designing digital badges for a college course

26
DESIGNING DIGITAL BADGES FOR A COLLEGE COURSE AECT 2016 • LAS VEGAS, NV Dr.Vanessa Dennen Professor of Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies, Florida State University [email protected] @vdennen Jiyae Bong Doctoral Candidate in Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies, Florida State University [email protected] 1

Upload: vanessa-dennen

Post on 22-Jan-2017

157 views

Category:

Education


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Designing digital badges for a college course

DESIGNING DIGITAL BADGES FOR A COLLEGE COURSE AECT 2016 • LAS VEGAS, NV

Dr. Vanessa Dennen Professor of Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies, Florida State University [email protected] @vdennen Jiyae Bong Doctoral Candidate in Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies, Florida State University [email protected]

1

Page 2: Designing digital badges for a college course

OVERVIEW

Designing digital badges for a college course:

¡  Six different types of badges developed in an undergraduate course on Educational Technology and awarded through a different process

Topics covered

¡  Course

¡  Design and development process for badges

¡  Implementation of badges

¡  Evaluation focusing on learner attitudes and motivation

2

Page 3: Designing digital badges for a college course

DIGITAL BADGES

¡  Digital badges have been adopted in higher education contexts as an alternate form of acknowledgement and assessment

¡  The use of digital badges in higher education settings has potential at multiple levels.

¡  Course level: monitoring individual progress and providing feedback

¡  Program level: supporting the development of competencies across classroom and extracurricular experiences

¡  University level: initiating intra-university collaboration among disciplines

3

Page 4: Designing digital badges for a college course

ABOUT THE COURSE

¡  Undergraduate educational technology course

¡  3 credit hours, Spring 2016

¡  Offered to pre-service teachers

¡  Multiple sections of the course

¡  A team of instructors following a common syllabus and course design

¡  Teaching strategies: readings & lectures, discussions, demonstrations

¡  Assessments: problem-based projects, skill-based practical tests, and reflective blogs.

¡  Hosting system: Blackboard Learning Management System (built-in badging system)

4

Page 5: Designing digital badges for a college course

PROJECT RATIONALE AND INITIAL DESIGN

Badges were introduced to this course to motivate students in three ways:

¡  Complete all assignments – even small ones – thoroughly and on time

¡  Be actively engaged in the class community, helping and providing feedback to each other

¡  Engage in independent, extracurricular learning related to the course topic

The first iteration of the badge system was designed and implemented in Spring 2015.

The system continued to be refined based on feedback from students and instructors.

5

Page 6: Designing digital badges for a college course

BADGE DESIGN PROCESS

Analysis (exploration of

context)

Determining types of badges

(e.g., recognition of milestone achievement,

excellence,)

Establishing performance objectives

(types of learning)

Selecting or designing learning activities

Identifying types of evidence & planning

assessments

6

Page 7: Designing digital badges for a college course

SIX TYPES OF DIGITAL BADGES FOR THE COURSE -DEVELOPMENT & IMPLEMENTATION-

7

Page 8: Designing digital badges for a college course

1. EXCELLENCE IN COURSEWORK BADGES

8

Page 9: Designing digital badges for a college course

2. BEST IN SHOW BADGES

9

Page 10: Designing digital badges for a college course

3. GOLD STAR BADGES

10

¡  Gold Star badges were awarded at their instructor’s discretion for outstanding performance on an assignment in any capacity throughout the semester.

¡  There were no specific guidelines for earning this badge. Their instructor told the recipients specifically what they did to earn it.

¡  A total of 8 assignments were selected for this type of badge.

Page 11: Designing digital badges for a college course

4. EXCELLENCE BADGES

11

¡  Excellence badges were awarded to the students who show the best performance on the selected assignments (Gold Star badges).

¡  Students who earned Gold Star badges could only choose if they want to share their work and participate in the process to earn the Excellence badge.

¡  Instructors provided feedback on their Gold Star work and students could revise before submitting to the Excellence badge committee (all course instructors).

¡  The committee chose the best one to award the Excellence Badge.

¡  The recipients' work was shared with the other students and used as an example for future classes.

