Getting started

Welcome to CanCred Passport, a free home to store and share open badges that recognize your achievements and further your career. These tutorials will help you get the most out of your account in CanCred Passport.

What’s an Open Badge?

Open Badges is the world’s leading format for digital badges. Open Badges is a type of digital badge that is verifiable, portable, and packed with information about skills and achievements. It’s a whole new way to recognize learning and achievement. Well over 40 million badges have been issued to date.

Find out more on our About page or at openbadges.org.

Accept your first badge

How to accept a badge in various ways:

to share directly to social media such as LinkedIn
to download and store on your computer
to start a badge portfolio in CanCred Passport!

You will receive an email from [ISSUER ORGANISATION] via CanCred, with a subject line saying something like: “Claim your badge: [BADGE NAME]”. The email will contain a link that says something like Get your badge. Select the link to go to the badge acceptance badge.

NB: You can also register for a free account on CanCred Passport before you receive a badge. There is an extra step to confirm your email address. You can also earn a first badge by completing a CanCred Passport Member badge application form (no special requirements) and then just follow this same sequence when you receive the email awarding the badge.

If this is your first badge from this organisation, you’ll be asked to accept the Privacy Notice because they had to use your name and email to issue the badge. Once you accept it, select the button [Continue].

In the badge acceptance page that opens up, you will have up to 3 choices for accepting the badge, depending on what your badge issuer selected:

Share a link directly to LinkedIn (or Facebook or Twitter)
Download a PDF version of the badge to print or attach to an email (may not be provided by your issuer organisation)
Create a free badge portfolio on CanCred Passport for this badge and any badges you may earn in the future

You can do one of these, or all of them - now or later.

We’ll take them in order:

(HINT: Have your LinkedIn page open in another tab of your browser before you start)

Select the LinkedIn icon on the badge acceptance page under the box Share badge URL.
A form window opens on the LinkedIn site labeled Add license or certification. Check the pre-loaded information on the form. If it all makes sense, select Save.
(One thing to check: the Issuing organization should have a branded logo, if the organization has a company page on LinkedIn. If you don’t see a logo, try searching for the organization using the dropdown menu.)
After selecting Save, check the Licenses and certifications section on your LinkedIn profile to see your badge. It should be nicely displayed with the logo of the issuing organization and a link that says See credential. If you follow that link you’ll find your hosted badge on CanCred Passport.

Download a PDF version of the badge

Go to the Download PDF section of the badge acceptance page and select the PDF link for the badge.
If it is a multi-lingual badge, there will be a download link for each language version.
The PDF that you download contains the same information as the badge, in a “Portable Document Format”, that you can use right away: print it, store it on your computer, and shared it as an email attachment. You can even upload it later to a free account on CanCred Passport, if you haven’t already accepted it there.
A QR code at the end of the PDF connects to a validator service, so your offline PDF badge can be verified online.

Create a free badge portfolio on CanCred Passport

Go to the CanCred Passport section on the badge acceptance page and select the button [Go to Passport]
A page opens that says something like CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE GOT A BADGE!
Select the link Create new account. Review the Terms of Use and Privacy and Cookie policy for the free CanCred Passport service. Accept these if you agree and select the button [Continue].
In the simple registration form that opens, check your preloaded email address and enter the following:
- A strong password (twice)
- Your first name
- Your last name
- Your preferred language
- Your country (normally Canada)
Select the button [Create new account]
In the Thank you screen that opens, select the button [Continue]
Your Passport Dashboard page opens. You should see a button that says [You have a new badge waiting] in the top right quadrant of the Dashboard. Select it.
Your Badges page opens with the badge you have earned waiting for your acceptance. Select the button [Accept badge]
In the Set badge visibility box that opens, select PUBLIC if you want to be able to share your badge to social media and other public sites
Your new badge is now visible on your Badges page, ready to be joined by many more badges! CanCred Passport accepts all badges that conform to the Open Badges standard. These may come from:
- The organisation that issued this badge
- Other badge issuing organisations on CanCred
- Open Badges you upload from your computer
- Badges you can import from other Passports, Wallets and Backpacks

Check out the other tutorials on this page to learn more about how you can build up your own badge portfolio on CanCred Passport!

Share a badge on LinkedIn from Passport

As we showed above, you can share a badge directly to LinkedIn without using CanCred Passport. But you can also share a badge to LinkedIn from Passport. It’s pretty easy.

NB: These instructions are designed for laptops and desktop computers.

Go to your Badge page and select the badge you want to share

Select the Social tab in the pop-up window that opens. Make sure the badge is set to [PUBLIC] so it can be shared.

Select the LinkedIn icon under the heading Share this badge.

A pop-up window appears labeled Share on LinkedIn with two options. We’ll guide you through both options.

Add to profile

This will publish your badge as a fixed Certification in your Profile:

Select [Add to profile]

CanCred opens up a Certification form on LinkedIn with your badge information already entered. Select the Issuing organization field to choose a branded link to the issuing organiztion, if the organization has a company page on LinkedIn; otherwise, simply accept the unbranded option.

When finished, select [Save]

Your badge is now visible in the “Licenses and Certifications” section of your LinkedIn profile.

Other LinkedIn users can select [Show credential] to verify the badge.

You can also share your badge as a dynamic post in your LinkedIn newsfeed:

Select [Share]

Select [Share in a post]

Type a short message for your post, such as “My new badge…”

Select [Post]

Other LinkedIn users can click on the badge to see the hosted version on CanCred Passport. [Show credential] to verify the badge.

Building up your Passport

Having your own badge Passport means more than sharing badges to LinkedIn. It’s like a badge portfolio with benefits.

Build your Passport Profile

Edit your Profile and share it to LinkedIn.

Set your location on the map

Locate your CanCred profile and badges on a global map.

Upload a badge

SHORT VERSION

Upload a badge to your CanCred Passport. This may be all you need..

DETAILED VERSION

Covers different file formats, why certain files can’t be uploaded and how to import badges directly from other platforms.

Download and share a PDF badge

Create a Page in your Passport

Coming soon!