Presentation at the 2016 Aurora Badges Summit; discussion of the 2012-2014 Design Principles Documentation project, 2014-2016 Open Badges in Higher Education project, Where Badges Appear to Work Better, and the future of open digital badges
HMCS Vancouver Pre-Deployment Brief - May 2024 (Web Version).pptx
Badges in Higher Ed: Research Findings, Secret Sauce, and The Future
1. Badges in Higher Ed:
Research Findings, Secret Sauce, &
The Future
James E. Willis, III, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Center for Research on Learning and Technology
School of Education
Indiana University - Bloomington
6. The Design Principles Documentation (DPD) Project
Associationist: building and
strengthening specific associations =
badges as recognition of very specific
competencies
Constructivist: rationalize new
information, smaller “higher-order”
competencies (problem-solving, critical
thinking) = badges as project-based,
inquiry-oriented learning
Sociocultural: knowing and learning are
situated in social, cultural, and
technological contexts = badges as
crowdsourced recognition,
transformative assessment, social
motivation
Hybrid: not clearly marked as any of
the above, but incorporate multiple
elements
Grand Theories of Learning
7. DPD General Practices and Principles
• Badges appear to have worked better…
– When they present unique information and evidence.
– Where educational content already exists.
-- In some places
than others.
8. DPD General Practices and Principles
• Badges appear to have worked better…
– Where expectations for assessment of individual
skills and competencies were modest and
manageable.
– Where learning, recognition, and assessment was
primarily social.
– When awarded for completion of workshops,
courses, or projects, rather than specific skills or
competencies.
9. DPD Specific Practices and Principles
• Badges appear to have worked better…
–When used to map learning levels and pathways.
–When aligned to internal and/or external
standards as appropriate.
–When communities of peer endorsers and
networks of expert endorsers were already
established.
–When any external endorsements are based on
existing institutional relationships.
10. DPD Specific Practices and Principles,
cont’d
• Badges appear to have worked better…
– As informal, evidence-rich credentials that speak
for themselves rather than formal credentials
whose value is rooted in conventional
accreditation systems.
– When they can be endorsed by multiple
stakeholders and/or after they are issued, based
on the evidence contained in the badge.
– When used to recognize diverse types of
learning.
11. DPD Specific Practices and Principles,
cont’d
• Badges appear to have worked better…
– When used to externally communicate learning.
– When effort is invested at maintaining the web-
enabled evidence they contain and/or whether
that evidence should expire after a specified time.
– When awarded to both teachers and students.
– When not offered for formal course credit.
– When used to help learners discover
opportunities to learn.
12. DPD Specific Practices and Principles,
cont’d
• Badges appear to have worked better…
–When used to help programs discover
learners.
–When leveled assessment practices are
carefully designed and based on successful
examples.
–When computer-based and expert assessment
systems are carefully designed and based on
successful examples.
13. DPD Specific Practices and Principles,
cont’d
• Badges appear to have worked better…
– When the badges were layered into an existing well-
designed eportfolio system that streamlined creation,
curation, and assessment.
– When badges and formative assessments are
designed in a way to ensure the feedback is both
useful and used to support learning.
– When any student involvement in the design of
assessment practices is done carefully and judiciously.
19. OBHE: Distilling findings in Higher Ed
Key Accomplishments (2014 – 2016)
Worked on team to issue the first open
badge in Open eddy platform (2014)
Hosted first International Badges Day
(2015)
Hosted bi-weekly Badges in
Higher Education call (2015-2016)
20. OBHE: Distilling findings in Higher Ed
Key Accomplishments
31 postings ……. 41,074 reads
One posting had 16,895 reads
Publication Stats:
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (2)
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters (3)
Papers (3)
Conference Proceedings (3)
Presentations (22)
Interviews (4)
Consults (2014-2016)
166 Consultations
• 122 different organizations
Finland, Ireland, Germany, Austria,
United Kingdom, Australia, United
Arab Emirates, Kenya, Canada, and
all over the United States
21. An Emerging Trend: Badges + ______?
Badges + Learning Management Systems
Badges + ePortfolios
Badges + Professional Development
Badges + Faculty Development
Badges + Validity
Badges + Privacy & Ethics
22. An Emerging Trend: Badges + ePortfolios
Badges: Next Step
Interested, but
waiting to see how
badges pan out
Badges Already
23. An Emerging Trend: Badges + Faculty Development
Pathways
Gold / Silver / Bronze: can compromise some meaning to outsiders
Timeline: particular programs with clear chronology or Year 1 / Year 2
Reasoning and rationale to valuable faculty time
Evidence
Generally all existing initiatives linked to Teaching & Learning Center
workshops
Some badges stopped there
Others required evidence in form of reflections or blogs
Very few looked at in-classroom practice
Few articulate why a badge is helpful beyond learning
Ecosystems
Most systems rewarded engagement in existing initiatives
Few explicitly state that badges could be used for tenure / promotion
Few provided clear pathways for learning
Few provided rationale for why time should be spent on badges
24. An Emerging Trend: Badges + Privacy and Ethics
When educational data persists, and can be linked to other individual data sources,
what are the possible outcomes?
What obligations do institutions have to protect, retract, or alter learning artifacts in
the near and far future?
What are practices to help students learn how to control their own learning
artifacts?
When evidentiary narratives form regarding a student’s ability, and then become
public, can students come to hold false beliefs about their own capabilities?
http://www.idselpaso.com/
When learning evidence is linked between other
technologies and badges, do new ethical questions
regarding student privacy emerge?
25. The Secret Sauce
In a phrase: Build Compelling Evidence
Claim of learning / accomplishment Evidence to support
claim
Think Big, Start Small, Work Fast
Don’t compete with formal credentials; rather, think about informal
learning
At all stages, think: Why should earner care about this badge?
Why should someone viewing the badge care?
Pathways, Stack-ability, Portability
26. Possible Future(s) for Badges
Networked systems to locate individuals based on learning evidence
will change job recruitment
OBI fields are meta-data: searchable, mineable, predictive (?)
LD will allow greater mining, team assembly
Short term: Badges will function as a type of learning currency
Long term: Badges may function as the artifact learning evidence
Registrars: governance and digital repositories
Badges will drive educational reforms like Competency-Based
Education
Missing: difference between technê (procedural knowledge) &
epistêmê (understanding why)
