Presentation given at the 2016 Midwest conference of the Association for Authentic, Experiential, & Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) at the University of Notre Dame

1. Ethics, ePortfolios, and Badges:
Envisaging Privacy and Digital
Persistence in Student-Level
Learning Evidence
James E. Willis, III, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Center for Research on Learning and Technology
School of Education
Indiana University - Bloomington
Joshua Quick
Graduate Research Assistant
Center for Research on Learning and Technology
School of Education
Indiana University - Bloomington

2. • Can provide additional useful information
– Specific claims and detailed evidence
– Context in which content was created
– Standardize the inclusion of additional information without cluttering
eportfolios
• May simplify the process of defining competencies
• May offload summative credentialing functions
– Allows more formative and transformative functions
• Can connect eportfolio content to competencies and grades
– Learners stack badge URLs in maps or gradebook
• Can increase value of portfolio content by circulating
independently

3. Badges and ePortfolios:
Some Connections
• Granular learning data persisting as educational
evidence:
– Mineable
– Findable
– Usable
For and against students?
https://www.linkedin.com/topic/ethics

4. Publicly-Accessible Learning Evidence and Data
• Efforts to digitalize and catalogue learning
artifacts
• Complexities of privacy, ethics, and evidence
• Importance of discussion
– Everyone thinks of ‘ethics’ differently
– Multitude of voices to unearth values, latencies, and
competing agendas

5. 1. When educational data persists, and can
be linked to other individual data sources,
what are the possible outcomes?
Example: An earner decides to remove a cluster of digital data,
including badges from a social media site and data from an
eportfolio, but finds that copies of the data exist on issuers’
websites. The earner cannot make the data disappear.
Source: Willis, III, J. E., Strunk, V. A., & Hardtner, T. L. (2016). Microcredentials and educational technology: A proposed ethical taxonomy. EDUCAUSE
Review. Retrieved from: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/4/microcredentials-and-educational-technology-a-proposed-ethical-taxonomy
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/cios-need-to-re-brand-themselves-as-drivers-of-digital-
innovation-says-eys-david-nichols/

6. 2. What obligations do institutions have to
protect, retract, or alter learning artifacts in
the near and far future?
Example: A student embeds open digital badges in her eportfolio,
but doesn’t realize the badge is only valid for one year. After a
year, the microcredential is revoked and displays an ‘invalid’
message. A potential employer, carefully examining the
eportfolio, discovers the invalid badge and decides not to hire the
student.
Source: Willis, III, J. E., Strunk, V. A., & Hardtner, T. L. (2016). Microcredentials and educational technology: A proposed ethical taxonomy. EDUCAUSE
Review. Retrieved from: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/4/microcredentials-and-educational-technology-a-proposed-ethical-taxonomy
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/achieving-digital-state-mind-greg-morgan-

7. 3. What are practices to help students learn
how to control their own learning artifacts?
Source: Willis, III, J. E., Strunk, V. A., & Hardtner, T. L. (2016). Microcredentials and educational technology: A proposed ethical taxonomy. EDUCAUSE
Review. Retrieved from: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/4/microcredentials-and-educational-technology-a-proposed-ethical-taxonomy
Example question: At what point does the expectation
of privacy give way to publicly verifiable evidence?
http://www.simplicant.com/blog/digital-recruitment-strategy-tips/

8. 4. When evidentiary narratives form
regarding a student’s ability, and then
become public, can students come to hold
false beliefs about their own capabilities?
Example: A student receives positive feedback in his social media for his
badges and an employer hires him for the evidence contained in his
university eportfolio (i.e. an expertise). This surprises the student,
however, because the public recognition of his skills differ widely from
his own self-perception.
http://e15initiative.org/themes/digital-economy/

9. 5. When learning evidence is linked
between eportfolios and badges, do new
ethical questions regarding student privacy
emerge?
Example: A new data-crawler algorithm carefully examines learning
evidence contained in a student’s eportfolio and linked badges. This
algorithm pinpoints three deficiencies in the student’s overall educational
understanding. Ads with specific suggestions of educational content (to
make up for the identified deficiencies) begin appearing in various websites
the student sees.
http://www.idselpaso.com/

10. Summing Up
Importance of ethical discourse
Thinking about the future, measuring the
past
Intersection of our learning and educational
technologies will create new questions

11. Thank you!
James E. Willis, III, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Center for Research on Learning and
Technology
School of Education
Indiana University - Bloomington
Joshua Quick
Doctoral Student
Center for Research on Learning and
Technology
School of Education
Indiana University - Bloomington
@Willis3James