Open badges

Open Badges for digital skills: Opportunities and Challenges

Julie Adams, Staffordshire University

2 June, 2014

What badges used to be…

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/5238425/in/

Digital badges:

“ an online representation of a skill you’ve earned”

Open Badges take the idea further: – skills are verified through

a credible organisation. 

Open Badges

Led by Mozilla Organisation

Open, online standard

Images with Metadata hard-coded into them

Recognise formal or informal learning

Badges from multiple sources stored in single

backpack

Share through social networks

From: http://classhack.com/post/45364649211/open-badge-anatomy-updated

Ultimately, a badge is just one credential, one assertion of what we know. But,

added together from different contexts across society, they tell a story about us

that’s backed by a lot of people, and says, “this is what I can do.”

Mozilla Blog, 12 February 2014https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/02/12/how-were-making-education-more-like-the-web/

Types and granularity of badges

“Smaller” badges

Motivation and feedback

Less time-intensive

behaviours or achievements.

“Larger” badges

Can be used for certification purposes.

More rigorous or defined

assessments

Basic or foundational

badges

Entry-level framework for

acquiring skills.

Prerequisites for higher level

badges

Intermediate and expert

level badges

Provide pathways and milestones to

guide learners

Unlocking higher levels can help

motivate engagement.

Higher-level “meta

badges”

Aggregate of multiple badges

Represent more complex

literacies or competencies

Based on information from http://openbadges.org/faq/

Opportunities

Stand out from peers

Picture of whole

person

Show what

someone can do

Motivate

Opportunities Challenges

Too many?

Trivial?

Consistency?

Credible with employers?

Stand out from peers

Picture of whole person

Show what someone can do

Motivate

Recent developments• Endorsement of badges:

– External party recognises value of the badge and the rigour of processes applied in developing and issuing it.

• Badge Alliance:– Independent of Mozilla– Brings together organisations and individuals

to take the badge ecosystem forward.

What we are doing at Staffs

• Up to now:– InfoZone: Library and IT induction

– Attendance at TeachMeets

• From September 2014:– Pilot project in conjunction with ‘Get a better grade’

workshops.

Get a better grade…

• Addresses digital skills:– Library/research, IT, academic study skills– Developmental programme throughout the year

• Align to Staffs Graduate Attribute:– “technologically, digitally and information literate”– Complementary to curriculum

• Badges for successful workshop assessment– Individual badges– Meta/”gold” badges if attend given number

The process

Planning essential!

Be clear on what you want to

achieve: what badges and

why?

Define criteria/definition of achievement

in order to earn a badge

Decide on look and feel for your

badges -consistent branding

Decide mechanism for

designing/ awarding badges

Some tools to help• Jisc Open Badge Design toolkit http

://www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/media/421718/jiscopenbadgesdesigntoolkit-print_1.pdf

• Indiana University Design Principles documentation http://iudpd.indiana.edu/HomePage

• Card deck

• Design principle strands forLearning with digital badges– Recognising – Motivating– Assessing– Studying

How?

Plug-ins for existing systemse.g. WordPress, Moodle, Blackboard

Mozilla BadgeKit: http://badgekit.openbadges.org/

Some others: Badges for all: https://badges.forallschools.com/

Credly: http://credly.com

Cloudworks: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/badge/badge_list

Open Badges and Blackboard

• Achievements Building Block: badges or certificates– Instructors create

badges in courses.– Learners can claim

badges– Display learner badges

from Mozilla backpack

Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr6DKgx4sH8

WordPress: Our current method…

• Set up blog to use for awarding badges

• Create images in liaison with Marketing

• Create Badge in WordPress

• Create Award for this badge

• Email sent to participants

• They click link to accept badge• Go to Mozilla site• Add badge to backpack (or create new one)

http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/isbadges

What badges look likeOER-101 is an open-access, self-paced online "Community Course" http://beta.openbadges.org/share/50b0176dea5e93e98986b9a0e9602222/

Some useful links

Earn a badge: http://openbadges.org/

What is a badge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgLLq7ybDtc

More about Open Badges: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges

Open Badges blog: http://openbadges.tumblr.com/

Badge the UK: http://www.digitalme.co.uk/badgetheuk/

JISC RSCs:Scotland: http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?page_id=2223Northern: http://www.jiscrscopenbadges.org.uk/northern/

Open Badges for digital skills: Opportunities and Challenges

Julie Adams, Academic Skills Tutor (IT)/Teaching Fellowj.f.adams@staffs.ac.uk