Leadership in Educational Entrepreneurship through Badges (166273326)

7/29/2019 Leadership in Educational Entrepreneurship through Badges (166273326)

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Leadership in Educational

Entrepreneurship through Badges!presented by

Dennis ViehlandMassey University

for

2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference

18 April 2013



Leadership through Badges2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference

About the Presenter"• Dennis Viehland• Associate Professor, Information Systems• Massey University Auckland, New Zealand

• E-mail: [email protected]

In a previous career, Dennis was a Senior Planning Analyst inthe CIO Office at the University of Arizona and a regular

participant in CAUSE conferences in 1985-1990.Both careers focus on how emerging technologies can be

successfully deployed in higher education (then) and inbusiness (now).




Presentation Outline"• What is a digital badge?

• Why badges?

• Badge leaders, processes, and hierarchies

• Badge opportunities• New and proposed badge programs

• Open forum: Challenges, initial steps, role of institutional IT




What is a Badge?"• A badge has multiple uses

• Identification• Fashion accessory• Symbol of authority

• A badge is also a symbol of • Achievement• Learning• Competency• Membership

• Peer recognition




What is a Digital Badge?"• Physical badges have always been pinned, sewn,

worn, ironed or displayed.• What if badges were digital? Bits, not atoms.• A digital badge is an electronic version of a physical

badge, but with more capabilities:• Transportable• Embedded with information• Infinitely sharable• Authenticatable

• An electronic symbol of something learned, earnedor achieved.




Transportable

• The electronic nature of digital badges allow themto be transported – from issuer to earner toprospective employer.

• Digital badges provide:• Increased visibility of a person’s

education and skills portfolio• Proof of competency is no

longer hidden behind educationor corporate walls.

• A skills-and-competency

pathway with a record of certification.

- - - Dennis W. Viehland - - -

Degrees

Awards

Leadership

PHIS-NZ




Embedded with Information"• Imagine if a badge could speak -- Who? What?

When? Where? How?• A digital badge can be linked to / embedded with

metadata that describes the badge to the viewer.

A badge can only be taken seriouslyif it backs up its claim with evidence.

Name: Rocket Science 101 Awarded to: Katy HadalenDescription: understand basic physics of rocket launch and ascentCriteria: www.astronautacademy.org/badges/RocketScience101-AIssued: February 20, 2013

Issuer: Astronaut Academy (NASA, Cape Canaveral, Florida)Contact: [email protected]: www.astronautacademy.org/badges/1103245A




Infinitely Sharable"• Imagine a world in which people shared badges.• We already share

• Photos• Connections• Our status• Interests• Couches• Playlists• Tweets

Why not badges?




Authenticatable

• Authentication addresses questions such as:• Did this issuer issue this badge to this user on this date?• Is this badge still valid? Has it expired?

• Authentication is:• Essential for badges for formal education

• Preferred for badges for informaleducation

• Optional for most other badges

• Authentication of badges• Adds another level of complexity to

the badge process• Is “on development roadmap” for Mozilla’s OBI

Authen-ticatedbadges

Static badges

Badges withmetadata, but

not authenticated




Why Badges?"• In a world of MOOCs,

independent study andwork-based training,learners want recognition

for informal learning.• With badges, credit for

informal learning isavailable immediately,not months or years later.

Formal

Education

Informal

Education

Compulsory Voluntary

Curriculum-based Personalinterest

Teacher-directed Self-directed

Set times Anytime

Ages 5-22 All ages, lifelong

Classrooms Ubiquitous

Certificates,degrees

Digital badges

Source: adapted from http://seceij.net/seceij/summer11/friedman_sencer.html




Why Badges?"• Badge programs in K-12

and youth programsmean these learners willexpect badges when they

enter our universities.• Businesses are using

badges in gamification for customer engagement,employee training,

improving data quality, etc.

Partial List of Youth Badge Projects

at Digital Learning and Media

Conference 2013

• 4H Digital Badges for Robotics• Buzz Math• Disney-Pixar Wilderness Explorers• Earthworks Rising• MOUSE -- Youth Digital Leadership

• My Girl Scout Sash is an App• Supporter to Reporter (S2R)• Who Built America?• Youth Digital Filmmaker Badge Sys

Source: http://files.dmlhub.net/dml2013_long_program.pdf




Why Badges?"• The cost of a college

degree is rising, andlosing value.

• Employers increasingly

seek measures of skillsand competencies, notcredit hours.

Source of graphic: http://www.mybudget360.com/is-college-worth-it-money-and-debt-cost-of-college-and-student-loan-debt-for-profit-education/

The digital badge is the perfect credential for the

world of 21st century work.




Why Now?"• Web 2.0 has created a

sharing culture that willdrive badge programs.

• Open Badge Infrastructure

(OBI) launched in March.• OBI is being incorporated

into LMSs, including Moodle, in late 2013.http://www.totaralms.com/feature-a-benefits/open-badges

Badges will soon emerge as a major opportunity

for digital entrepreneurs – especially entrepreneurial universities.




