Mobius stores student credentials that are visible to the student and to MIT shop managers enabling students to access tools more quickly in various shops at MIT.

A credential in Mobius is not a guarantee of access, but it does show verified credentials from various makerspaces on campus. Credentials are created by shop managers once they have trained a student on how to properly use a piece of equipment or class of equipment.

By design, the credential is a collection of text fields that can specify a range of skill levels and even groups of equipment. Each credential is marked with the date it was issued and the name of the shop assigning it so that managers at other makerspaces on campus can decide the appropriate level of supervision and/or training needing to get students access to maker equipment.

You can view your earned training credentials on your profile page in Mobius.

» Jump to information for shop managers on issuing credentials

View Your Earned Training Credentials in Mobius

Information contained in a credential

A Mobius credential contains 6 key pieces of information:

• Name – The name of the credential summarizes what it was issued for, and at which level (e.g Vertical Bandsaw: Independent)
• Date – The date the credential was issued to you.
• Category – one of Safety, Machine, or Oversight, depending on whether this was safety training, machine/process training, or whether the credential allows you to oversee/train others.
• Notes – An optional block of text entered by the instructor at the time the credential is issued to you; it is commonly used to provide more information about the credential, for example, MakerLodge Edge-lit Sign 2016-17 Training.
• Author – The name of the instructor= issuing the credential; a shop manager can look up the instructor in Mobius to get their contact info in case they need to verify specific training.
• Makerspace – the name of the makerspace where the training took place and the credential was issued.

Levels

• Machine/process credentials are usually broken out into four levels:

  • Novice – received basic training, but will usually require supervision while using this machine
  • Independent – can use the machine independently
  • Advanced – has expert knowledge/training on this machine
  • Oversight – is able to teach/oversee others using this machine

Your Mobius Maker Profile

You have a personal profile page in Mobius where you can customize your profile picture as well as add a phone number, and a maker bio. The bio supports markdown so you can link to outside web sites, for example your own maker portfolio site.

At the bottom of your profile page, you will see a list of all training credentials you have earned, grouped by category.

Your profile is currently visible to you and to shop managers at MIT, who can use it to verify your earned credentials.

Viewing Credentials

Mobius shop managers have the ability to look up credentials on their smartphone, tablet through the Mobius app or computer through the Mobius admin portal.

To view Mobius Credentials via the app, login to Mobius on your smartphone or tablet and click on Credentials.  Then search for the student by name or kerberos principle to bring up the student’s information including a photo.  Students can also see any credentials issued to them through the Mobius app on their smartphone and can show that to you as an alternative to looking it up for every student coming into your shop.

To view Mobius Credentials via the admin portal, login, click on Students and then search by name or kerberos principle to bring up the student’s information page.  Click on the word Credentials under the user’s photo to expand and show the list of credentials the student has.  You will also have to expand the Type.  Information on the issuer of the credential is currently only available via the Mobius app.

Information for Shop Managers and Instructors

As a shop manager, you are able to issue training credentials in Mobius. Credentials can be issued to an individual user, or to a group of users. You can also view and search for credentials by user or by credential name.

Issuing a Credential to a Group of Users

• Navigate to the shop admin page in Mobius by clicking on the Admin tab
• Click on the Single/Multiple Users item in the “Add Credentials” section in the left-hand nav bar
• Enter the list of user email addresses you wish to issue credentials to into the Add by Email Address box (one email address per line); the system will verify each email address after a short pause
• Start typing the credential name in the Credential Name box to find the credential to issue; the field will show you a list of matching credentials (e.g., type “Machine” to see a list of all available machine credentials)
• If you are a shop manager for more than one shop, make sure the right shop is selected
• Optional: check the box labeled “Send Notification Email to EHS” to send a notification to EHS; usually only used for “Safety” credentials tracked by EHS
• Optional: enter any detailed Notes specific to this training or user
  Click “Submit” or “Submit and Clear” (“Submit” will issue the credentials but not clear the form, in case you need to issue multiple credentials with the same settings to this group of users)

Issuing a Credential to a Single User

You can use the above “group” steps to issue credentials to a single user. Just put only one email address into the Add by Email Address box. However, you can also issue credentials to a specific user from their profile page, using the steps below.

• Navigate to the user directory in Mobius by clicking on the Directory tab
• Filter/search the list of users to find the user to whom you’d like to issue the credential
• Open their user profile by clicking on the matching line in the directory
• Click on the “Issue a new credential to this maker” link, which is a shortcut to take you to the new credential form at the bottom of the profile page
• Start typing the credential name in the Credential Name box to find the credential to issue; the field will show you a list of matching credentials (e.g., type “Machine” to see a list of all available machine credentials)
• If you are a shop manager for more than one shop, make sure the right shop is selected
• Optional: check the box labeled “Send Notification Email to EHS” to send a notification to EHS; usually only used for “Safety” credentials tracked by EHS
• Optional: enter any detailed Notes specific to this training or user
• Click “Submit” or “Submit and Clear” (“Submit” will issue the credential but not clear the form, in case you need to issue multiple credentials with the same settings to the user)

Viewing and Searching Credentials

• Navigate to the shop admin page in Mobius by clicking on the Admin tab
• Click on the Organization item in the “View Credentials” section in the left-hand nav bar
• You’ll see a paged table of all credentials issued at MIT
• Use the search box to find credentials for a specific user, or a specific credential across all users who received it
• Use the column headings to sort by a particular column
• Alternatively, you can use the Issued By Me or By Shop items in the left-hand nav bar to quickly see all credentials issued by you, or all credentials issued by a specific shop

Using Notes

You can use notes when you issue a credential to add more value to your credential. Different shop managers use this field differently, but we recommend you use it to list the specific set of skills or operations trained/tested, or any other noteworthy training specific details that will help another shop manager gauge the detail of the training received.