Badges are a mechanism to award ‘micro-credits’ online. They are awarded by an organization for an individual user, and can be either internal to a website or online community, or use open standards and shared repositories.
In open online learning settings, badges are used to provide incentives for individuals to use our resources and to participate in discussion threads.
The IBM skills gateway is an example of how open badges can be leveraged to document professional development. EDUCAUSE microcredentialing program offers 108 digital badges in five categories (community service, expertise development, presentation and facilitation, leadership development, awards).
Open Badge Initiative and “Digital Badges for Lifelong Learning” became the theme of the fourth Digital Meaning & Learning competition, in which over 30 innovative badge systems and 10 research studies received over $5 million in funding between 2012 and 2013.
Standardization is the key to creating transferability and recognition across contexts
In 2018, the new Open Badges 2.0 standard was released under the stewardship of IMS Global Learning Consortium.
badges awarded for participation are valued less meaningful than skill-based badges. For skill-based badges, evidence of mastery must be associated with the badge along with the evaluation criteria. Having a clear purpose, ensuring transferability, and specifying learning objectives were noted by the interviewees as the top priorities when implementing badge offerings in higher education contexts.
Sheryl Grant is a senior researcher on user experience at OpenWorks Group, a company that focuses on supporting educational web applications and mobile tools, including credentialing services. Prior to her current position, Dr. Grant was Director of Alternative Credentialing and Badge Research at HASTAC. She was part of the team that organized the ‘Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition’.
advice o offer for the design and implementation of digital badges. She stressed that badge systems need to be designed in a participatory manner together with the target audience who is supposed to receive them. This will allow for fair, realistic and transparent criteria. Another crucial aspect is the assessment portion: Who will make verify that the badge credentials are issued correctly? While badges can offer additional motivation, they can also diminish motivation and create a ‘race to the bottom’ if they are obtained too easily. Specifically, Dr. Grant advised to use badges to reward exceptional activities, and acknowledge students who want to go above and beyond. She also gave guidelines on when to avoid issuing badges, i.e., activities that are already graded and activities that are required.
All current UNC badging pilots used the platform cred.ly for issuing badges. An alternative is the Mozilla Open Badge backpack follow-up Badgr. The European platform Badgecraft is another repository with a fairly broad user base. The badge wiki project offers a comprehensive list with implementation details for each platform: Badge Platforms (Badge Wiki). (23 platforms)
Designing Effective Digital Badges (https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Effective-Digital-Badges-Applications/dp/1138306134) is a hands-on guide to the principles, implementation, and assessment of digital badging systems. Informed by the fundamental concepts and research-based characteristics of effective badge design, this book uses real-world examples to convey the advantages and challenges of badging and showcases its application across a variety of contexts.
Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard University’s first and only female president
1) Do It For The Right Reasons.
As a history professor early in her career, Drew never envisioned crossing over to university administration, “what my faculty colleagues call the ‘dark side.’” She would raise her hand for leadership tasks not because she wanted to get noticed, but because she felt it was “good citizenship to serve others.”
2) Don’t Be Afraid To Take The Leap.
3) Define Yourself Publicly, Or Others Will Do It For You.
“If you don’t define yourself publicly, someone else will, and it will likely be according to stereotypes,”
4) Gender Is Always An Issue, But Don’t Let It Derail You.
5) Understand That True Leadership Happens In The “Grey Space.”
Being the head of an organization often involves picking between the best of two imperfect choices, forging a path without having all of the facts, or breaking a tie between two competing factions.
6) Spend Political Capital To Plow The Path For Authentic Diversity And Inclusion.
21st-century trends such as makerspaces, flipped learning, genius hour, gamification, and more.
EdLeader21, a national network of Battelle for Kids.has developed a toolkit to guide districts and independent schools in developing their own “portrait of a graduate” as a visioning exercise. In some communities, global citizenship rises to the top of the wish list of desired outcomes. Others emphasize entrepreneurship, civic engagement, or traits like persistence or self-management.
ISTE Standards for Students highlight digital citizenship and computational thinking as key skills that will enable students to thrive as empowered learners. The U.S. Department of Education describes a globally competent student as one who can investigate the world, weigh perspectives, communicate effectively with diverse audiences, and take action.
Frameworks provide mental models, but “don’t usually help educators know what to do differently,” argues technology leadership expert Scott McLeod in his latest book, Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning. He and co-author Julie Graber outline deliberate shifts that help teachers redesign traditional lessons to emphasize goals such as critical thinking, authenticity, and conceptual understanding.
