 Hello, I am Dr. Mandy Swigert-Hobaugh from Georgia State University, or GSU for short, where I am head of the Library's Research Data Services Department. I'd like to introduce you to my department and specifically to our GSU Data Ready Microdential Badges Program, which we began last year in 2022. The Research Data Services Department, or RDS for short, was officially formed in 2016 and provides training and support in the following areas. Analytic tools and methods including R, SAS, SPSS, data, Python, and Envivo, quantitative qualitative and mixed methods, survey design, and machine learning. We also support data visualization tools including ArcGIS, Tableau, Social Explorer, and visualization using the mentioned software and coding languages. We support finding data and statistics primarily for social science, health, and business research purposes, and we support data cleaning and management. Our current RDS configuration is a mix of four dedicated RDS members, two affiliate subject librarians, and three graduate and two undergraduate assistants. We offer one-on-one help via consultations and custom sessions for courses and research teams. We also offer open workshops for all GSU students, faculty, and staff to attend, and since 2020, we have made recorded versions of our workshops available. And in January 2022, we implemented our GSU Data Ready Badges Microdentialing Program tied to our live and recorded workshops. We have two badge tracks. One is our Data Literacy Series Badges created to appeal particularly to our undergraduates. It teaches core data literacy skills and concepts with real-life examples using a variety of tools. We currently have the Data Ready Badge launched, but soon we'll have the Data Collection Badge and the Data Storage Telling Badge launched. Once someone earns these three badges, they receive the Data Literacy Series Badge. Our software and coding training badges are intended for anyone seeking to learn a variety of data analysis and visualization software tools and coding languages, including our Python, SPSS, SAS, Data, ArcGIS, Tableau, and Indevo. We have 10 badges launched, and we will launch our 11th badge soon. So how this works is those wishing to earn badges must first enroll in the associated track Course Via Stacks, which is the GSU-branded Canvas platform. These badges do not have course credit associated, so any GSU student as well as faculty and staff can enroll in the badge course for free to earn badges. Once enrolled in the track course, they select the badge module in Canvas for the badge they wish to earn. Pictured here is the InViva Ready Badge module. They then can either attend the live workshops or watch the recorded workshops. Our workshop series are typically five to seven and a half hours in total. They then take the module quizzes to demonstrate their learning of the workshop content. The quizzes typically include 10 to 15 multiple choice or true-false questions in total and are automatically scored by Canvas. Earners have unlimited attempts to score the 100% needed for each quiz. Once they score 100% on the final quiz of the module, congrats! They automatically earn the badge, which is distributed by Canvas in connection with the Badger platform. They then can share the badge via texting or emailing direct links or embedding code on websites or posting to social media, like this example of a GSU graduate student posting their InViva Ready badge to LinkedIn. Why should students and everyone get badges? Well, there are many reasons why students as well as faculty and staff should consider earning our GSU Data Ready badges. Our GSU Data Ready badges are a marker of achievement showing that badge earners took the initiative to learn data skills. An earned badge demonstrates actual learning rather than mere attendance at workshops since earners must complete quiz assessments to earn the badges. And finally, data skills are highly valued by today's employers across all industries. By getting GSU Data Ready badges, earners demonstrate the two current and potential employers that they are committed to growing the data skills that employers value. In the program's first year, there were a total of 345 badges earned. 54% were awarded to graduate students, 36% to undergraduates, and 10% to faculty and staff. There were 203 unique badge earners, each earning about two badges on average. And there was a near equal split of undergraduates and graduate students earning badges and student earners spanned 50 academic majors. So here is a breakdown of the 345 badges earned by badge and by status burner as an undergraduate, a graduate student, or a faculty or staff member. The Data Ready badge, which covers core data concepts and skills, was the most popular with 107 badges earned, followed by the Data Vis Ready badge, which covers Tableau and Social Explorer data visualization tools with 65 badges earned. Also, these badges were comparatively more popular among the undergraduate badge earners. The popularity of these badges compared to the other badges is most likely due to the content being more accessible to a wider audience and thus having a wider appeal. Because neither requires specialized or advanced level statistical or software encoding knowledge or skills. The remaining software encoding training badges were comparatively more popular among our graduate students, which came as no surprise given the associated workshops content lends itself to those with more specialized or advanced level data knowledge and skills. However, the comparative popularity of the R badges and the Python badge among graduate students over undergraduates indicates to our department a need to explore adding new R and Python training geared intentionally toward an undergraduate audience. As skills in these coding languages are highly marketable and thus vital for strengthening career readiness among undergraduates. Now, while the GSU Data Ready badges program is only one year old, we are aware of various GSU academic programs and professors who already have integrated badge earning into their curriculum, including the Master of International Business Program, the College of Law Legal Analytics certificate program, the Nursing PhD program, a credit bearing data jam course coordinated by the GSU Graduate School in which students can earn individual badges and also the course badge pictured here, the College to Career Initiatives Ready Set Go trainings, and various individual professors assigning badges in courses for either required or extra credit. And recently, I attended the GSU College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate and graduate council's meetings to promote the badges program as a low investment way to integrate data skills learning into course curriculum across all majors, including the humanities, which traditionally lacks data skills training. In conclusion, the success of our GSU Data Ready badges in its first year was encouraging, and we look forward to further developing the program. We've developed a model for other colleges and universities to follow, and I encourage those wishing to learn from our successes and challenges to contact me, Dr. Mandy Swiger, HOBA head of the Georgia State University Libraries Research Data Service Department at the email address shared here. Thanks so much. Bye-bye.