Preview ahead of the Open edX Conference, 18 Nov. 2014

Open edX extension to use digital badges in a MOOC

Lorena A. BarbaMechanical and Aerospace Engineering George Washington University

Twitter: @LorenaABarba

Michael AmigotIBL Studios Education, NYCInnovative Blended Learning

Twitter: @Amigot

is set of slides was prepared to be viewed / read as a document, not to complement an oral presentation. It presents a sneak preview of the new Open edX extension component (XBlock), currently under development, to award digital badges for completed modules within a MOOC in the Open edX platform.

(c)2014 Lorena Barba, Michael Amigot. Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 license

Pedagogical motivation

‣Unbundling of the course:

MOOCs have often reproduced online the constraints of on-campus learning, with regards to both structure and timing. Courses last 10 or 12 weeks, for example, and graded assignments are due at fixed deadlines within that duration.

But online course followers are not traditional students: in their majority, they already hold a degree. Many MOOC takers have full-time jobs or may be enrolled in a for-credit program, and they often don’t have time to dedicate 8 to 10 hours every week, for 10 weeks. So they “drop out” of the courses when they can’t keep up.

Some “on demand” courses exist, but still only full completion results in a recognition of achievement (certificate).

“Practical Numerical Methods with Python”

‣ a.k.a. #numericalmooc

An independent MOOC on numerical computing for engineers.

e course is divided into Modules each requiring 2–3 weeks of dedication, or a total of 12 to 18 hours of work.

Module graded assessments have no deadline—>self-paced

Instead of awarding one Certificate of Completion for the whole course, we want to award digital badges for the completion of each individual module.

‣ Course platform:

Self-hosted & branded Open edX: http://openedx.seas.gwu.edu/

Awarding badges in Open edX—Conceptual design

‣ Associate badge to a specific graded sub-section in the course.

‣Offer students the option to “Claim your badge” via a new unit in the learning sequence.

‣ Create an advanced component that executes a check of the score to determine eligibility for the badge and that communicates securely with a remote badge provider

‣ Student can enter links to evidence of learning (e.g., her GitHub repo for course) via a form in the Xblock component.

‣ If the student’s score is passing, the badge is issued, becoming visible on the student’s Dashboard.

Graded sub-section

Unit with graded problems

Unit with new XBlock component

Usage—Enabling the advanced component

‣ Add XBlock module ‘iblbadges’ via the Advanced Settings

Usage—Embed the XBlock in the unit

‣ via the Advanced component block

Advanced component

Usage—Embed the XBlock in the unit

‣ Choose ‘iblbadges’ from the list of Advanced components

Usage—Edit the XBlock

‣ Click “Edit” to edit the new component and enter the Badge ID, Provider, a short badge description and passing score.

Usage—Select badges provider

‣On first release, the XBlock is enabled via API with the provider Achievery. In future, other badge providers may be added.

Badge hosted with the provider—Achievery

Badge hosted with the provider—Achievery

‣Note your Badge ID Badge ID

Usage—Input Badge ID & description and Save.

Badge is fetched from the provider’s server and embedded in the unit.

Usage—LMS view for students

Earner can enter requested information, including links to evidence of learning

Pending—as of November 17, 2014

‣ Add an account/password field in the XBlock edit options, for the instructor to enter her credentials to the badge provider.

‣ Automatically check the score from the Open edX gradebook to determine eligibility.

‣ Improve design and make it pretty.