Page 12: Designing digital badges for a college course

5. GOOD CITIZEN BADGES

12

Page 13: Designing digital badges for a college course

6. INDEPENDENT LEARNING BADGES

13

Page 14: Designing digital badges for a college course

BADGES EARNED (ACROSS ALL 6 SECTIONS)

¡  Excellence: 20-39 per area

¡  Best in Show: 3-5 per assignment

¡  Gold Star: 2-21 per assignment

¡  More on creative assignments

¡  Excellence: 0-1 per assignment

¡  Good Citizen: 14 Tech Helper; 16 Community Builder

¡  Independent Learning: 66, 64

14

Page 15: Designing digital badges for a college course

EVALUATION FOCUSING ON LEARNER ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION

15

Survey Participants: n=59 •  N=49, 83.1%: Education major •  N=52, 88.1%: First or second year in school •  N=55, 93.2%: Female •  N=55, 93.2%: not familiar with the concept of digital badges •  N=56, 94.9%: no digital badges earned in any context

Page 16: Designing digital badges for a college course

SURVEY RESULTS – PART I FOCUSING ON LEARNER ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION

16

Attitudes towards the use of digital badges

Page 17: Designing digital badges for a college course

ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE USE OF DIGITAL BADGES

17

¡  Overall, the reactions towards the badges were mixed.

¡  “Badges are a great way to reward someone on a project they worked really hard on.” (Student A)

¡  “It would probably be more useful for younger children who need rewards for their work other than a grade.” (Student B)

Page 18: Designing digital badges for a college course

ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE USE OF DIGITAL BADGES (N=59)

¡  A subset of students had positive attitudes toward badges

¡  Personally meaningful (47.5%)

¡  Motivational (33.7%)

¡  Generate pride (56.0%)

¡  Increase satisfaction in coursework (55.9%)

¡  Some students reported they would undertake actions for badges:

¡  Devote more time to work (44.1%)

¡  More likely to complete work (20.3%)

¡  Do extra work (16.9%)

¡  Others are a balance of neutral and disagreement with the positive attitudes / extra actions

18

Page 19: Designing digital badges for a college course

SURVEY RESULTS – PART II FOCUSING ON LEARNER ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION

19

Attitudes towards the use of each type of badges

Page 20: Designing digital badges for a college course

EXCELLENCE IN COURSEWORK BADGES

¡  Incentive for 30.5% of students to complete work at a high level and submit it on time

¡  25.6% students reported being unaware of these badges

¡  39% felt they were redundant with the grades they already earn

20

Page 21: Designing digital badges for a college course

SUBJECTIVE BADGES: BEST IN SHOW, GOLD STAR, EXCELLENCE

Honor to receive

¡  59.7% - Best in Show (peer award)

¡  59.7% - Gold Star (instructor award)

¡  64.9% - Excellence (competitive across instructors)

Motivated to excel

¡  38.8% - Best in Show

¡  33.2% - Gold Star

¡  37.8% - Excellence

21

Page 22: Designing digital badges for a college course

GOOD CITIZEN BADGES

¡  Honor to earn: 67.4%

¡  Motivated to be helpful and/or interact with classmates: 28.6%

¡  Nominating classmates is a good way to recognize them for their contribution: 81.7%

22

Page 23: Designing digital badges for a college course

INDEPENDENT LEARNING BADGES

¡  Pushed to do something new: 63.1%

¡  Actually learned something new: 70.1%

¡  Enjoyable to complete: 38.9%

¡  Difficult to decide what to do: 43.8%

23

Page 24: Designing digital badges for a college course

DISCUSSION

¡  Our badge system worked as an add-on to the current grading system.

¡  The badge systems could be differently designed and used with diverse approaches within the particular context.

¡  The badge system can also be used to solve instructional issues based on different instructors’ intentions, within the particular context.

Practical issues we had:

¡  New workload associated with badges.

¡  Cultural change from a course-based system to an integrated course and competency-based system.

¡  Traditional assessment system can conflict with the badge system.

¡  A more thorough facilitation was needed.

24

Page 25: Designing digital badges for a college course

CONCLUSION

¡  Badges may only motivate 30-40% of learners

¡  Many people feel ambivalent toward badges

¡  The presence of optional badges does not harm students who are not motivated by them

25

Page 26: Designing digital badges for a college course

THANK YOU! ANY QUESTIONS?

Contact:

Vanessa Dennen - [email protected] - @vdennen

Jiyae Bong – [email protected]

26