1.
Stinking Badges: Why We Need
Em’ and How to Use Em’
Rudy McDaniel, Joseph Fanfarelli, and Kelvin Thompson
Information Fluency Conference
University of Central Florida
February 27, 2014

2.
Outline
•
•
•
•
Overview
Four Quick Case Studies of Badging Projects
Toward a Badge Design Taxonomy
Discussion / Q&A
• Note: these slides can be downloaded from:
http://goo.gl/ezz3DV or
http://tinyurl.com/badgesrock

3.
Achievements and Badges
• Achievements, or earned tokens of
accomplishment, often encourage players to spend more
time within digital systems (esp. videogames) and to alter
their playing habits in order to unlock particular types of
challenges (e.g., find every coin in a given area or unlock a
particular puzzle within a certain amount of time).
• Badges, or visible markers of achievement, have now
made the transition from entertainment media to other
forms of scholarship and pedagogy, particularly in online
learning environments (Jindal, 2011; Bruckman, 2004;
Lindgren & McDaniel, 2011; Lindgren, McDaniel, &
Friskics, 2011).

4.
Badge graphics courtesy of Matthew Dunn

5.
Badges Are Not New
Video Games
Military
Girl Scouts

6.
How Do Badges Work?
• Badge = Task-reward system.
– Task - Can present a task to
complete.
– Reward – Can also serve as a reward
for completing the task.
• Rewards for completing goals can
be
– Internal to the system (e.g. Points).
– External to the system (e.g. Free or
discounted “stuff”).
– The badge, itself.

7.
Badges Are Gaining Widespread Attention
• A few familiar names that are actively taking part in
badging:
urdue

8.
What Makes Them So Interesting?
• Badges can serve as:
–
–
–
–
–
Goal setters
Motivators
Inspiration to Explore
Creativity Boosters
Progress Trackers
• Connect Badge Criteria to Course Objectives
• Expected vs. Unexpected Badges
– Foster different goals.
– Expected may help in achieving a specific purpose, while
Unexpected may hurt the purpose (and vice versa).

9.
Implications for Education
• Motivate students to do their best work.
– Or additional work.
• Help students set goals for clearer routes to
success.
• More precisely and creatively track progress, in
comparison to the final grade in a course.
• Encourage students to implement creative
thinking to discover unexpected achievements.
• We will now discuss some of our
implementations.

10.
Dumb(?) Things I’ve Done with Badges
•
•
•
•
Badges seen only by recipient
Badges not easily shareable
Badges as “back-handed compliments”
Badges for required activities

11.
CASE STUDY #1:
BLENDKIT2012

12.
BlendKit2012
Subject
Type
Blended learning
Professional Development
Level
Size
Badge Source
Badge Platform
Focus
1230 enrolled
Graphic designer
Developer + Mozilla Framework
Competencies
Grades/Badges
Badges only
List/Easter Eggs
Badge list
Viewable By
Status
Self
Complete

13.
CASE STUDY #2: EME5050

14.
EME5050
Subject
Ed Tech
Type
Academic
Level
Grad
Size
15-25
Badge Source
Badge Platform
Focus
Purdue Passport
Credly
2nd level Competencies
Grades/Badges
Grades + Badges
List/Easter Eggs
Easter Eggs
Viewable By
Status
Class
3rd Iteration Underway

15.
CASE STUDY #3: AEM

16.
Course Structure
• 30 different modules to
choose from at 10 different
points in the semester.
• A back story involving a media
mogul recruiting new
students (the “dream job”
scenario) is released via four
different animations
throughout the course.

17.
Example Module Selection

18.
Assessment Approach
• Implementation of course technology and
curriculum with ~100 students in Fall 2010
and ~200 students in Fall 2011 was
successful
• Badges were added in Fall 2011 version of
the course

19.
Sample Badge

20.
Comparing Badges

21.
Assessing the Effects of Badges
• Several components of assessment including
student project analysis, focus groups, and
comparisons to other courses
• Focus here is on engagement and learning
surveys that asked specifically about the badges
• 206 students completed at least one survey
• 127 completed both pre- and post-surveys

22.
Student Surveys
To what extent did you believe that having the ability to choose which module to
take throughout the course was a positive feature that helped you to learn?
Extremely
Positive
Mostly
Positive
Somewhat
Positive
Not at all
Positive
I found myself working harder on assignments/projects in order to acquire
achievements.
Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Strongly Agree
In the last 8 weeks, how often have you discussed ideas from this course outside of
class?
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
• Some questions adapted from the 2010 NSSE

