelius said. “In cases where they may need to recertify training, we need to be able to manage that without adding any administrative burden. If you have certification that people need to do every single academic year, you can just set it to expire at the end of the previous academic year and they get automated reminders to go back in and recertify again.”

The speaker:

• Mary Cornelius, educational development and innovation manager, University of Suffolk

Find out more about D2L. Learn more about how the University of Suffolk partners with D2L Brightspace.