Frequently Asked Questions

All certifications on the product certification platform are currently open, and there is no deadline to submit. Digital Promise announces recent earners each year in August and February.

The assessment process is rigorous and can take several weeks to complete. The application is assessed by two reviewers with expertise in edtech, product design, and research, who have been trained in using the certification’s rubric. You can expect to receive results within 28 days of submitting your application.

No, only the evidence and information included in the application is reviewed by the assessor team. Check out the How It Works and Our Values pages to learn more.

To create an account, visit the product certification platform and click Sign In or Sign Up in the top-right corner. If a submission earns the certification, the Open Badge will be tied to the email address associated with the account used to submit the application. For that reason, we encourage applicants to use a general company (e.g. research@product.com) email to create an account and submit the application instead of an individual’s email.

Awarded applicants receive an Open Badge to display their certification status in any way they deem valuable, such as on product websites and product index sites. The Open Badge will display:

• Certification Requirements
• To whom the Open Badge was awarded
• The issuing organization
• The issue date
• The expiration date (2 years after earning the certification)

Check out this page to learn more about Open Badges.

Digital Promise-issued certifications expire after two years. Through our partnership with districts, a major priority among decision-makers is trusting that the criteria continue to be met as products evolve. This two year expiration was the decision we collaboratively landed on to ensure confidence in the certifications’ validity. While the Open Badge itself does not disappear after two years—it will still exist as an artifact demonstrating certification at that time—its status will read as Expired to viewers.

For the expiration timelines of certifications issued by other organizations, please visit the application pages for those certifications.

Any software or hardware technology product that delivers, informs, creates, and/or offers instruction or learning opportunities to educators and/or students is welcome to apply. If you believe your product has evidence to fulfill all criteria, your product is likely a fit.

If an applicant does not earn the certification, this information will be kept confidential between Digital Promise and the product. Additionally, the list of applicants is confidential and only known to Digital Promise.

The product will receive feedback through the application portal with specific action items to take to earn the certification in a resubmission. We are committed to a continuous learning process and encourage products to resubmit their applications after incorporating the assessors’ feedback. Resubmissions of Digital Promise-issued certifications cost half the original application fee.

When the application is submitted, responses will be reviewed by the issuing organization’s staff only. Below the name of each certification lists the issuing organization. For example, under the Learner Variability product certification, Digital Promise is named as the issuer. In this instance, Digital Promise staff are the only ones who will review submission materials.

The application responses and artifacts uploaded to the Digital Promise product certification platform are stored in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform, specifically in an encrypted S3 storage bucket (an AWS public cloud storage).

As the application questions consider product design processes and history, it is recommended that one or more senior leaders complete the application.

Digital Promise is committed to providing a rigorous and efficient review of product certification applications. To cover the cost of assessor time, each product certification requires a modest submission fee which can be found on the product certification platform.

Please look out for a charge labeled “MC Assessment”.

Each product certification application has a resources section, which often houses documents that further define terms in applications, as well as templates to help applicants understand what information and evidence to submit.

We now require an authenticator app to log in to your account on the product certification platform. You can learn more, and get help, in this help desk article.