As the cost of traditional degrees increases, educators are turning to low-cost, short-term microcredentials as an alternative. Not all species of microcredential are equally variable. Nanodegrees, MicroMasters, and certificates usually require several months of coursework in a career-focused area like accounting, project management, artificial intelligence, or C++ programming. In contrast, badges take anywhere from one hour to a year to complete and can be on topics as diverse as gender studies and C# programming. This article focuses on digital badges specifically, because this high variability yields faulty specimens that could affect the entire lot's value. Furthermore, digital badges are the most prevalent type of microcredential and are a frequent entry point to the microcredential universe.