Terms of use

Version 0.1 (proof of concept). These terms apply to digitalbadges.co.za, operated by [Company name] (Pty) Ltd (placeholder – to be confirmed).

1. The service

Issuing organisations ("issuers") use DigitalBadges to define course milestones and award digital milestone badges. Students claim badges with a verified email address and view them on their dashboard.

2. About badges

About your badges. Badges on DigitalBadges ("Badges") celebrate the milestones students reach along their learning journey. Each Badge recognises that a student has reached a defined step, task or milestone in the course or microcredential named on the Badge, as set up by the issuing profile.

Badges are designed to motivate and recognise progress. They are separate from formal recognition, which means a Badge is not:

• a certificate, diploma, degree, qualification or part-qualification;
• a credential, licence, academic credit or credit-bearing result, or a statement of competence registered on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF);
• an official award, endorsement or transcript entry of the issuing organisation, of the University of the Witwatersrand or any of its entities, or of DigitalBadges.

Earning Badges is a great sign of progress, but it does not by itself mean that a course or microcredential has been completed or passed, and it does not lead automatically to a certificate or any other outcome. Formal results and certificates are issued by the relevant institution through its own official processes.

Badge data follows the Open Badges standard, so anyone can check that a Badge was genuinely recorded by the named issuing profile. This check confirms where the Badge came from; it does not change the nature of the Badge described above.

We encourage students to share their Badges proudly, and to describe them accurately as course milestones. The issuing profile may revoke Badges that were claimed in error or in breach of these Terms.

3. Your account

Use an email address you control. Do not claim badges for milestones you have not reached, share unlock codes, or automate claims. Issuers may revoke badges claimed in error or in breach of these terms.

4. Issuers

Issuers are responsible for the content of their badges, the accuracy of milestone criteria, and their lawful basis for processing student data. Issuers' data is isolated from other issuers.

5. Acceptable use

No unlawful, misleading, infringing or harmful content; no attempts to bypass security, scrape data or access another issuer's data.

6. Liability

The service is provided "as is" during the proof of concept. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect losses or for reliance on a badge as evidence of a qualification.

7. Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.