In Spring 2021, the College of Business at St. Petersburg College began offering a series of badges, or digital credentials, for students to demonstrate their accomplishments from the MAN 4900 Strategic Capstone Project course. Each badge uses specific assessment indicators that students must achieve in order to earn it. These badges can then be displayed by students in their digital resume to build their professional brand and promote their knowledge, skills and abilities to the business community.

What are the top badges earned?

There was a total of 178 students in the Spring 2021 pilot course. The most frequently earned award was the Team badge, which was earned by 87.6 percent of the students. SPC Professor Dr. Robin Wilber was excited to see the majority of students were rated positively by their peers to earn this badge.

“Being an effective co-manager, able to work in groups, manage meetings, and follow through on performance needs are vital skills for success that most businesses need to see in our graduates,” Wilber said.

The second most frequently issued badge was Strategic Team, which 42.1 percent of the students earned. Professor Roni Murphy noted how challenging teamwork can be.

“Earning a 90 percent or better in the international business simulation is challenging for groups,” she said. “They have to co-manage their company, while competing against other companies in their industry, using the Business Strategy Game. This is a pretty realistic scenario for international businesses.”     

The Strategic Planner was the third most earned, with 27.5 percent of the students meriting it. SPC Professor Dr. Tom Philippe expressed how this badge requires students to demonstrate both individual knowledge in the business acumen, as well as team knowledge to work well together in making and implementing a strategic plan. 

“The real challenge in earning this badge is that it requires students to analyze business data, identifying problems and implementing solutions as they work collectively to achieve the strategic plan,” he said. “This involves using critical thinking skills to optimize a variety of operating, marketing and financing decisions.”

Which badges were the hardest to earn?

The other six badges, which were more difficult for students to earn, may be considered more prestigious, as fewer students were able to achieve the high standards necessary for these credentials. The business community might ask our graduates about these badges to identify applicants that showed this top level of performance in our program. Small business owners and managers may even want to showcase these badges to present the high level of competencies for people in the company to support credibility and client or customer references. 

Badge	% of Students Earned
Strategic Analysts	21.3%
Problem Solver	20.2%
Strategic Scholar	19.7%
Analytic Skills	17.4%
Leader	8.4%
Group Effort	5.1%

What badges are coming?

The College of Business capstone team plans to continue to evolve and improve the digital credential options. This fall, we will introduce five more badges: Operations Management, Financial Management, Marketing Management, Human Resource Management, and Corporate Social Responsibility. See all of our badges here.  

Whether you are a student or a business partner in our community, if you have further ideas for desired digital credentials, just reach out to me at huehnbrown.wende@spcollege.edu.