Investigating Perceptions and Potential of Open Badges in Formal Higher Education

Investigating Perceptions and Potential of Open Badges in Formal Higher EducationDr. Ian Glover, Sheffield Hallam University, UKFarzana Latif, City University London, UK

What is a badge? Visual representation of achievement, experience, affiliation and/or interest - ideally distinctive and understood within a community.

Some examples:

add examples of world known badges or equivalent (medals, ranks)

example from the conference website

Badges mean nothing in themselves, but they mark a certain achievement and they are a link between the rich and the poor. For when one girl sees a badge on a sister Scouts arm, if that girl has won the same badge, it at once awakens an interest and sympathy between them.

- Juliette G. Low, Founder of Girl Scouts of the USA

Rich and the poor could be in interpreted as rich in knowledge or experience. What does stand out from that is the connections that people can make with each other. People have a tendency to only liaise with people in their own programme,cliques, etc. This offers people who wouldn't usually connect a gateway, etc.

RECOGNITION is the important thing!

What is an Open Badge?Many apps, websites and organisations issue badges, but they are all separate Open Badges attempt to draw all these into one (free) place

Include links to criteria and evidence Add security and verificationcan check whether a person was actually awarded a specific badgeAllow 'clusters' of badges to be shared with othersBasically, an image + related data

anatomy of the the badgemozilla

Ultimately, a digital equivalent of the same badge ideaOpen Badges Anatomy (Updated) by Kyle Bowen.CC-BY-SA.

Why is there a buzz about them?Growing recognition that learning happens outside the classroom

Grade transcripts hide the truth about learning

Strong links with current trends such as MOOCs, Gamification, Mobile Learningbut can be used independently of thesehorizon report - not directly, but MOOCS and Gamification are in there (its in the OU one though)Innovating Pedagogypush from mozilla ?Example Open BadgesWhat did we do in our project?Semi-structured interviews with staffWhole institution

Focus groups with studentsHealth Sciences and Engineering

None had prior knowledge of badges in HEbut some were aware of other uses

Intended to identify perception and value recommendation on whether to continue work

Interviews with staff (across the institution) and student focus groups (in health and engineering)Who had no prior knowledge of the concept in a HE context and hadn't seen it implemented (they had heard of scouts, fitbit, etc. )Understand perceptions and what value this technology could offer in order to identify whether City should invest time and effort into supporting and developing this. What did we find?Students want to use badge to stand out from peers

Desire to link badges to requirements of professional accreditation

Important not to issue too many - each badge must represent genuine achievementTake this from the paperstudents can use them to stand out from their peers []students would need support in helping them optimise the badges (e.g. employability)What else did we find?Badges would act as a motivator would push students to go beyond the minimumwould support both individualistic and competitive goal structures

Students would use them when applying for jobs or further studyHelped to recall their development and the skills that they had developedstaff would use them when writing references

Carpet Badging by Kyle Bowen.CC-BY-SA

Common criticisms (and how we addressed them afterwards)"Childish"plan and design them to be meaningful

"Hard to design without skills"simple, free tools available

"Lack of consistency in use"set a policy about the requirements for a badgeChildish - only if used in a surface wayNo design skills (important that badges looked professional) - tools available to easily create consistent and striking designsToo easy to create/distribute badges - shouldn't be handed out like sweets! [It could ruin the reputation of the institution??] 'Consistency' [or lack thereof]Credibility with third parties, i.e. employers- not recognising what they are or the value of them [get them involved i.e. dual accreditation]Security (students can share or create their own) - everything is signed and tamperproofSome more criticisms"Not credible with, for example, employers"involve employers in the design of badges

"I get it, but my students/lecturers won't"didn't appear true through the interviews

"This could become another assessment route"ideally it should reflect what is already happening

Swiss Army Badge by Kyle Bowen.CC-BY-SA

Potential usesShowing competency in a skill, e.g. nursing students taking blood samples

Recognising extra-curricular activitye.g. a music student participating in an orchestra,

Representing co-curricular developmente.g. participation in Students' Union or Student Council activities

Take from paper and blogs More potential usesIdentifying common themes in a programmee.g. showing all modules that develop debating skills

Validating informal learninge.g. certifying a specific standard has been met

Enabling students to differentiate themselvese.g. highlighting specialisms within a programme

Indiana Jones and the lost badge by Kyle Bowen.CC-BY-SA

Getting startedImage creationOpenBadges.me (http://openbadges.me)Online Badge Maker (http://www.onlinebadgemaker.com/)

Badge creation and issuingbadg.us (http://badg.us)

All-in-one systemCredly (http://credly.com)

Still getting startedEducational platforms introducing badgesMoodle (from 2.6)Blackboard (from latest Service Pack)Mahara PebblePadWordpressetc.

Central, common 'backpack' (https://backpack.openbadges.org)

Lord of the Badges? by Kyle Bowen.CC-BY-SA

Can be desirable and motivating, but hopefully not used for evil and won't corrupt learners :-)Contact UsDr. Ian Gloveremail - i.glover@shu.ac.uk blog - http://blogs.shu.ac.uk/telteam

Farzana Latifemail - f.latif@city.ac.uk twitter - @farzanalatif