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 [email protected]