1. Wondering how to teach and assess 21st-century competencies? The Buck Institute for Education offers a wide range of resources, including the book, PBL for 21st Century Success: Teaching Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity (Boss, 2013), and downloadable rubrics for each of the 4Cs.
2. For more strategies about harnessing technology for deeper learning,listen to the EdSurge podcast featuring edtech expert and author Scott McLeod.
3. Eager to see 21st-century learning in action? Getting Smart offers suggestions for using school visits as a springboard for professional learning, including a list of recommended sites. Bob Pearlman, a leader in 21st century learning, offers more recommendations.
We are exploring the very same topic. We have been using Credly for the past year or so to give badges to faculty who complete courses in a 3 course series we developed for effective online teaching.
That said, we are a Canvas school and, as we explore our own pilot program, are looking at Badgr’s badging solution (which is free to use, at least for Canvas, maybe all though?) as well as their Pathway’s solution for stacking badges and providing a view of that badge path for participants.
It’s is all very early stage but those are the two platforms and vendors we have focused our time currently.
the emphasis (strong side) is the streamlining of the different offices and activities on campus
levels of proficiency is very much geared toward undergrads
aspects of gamification, but no peer support credit/badge
U of Pittsburgh – OCC outside the class curriculum
Monclair U (NJ second largest):
U of Wyoming: after level 3, career coach does storytelling appointment.
pilot is $5K and institutional can vary between $10-15K
when I say show horse leadership I am not describing an arrogant leader patting themselves on the back for a moment of leadership. Instead, I am describing moments and events of leadership that we have the capacity to personally acknowledge as good leadership. Examples of this would be a situation where you help someone on your team overcome an obstacle or you go out of your way to care for those under your leadership. There is nothing wrong with show horse leadership, in fact, I think it is extremely beneficial to identify when you are doing good leadership so you can make that behavior a trend.
plow horse. To explain, these individuals don’t view him as a leader because he is leading a big initiative or he has a position of authority. They view him this way because of how he makes them feel. I had heard countless individuals explain how he approaches meeting and interactions and it aligns perfectly with Simon Sinek’s idea of a “circle of safety” in his book Leaders Eat Last.
A variety of skills, experiences,and perspectives are necessary,along with high levels of trust, open communication, emotional support, and mutual accountability—all of which arevery hard to establish and maintain. One differentiator of an exceptional team is a high level of curiosity where questions(not hidden criticisms) are prized.
#2: THE MYTH ABOUT FOCUS
stellar teams allocate their time in an unexpected way. They spend two-thirds of their time on thetask at hand (gettin’ ‘er done) and a full one-third on the “process” or relational aspect of the team’s functioning
#3: THE MYTH ABOUT CONFLICT
Exceptional teams see conflict as a resource, not something to be avoided.
Leaders need both the skill and the courage to deal with conflict on their team, as well as the understanding that everyone on the team needs to be involved in its resolution.
#4: THE MYTH ABOUT OPENNESS
the “ seduction of theleader ” syndrome frequently seen in higher education. Due to the “collegial” and polite nature of most campuses, people simply don’t feel comfortable providing honest feedback,especially if it is negative or critical.
Many people are reluctant to be honest, because it might hurt someone’s feelings.
People don’t want to “lose their seat at the table” and fear that they risk doing so if they are truly honest.
People realize that the leader really isn’t open to honest feedback, even as the leader professes to want it
#5: THE MYTH ABOUT SAMENESS
One of the pervasive team dynamics that every team leader needs to be aware of is
“comfortable cloning.”
This happens when we select people to be on our teams who have similar backgrounds to ours.
#6: THE MYTH ABOUT MOTIVATIONAL METAPHORS
One of the best ways to build a realteam is to have each team membershare their own metaphor for how theywould like the team to operate.
5 STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING A STELLAR TEAM
1. Make your team a learning team, by creating an internal article or book club.
2. Define the rules for decision making.
3. Create working agreements or“ground rules” for the functioning and support of the team.
4. Establish a mechanism for regular, anonymous evaluation of team meetings.
Amy Edmondson, The Fearless Organization, argues that fear is not a useful tool in a leader’s toolkit when it comes to managing interpersonal relationships in a workplace.
Psychological safety is the antidote to fear.psychological safety is not about being nice or lowering performance standards.