An Introduction to Open Badges

Badges

An introductionJane Kanas

Instructional DesignerCentre for Flexible Learning, USP

3 June 2014

What are they?

Badges are digital records of skills, achievements and participation.

Source: http://robdarrow.wordpress.com/

Where do people learn or acquire skills?

• Formal context• Informal context• Online• Offline, etc.

How can you show for these skills, achievements?

Digital vs Open Badges• Open Badges are:

• Free and open• Transferable• Stackable• Evidence-based

• Open Badges make it easy to: • Get recognition for the things you learn; • Give recognition for the things you teach; • Verify skills; and • Display your verified badges across the web.

Sources: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges

What makes up a badge?•Issuer – Who made the badge•Criteria – What it takes to earn a badge•Evidence – demonstrates proof of earning the badge and provides evidence for assessment

Source: http://achievery.com/how-it-works/

Source: http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/blogs/brett_bixler_e-portfolio/blog/

Applying for a badge

Source: http://moodlebadges.com/?dlm_download=presentation-skillspersuasion-badge

Source: http://achievery.com/apply/1197

An example of an Open Badge Backpack

Source: http://criticaltechnology.blogspot.com/2012_12_01_archive.html

Who uses Badges?

• Moodle• Open University / Cloudworks

Who designs Badges?

• Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy• Disney-Pixar• Microsoft

Source: http://www.openbadges.org/participating-issuers/

Some examples

My Backpack on Mozilla Backpack

Badge 2

Badge 1

Learn more about badges

• Gavin Henrick:

http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick/open-badges-and-moodle-what-and-why

• Mozilla Open Badges:

http://openbadges.org/

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/About

Our current constraints

• Our Moodle platform has badges deactivated – server overload fears

• Course designers need to be thoroughly trained so they can create a well-balanced fusion between technology and pedagogy:

• Moodle’s Activity completion, • Course completion, • Conditional access and • Marksheet

How can badges be used in our context?• With your neighbour, discuss how badges can be used in

our context.• Think about who will be issuing the badge, for what

purpose, whether it can be stackable, etc.• What are some advantages or disadvantages?• How can it be used for staff or students?

[8 minutes]

Feedback Required

Any questions?

References• http://criticaltechnology.blogspot.com/2012_12_01_archive.html• http://moodlebadges.com/• http://moodlebadges.com/?dlm_download=presentation-skillspersuasion-badge• http://openbadges.org/• http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/blogs/brett_bixler_e-portfolio/blog/• http://robdarrow.wordpress.com/• http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick/open-badges-and-moodle-what-and-why• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/About

• Rajneel Totaram• Mojito Jione

Acknowledgement