Skip to main content
2026 AAC&U Annual Meeting Main banner
Final Program


PDF Program Schedule
Starred Sessions
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Advancing Public Purposes

Friday Breakfast Roundtables

Table 10: Purpose Before Profit: For What Job Are Badges the Right Tool?

Friday, January 23, 2026
8:00 AM - 9:15 AM East Coast USA Time
Location: Marquis Salon 5 - Level M2

    Primary Presenter(s)

  • GW

    Glenn Whitehouse

    Director of Core Skills
    Florida Gulf Coast University, United States

    • Co-Presenter(s)

  • AF

    Andrea Fortin

    Assistant Professor of Communication
    Florida Gulf Coast University, United States

  • Tifarah Pardue

    Director of Continuing Education and Innovation
    Florida Gulf Coast University, United States

  • Patricia Rice

    Manager of Academic Programs
    Florida Gulf Coast University, United States

Badges are currently touted as a solution to higher education’s return on investment and revenue woes, but there is no broad consensus on their educational purpose. In this interactive roundtable session, we will focus on the actual job we want badges to do to benefit students. In the first half, participants will do a reflection exercise to locate their badging ideas in relation to four common purposes of badging. The second half will be a “build-a-badge” workshop where peers use a list of badge design features to plan a badge with the right specs for the job they chose. Participants will walk away with a badge packet that documents their prototype and can seed further badge design work at their institutions. Members of a team that created and launched a badging program from scratch at Florida Gulf Coast University will lead the session.