23.
General Attitudes

24.
General Attitudes

25.
Attitudes - Badges
Felt Achievement System Had
Positive Impact on Course
Motivated by Other Students
Receiving Achievements
7 = Strongly Agree
7 = Strongly Agree
7
7
6
6
5
5
4
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
0
0
Males
Females
Males
Females

26.
Attitudes - Badges
Variable 1
Felt Achievement System
Was Positive (1 to 7)
Worked Harder To Receive
Achievements
(1 to 7)
Worked Harder To Receive
Achievements
(1 to 7)
Seeing Others Get
Achievements Was
Motivating (1 to 7)
Pearson
Correlation (r)
Significance
(p)
Discussed Ideas Outside of
Class (1 to 7)
.175
.040*
Commented On Other
Students’ Work (1 to 7)
.217
.010*
Amount Of Time Spent
Collaborating With Other
Students
.242
.004**
Total Number Hours Spend On
Course Per Week
.158
.064
Variable 2
• Post-Survey: Positive feelings about badge system was
correlated with other positive feelings in the course

27.
Assessment Summary
• Importance of “framing” the achievement system at the
outset
• Interesting gender patterns – suggests badge systems may
be a productive means of targeting female learners

28.
Case Study #4: Two Current UCF Courses
• 1 Semester, 158 Undergraduates
• 2 courses: Graphic Design (99 students) and Web
Design (59 students).
– 2 sections of each.
» 1 section of each has badges.
» 1 section of each does not.
Graphic
Design 1
Graphic
Design 2
Web Design Web Design
1
2
Badges
Yes
No
Yes
No
Students
49
50
30
29

29.
Current Courses: Background
• Courses are meant to prepare students for the
Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) Exam in the
related software.
– Web Design = Dreamweaver
– Graphic Design = Photoshop
• Completely web-based 16 week courses.
• Balanced emphasis on Quizzes / Exams and
Project-based assignments.

30.
Current Courses: Badges
• Badges are:
– Unexpected - No list of possible badges can be
found by students.
– Private – Students cannot see the badges others
have earned.
– Both Objective and Subjective.
• Objective – Named all layers within a Photoshop
project.
• Subjective – Helped a classmate succeed
– Awarded both automatically and by the instructor.

31.
Method of Award
• Checkbox in gradebook for each badge
simplifies the process

32.
Viewing Badges
• Badges can be found from the course
menu, like other important course
information.

33.
Viewing Badges
• Click a badge to see how it was earned

34.
Current Courses: The Goals
• Improve:
– Motivation
– Engagement
– Academic Performance
• Identify:
– Can number of achievements earned be used to
predict grades in a certification preparation
course?

35.
Badging Observations
• Each stakeholder determines value
o Issuer, Earner, “Observer,” (Displayer)
• Potential value in each phase of badging:
o
Underlying data/record
o
Notification email
o
Claiming (“Save and Share”)
o
Making public
o
Linking to specific badges

36.
Unanswered Questions to Ponder
• Why do badges appeal to some but not
others?
• Does badging really engage the unengaged?
• What is the right balance of automation and
personal attention for course badging?
• What is the relationship between badges
and formal credentials?
• What is the right balance of curricular and
co-curricular badging at an institution?

37.
Toward a Taxonomy for Badge Design
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Subject (e.g., information literacy; educational tech; interdisciplinary; etc.)
Type (e.g., academic; professional development; etc.)
Level (e.g., undergraduate, graduate; etc.)
Tiers (e.g., single tier; multiple difficulty tiers; three cumulative tiers; etc.)
Issued By (e.g., single issuer/multiple; instructor; organization; etc.)
Scale (e.g., course-level; discipline-specific; institution-wide; public; etc.)
Population Size (i.e., to whom badges are available; e.g., 1230; 35; 217; etc.)
Badge Image Source (e.g., graphic designer; badge making template; etc.)
Platform (e.g., Purdue Passport; Credly; etc.)
Focus (e.g., core competencies; off-topic diversion/fun; secondary competencies; etc.)
Grades/Badges (e.g., badges only; badges = grades; grades & badges separate; etc.)
Fixed/Extensible (e.g., defined list of badges; new badges suggested/added on the fly; etc.)
Expected/Unexpected (e.g., published list (“a priori”); discovered Easter eggs; etc.)
Visibility (e.g., issuer; earner; bounded group (“class”); public; etc.)
Status (e.g., complete; interrupted; underway; planning; etc.)
Version 1.1

38.
Thank You!
• Rudy McDaniel,
rudy@ucf.edu,
@rutang5
• Joey Fanfarelli,
joseph.fanfarelli
@ucf.edu
• Kelvin Thompson,
kelvin@ucf.edu,
@kthompso
Badge graphics courtesy of Matthew Dunn