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Digital Credentials: Open Badges 3.0 TrustEd Credential Profile

Open Badges 3.0 TrustEd Credential Profile: an institutional implementation guide

How universities can issue and test Open Badges 3.0 credentials that use the TrustEd Credential Profile's requirements for achievement type, alignment, evidence, results, and criteria.

By Sam Ottenhoff Published Updated

Summary

The TrustEd Credential Profile adds consistent requirements to Open Badges 3.0 for achievement type, skills alignment, criteria, evidence, and results. It can make a credential easier for another institution or employer to interpret. It does not prove that an issuer is authorized, that a credential remains active, or that every receiving system will preserve the data. Test those questions separately before you adopt the profile.

Written for: digital credential program owners, registrars and continuing education teams, enterprise architects and security reviewers, procurement and records-management teams

Decide whether the profile fits the credential

The TrustEd Credential Profile is an Open Badges 3.0 profile for credentials that need to communicate more than participation. It requires an issuer to describe the type of achievement, connect it to skills or another framework, state criteria, provide evidence, and record results. The profile gives a receiving system more structured information to interpret.

Start with the credential decision. A completion badge for an event may not need the same information as a credential for a lab, project, assessment, certificate, or degree pathway. For each program, define the achievement type, the decision that awards it, the evidence that supports it, and the recipient or receiving system that must understand it.

Use the TrustEd Credential Open Badges 3.0 Profile as the technical source. Use your institutional policy to decide whether the claim is appropriate, who may award it, and how long it remains available.

Include the required profile information

The profile adds requirements to the Open Badges 3.0 model. The following table separates the field from the institutional decision it supports.

Profile requirements and the policy that gives each field meaning
RequirementWhat it recordsInstitutional decision to document
achievementTypeThe kind of achievement, such as a course, certification, competency, or microcredential.Which controlled term applies and who approves its use.
AlignmentA reference to an external skills framework or other defined framework.Which framework is authoritative, how it is versioned, and when the mapping is reviewed.
CriteriaA URI or narrative that explains the conditions for earning the credential.Which assessment, rubric, or approval rule establishes that the learner met the criteria.
EvidenceInformation that supports the claim about the learner's achievement.What can be public, what requires consent, and how long the evidence remains available.
Result and result dateThe achievement result and the date associated with it.Which result is recorded, who can correct it, and how corrections appear in the credential record.
resultDescriptionThe definition that makes a result interpretable, including a rubric level when applicable.How the institution maintains the result scale, rubric, or outcome definition over time.

Do not add a field only because the profile permits it. Each value needs an owner, a source, and a review process. A skills alignment is useful only if the referenced framework and mapping remain available. Evidence is useful only if the learner’s privacy and the retention obligation are clear.

Test the claim outside the issuing system

Use a representative credential with fictional learner data. Issue it through the same workflow that you plan to use in production. Then check it outside the issuing platform.

  1. Download the machine-readable credential and inspect the achievement type, alignment, criteria, evidence, result, result date, and result description.
  2. Verify its proof and current status in a separate browser session or with an independent verifier.
  3. Send the credential to a required wallet or receiving system. Record which required fields it displays, preserves, or rejects.
  4. Change one condition at a time. Test altered content, an expired credential, a revoked credential, and a status service that cannot be reached.
  5. Record the issuing product version, verifier or receiver version, test date, result, and unresolved limitation.

The Open Badges 3.0 conformance and certification guide defines specific checks for particular roles. It does not replace a test with the receiving systems that your learners, employers, or partner institutions use.

Separate structured data from trust

The profile can make an achievement easier to interpret. It cannot decide whether a verifier should trust the issuer or accept the credential for a particular purpose. A proof check can establish that signed content has not changed. A status check can report whether the issuer has published a lifecycle state. Your institution still needs policy for issuer authority, recipient matching, privacy, corrections, and retention.

The W3C Verifiable Credentials trust model leaves that trust decision with the verifier. Do not describe a TrustEd-profile credential as certified, independently interoperable, or permanently valid unless you have evidence for that specific claim.

Keep the profile distinct from version, governance, and procurement decisions

Use the Open Badges 2.1 vs 3.0 comparison to choose a format and exchange path. Use the Open Badges 3 governance guide to assign responsibility for issuer identity, signing, status, privacy, and verification. Use the digital credential procurement guide to evaluate hosting, self-hosting, recovery, accessibility, and exit requirements.

The TrustEd profile answers a narrower question: whether the credential contains the structured achievement information that a receiving system needs to interpret it. Keep that decision and its test evidence with the credential program record.

Review available product evidence carefully

Longsight develops CredTrail. Its TrustEd Credential readiness documentation describes product-specific support and labels its status as readiness. It is not a certification claim or evidence that another product preserves every field.

Longsight’s October 5, 2026 CredTrail recovery exercise tested issuance, proof verification, revocation, backup restoration, and continued verification after recovery. The execution record documents that limited test. It did not test the TrustEd profile or independent receiver interoperability. Use it to evaluate one operating scenario, not as proof for a different requirement.

Use the TrustEd Credential Profile acceptance matrix to record the profile fields, independent-verification results, receiver tests, owners, and approval decision for a pilot.

Limits of this guidance

  • The TrustEd profile improves consistency in credential data. It does not certify an issuer, a platform, or a receiving system.
  • A valid proof shows that signed data has not changed. A verifier must still assess issuer authority, recipient identity, credential status, and the purpose of the decision.
  • This guide does not report a cross-product portability test. Test the issuing platform, verifier, wallet, and receiving system that your institution requires.

Procurement checklist

  • Define which credential programs need the TrustEd profile and who approves the achievement type, criteria, skills alignment, evidence, and results.
  • Require a representative credential that includes every required profile field and uses the proof and status mechanism your receivers support.
  • Verify the credential in a separate browser session and with an independent verifier. Record proof, status, and receiving-system results separately.
  • Test a valid, altered, expired, revoked, and temporarily unverifiable credential before you make a production claim.
  • Preserve the issued credential, supporting evidence, issuer information, status history, and export documentation for the retention period your institution sets.

Downloads

Related code

Standards and sources

  1. [1]Open Badges 3.0 Implementation Guide. Explains how OpenBadgeCredential data is signed as a W3C Verifiable Credential.
  2. [2]Open Badges 3.0 conformance and certification guide. Defines conformance checks and certification roles that are separate from the TrustEd profile.
  3. [3]W3C Bitstring Status List 1.0. Defines one status-list mechanism a verifier can use to determine whether a credential remains active.
  4. [4]TrustEd Credential Open Badges 3.0 Profile. Defines the profile's additional requirements for Open Badges 3.0 credentials.
  5. [5]Open Badges overview. Explains Open Badges 3.0, Badge Connect, certification, and the TrustEd Credential framework.
  6. [6]W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0. Distinguishes credential syntax and proof from the verifier's trust decision.

Related guides and research