How do Earners Benefit?"• Portability of their credentials

• Not a transcript locked in an administrative system• Not a piece of paper on their wall

• Visibility of their skills portfolio• Sharable with employers, friends, connections, and the

world• Potentially, a pathway to advanced credentialing

• Modules lead to full course credit• Junior - Senior - Master levels of achievement

• Immediate gratification• Badges are awarded quickly, certificates and degrees

take weeks, months or years.




How do Universities Benefit?"• Provide additional value to learners

• Badges offer numerous new opportunities

• For first-movers and best-movers, a competitiveadvantage and leadership

• Branding and marketing• Logo visibility in 10,000 Web pages!

Colleges and universities have centuries of experience in certifying learning in courses, majors,

and degrees. Why not badges?




How do Employers Benefit?"• Easier access to a wider range of employee

credentials.• Better than resumes, degrees, and references.

• Metadata = more detailed and reliable than resumes• Focus on competencies = more granular than courses• Links to issuer + third party certification = authenticated

• Employers can embed badge programs inemployee professional development.

Companies such as BigDoor help businesses use badges and other gamification strategies in marketing, professional development, etc.




Challenges for Digital Badges"• Credibility: Actual skills or superficial activities?

• How does the badge ecosystem deal with “badgecollectors” who never actually learn anything?

• How does the badge ecosystem deal with issuers whoissue badges that don’t represent underlying skills?

• Reliability: An accurate representation of skills?• Verifiability: Links to: Determine issuer? When

earned? Still valid?• Security: A sound, universal system to detect /

prevent fraudulent badges.Source: “Open Badges: Portable Credentials for Learning” by Bill Brandon in Learning

Solutions Magazine, January 28, 2013 (http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1094/)




Critical Success Factors for Badges"• The value and credibility of the badge depends on

the status of the issuer.

• There is a hierarchy of prestige in educational institutionsthat will translate directly into badge accreditation.

• Lower prestige schools will rush to badge accreditationand higher prestige schools probably will be laggards.

• The badge needs to carry with it the informationrequired to understand it and assess its value.

• The Mozilla Open Badges Infrastructure requiresmetadata to be attached to each badge to explain it.




Key Players in Digital Badges"

The Humanities, Arts, Science,and Technology AdvancedCollaboratory is producingresources for digital badges.

These foundations have supported

initiatives such as the OBI and theDML Conference.

Currently, Mozilla is best knownfor their Firefox browser.In the future, Mozilla wants to bebest known for the Open BadgesInfrastructure (OBI).

The Digital Media and Learning

Conference (DML) showcasestop initiatives in badges.




Open Badges Infrastructure

• The technical infrastructure to support digitalbadges

• An open standards framework• Key features:

• Metadata specification

for badges• A badge backpack for badge storage and display• APIs for portability and verification

• Created by Mozilla• Launched March 14, 2013 (beta since Sept 2011)• http://openbadges.org/




Open Badges Backpack

Badges are stored here;a badge library.

Badges are organized into groups here.These can be for the earner’s use or public display.




Badge Issuing Platforms

These companies assist schools, communitygroups, libraries, and others to set up badgeprograms.

BadgeStack offers consulting services for badgeprogram design and a platform for badge issuers.BadgeStack is OBI compliant, WordPress-ready, andsupported by Learning Times. Clients include the

University of Wisconsin-Stout, Longwood University,and the University of Southern California.




University Roles in the Digital Badge Process" All universities will issue badgesfor internal reward programs andcredentials, including transcripts.

Many universities will establishbadge backpacks for students and,entrepreneurially, for alumni.

Eventually all universities will

accept verifiable digital badges asentry qualifications for study.

Source: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges




Not all Issuers are Created Equal"

Collegesand

universities

Other learningorganizations for

professional development,certification, ESL, etc.

Organizations with badge programsfor achievement, interests, peer/

mentor recognition, etc. in sports,hobbies, and informal learning.

Because of their premier reputations, badges fromhigher education institutionswill be the most highlyvalued in the digitalbadge world.

This is an opportunity

we cannot ignore.

Currently, most badgeprograms are focusedhere, on non-univer-

sity education.

But attention willrapidly move

here.




Not all Badges are Created Equal"

Completebadges with

authentication

Badges with metadataand transportable, but

without authentication –some informal education

Static badges that are limited intransport and without metadata –

mostly for sports, hobbies, andparticipation

These top-of-the-pyramidbadges are exactly whatcolleges and universitiesare best situated to award.

This is an opportunity

we cannot ignore.




BadgeOpp: Reward Participation"Consumers understand the value of their informationand seek compensation by perks, rewards, discountsor badges.

Open2Study, a MOOC provider in Australia,awards incremental badges – bronze, silver,and gold – for participation and contribution.

Geekzone, a technology community in New Zealand givesincremental badges for posting in Geekzone forums.

The proposed Joint Educational Program at theUniversity of Southern California will give

incremental badges for participation.




BadgeOpp: Motivate Learners"• LaGuardia Community College

• Awards badges to students whosuccessfully complete workshopsin Adobe CS5 or MS Office.

• Students submit an artifact for each

of three levels to earn a master badge (far right in diagram).

Source: http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/Departments/ISMD/Badges/

• Motivation badges at Khan’s Academy:

Badges for Adobe CS5 (top)and Microsoft Office (bottom)

Source: http://www.khanacademy.org/badges




BadgeOpp: Credentials for Modular Learning"• Learners are seeking short, just-in-time, just-for-me

modules that fit an immediate learning need.• Modular learning requires reconsideration of course

structure and credentialing of learning.• A three-credit hour course becomes 4-6 modules.• Badges are provided at the completion of each module to

(a) recognise module achievement and(b) motivate continued learning.

• A proctored exam at the end offers high-margin profits.

What if it costs $100 to administer a proctored exam and the

learner paid $150. “That would be a huge positive for theconsumers of education, and it could pay the bills on the learningside.” • Salman Khan in MIT Technology Review




BadgeOpp: Credentials for Work Experience"Badges for Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans• Veterans register their

training and receive badges• Employers search the

database to find veterans

who match specifiedqualifications in their community.

Colleges and universities alreadygive limited credit for work experience….

Why not do so explicitly? With badges.




BadgeOpp: Access to Transcript"

Authenticatedtranscripts on

universityadministrative

system

Digital badge in backpack.• Offered to prospective

employers.• Click on badge to view

metadata.

• Click on links to accesstranscript and authenticate.

Name: Bachelors of BusinessStudies Awarded to: Fiona Wilma WilsonDescription: Major: InformationSystems; Minor: Computer ScienceCriteria: www.massey.ac.nz/badges/37852009Issued: 16 April 2012Issuer: Massey University

Contact: [email protected] Authentication: www.massey.ac.nz/badges/37852009

link todigitalbadge

Prospective employersreviewing online

resume, includingdigital badges.

Will transcriptdelivery be the lastpaper process to

go digital?

authenticationlink




BadgeOpp: Recognize Prior Learning"• In a world of verifiable badges, colleges and

universities will adapt to accept badges fromcreditable sources for prior learning assessment.

• Quid pro quo – those who award badges must

accept badges from suitable issuing agents.• An authenticated transcript from a high school,community college or overseas university is morecreditable and more efficient to manage than apiece of paper.




BadgeOpp: Host Badge Backpacks

• For internal access, ease-of-use, and control,most colleges and universities will decide to hostinstitutional badges in a badge backpack, perhapsas part of their learning management system.

• At graduation the badge backpack can bearchived, retained for access or…..

• Entrepreneurial universities may continue to host abackpack on a subscription basis for:• Students who want selective information (employment-

related badges) kept here.• Students who have few badges from other issuers.




SA&FS Badge Program at UC-Davis

• The Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systemsmajor at the Univ of Calif-Davis is using badges to:• Help students find and

represent learning experi-ences outside the University

• Help students build learner identities and communities

• Clarify learner goals and gaps

• The structure is being usednon-digitally in a pilot study; the digital badge and

portfolio system is being developed.Source: http://dmlcompetition.net/Competition/4/badges-projects.php?id=2872

Conceptual homepage for graduate of SA&SF program




Joint Educational Program at USC"Service-learning students in the Univ of SouthernCalifornia’s Joint Education Program will receiveparticipation badges integrated into the MyUSCportal and transportable to external Web sites.

Source: http://dmlcompetition.net/Competition/4/badges-projects.php?id=3249




CS2N at Carnegie Mellon University

• The Computer Science Student Network (CS2N)at Carnegie Mellon usesbadges to:• Motivate students• Help students define

pathways and goals• Indicate when they have

mastered concepts

• CS2N badges:• Are OBI compliant

• Comply with the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative

Source: http://www.cs2n.org/teachers/badges

A mapped pathway for learning includesone course and four artifacts completed.




Passport at Purdue University

Passport is a Purdue-sponsored open trial for badge-powered learning.• Instructors create groups, allow

students to sign in, set challenges andtasks, and award badges.

• Badges can be published in a Mozillabadge backpack.

• Currently in beta, a number of trials arein progress.

My Passport badges

in my badgebackpack (left) andmetadata (right).




Open Forum: Challenges for Universities"• Any college or university adopting a badge program

faces some serious challenges• Integration into current learning environment• Support faculty without increasing workload• Work within technological limitations

• Avoid overuse so awards do not assess true growth inlearning (“grade inflation” in badging)

• Any missing?• How to address?




Open Forum: Initial Steps for a Badge Program"• Initial steps for a digital badge program

• Begin with a pilot• Begin with non-credit: motivating course participation and

completion• Begin planning for a big win – transcripts in badges?

• For-credit badge programs may best begin in aauxiliary agency• A department of continuing education• A school for professional development




Open Forum: Role of Institutional IT"• Every EDUCAUSE CIO should:

• Track new initiatives in digital badges• Think about implications for his/her college or university.

• Badge technology is low tech, but• The data need protection – so security is an issue.

• A badge program is linked to external IT – Mozilla’s OpenBadge Infrastructure.

• Other thoughts?




Open Forum"• Questions?

• Comments

• More discussion?

Documents

Leadership in Educational Entrepreneurship through Badges (166273326)