A new teaching and learning initiative is making a name for itself at the University of British Columbia. Open badges are being used as digital reward systems at UBC, and have been implemented in three pilot projects to encourage student engagement. At the CTLT Spring Institute, Liaison Librarian and Flexible Learning Coordinator, Erin Fields, described open badges as a digital symbol that, “signifies evidence of accomplishments, gain[ed] skills, or participation in an experience.” Open badges hold micro-credentials, allowing the individual who is receiving it to obtain recognition of a skill that might not otherwise be recognized from an experience or course. These badges can be hosted on digital platforms that act as a backpack or resume, tracking and hosting accomplishments and gained skills. Additionally, people who earn badges can choose what badges they want to display and to whom they want to display them to.
So why badges? For many, badges are often associated with Girl Guides or Boy Scouts. “You probably remember wearing a sash with all the badges you earned. It was exciting when you earned them,” mentioned Erin. The idea behind implementing this reward system in the classroom is so that students will be motivated to engage with course content, and will be rewarded by earning a badge.
So how can open badges be used in a post-secondary institution, such as UBC? Is it really possible to establish a credible and useful badging system that will enhance teaching initiatives and student learning? What do the badges entail? How are they authorized? How far will they go?
Erin was joined by three colleagues to talk about the open badges pilot projects at UBC: David Vogt from the Master of Education Technology (MET) program, Jon Festinger from the Peter A. Allard School of Law, and Cindy Underhill from the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT). The three pilot projects all represent unique uses of badges, implemented to generate further data on how it can positively impact student learning and engagement in a course.
David, an instructor in the Master of Education Technology program, spoke about how he is using open badges in his course, ETEC 565. He started piloting the use of open badges in order to figure out if he could “use badges to get deeper levels of engagement and allow for a higher level of academic accountability.” With the MET program being taught completely online, David mentioned that badges are a great fit. He explained how many of the program’s students are working professionals from all over the world. The online platform has allowed students to complete the program while still working and taking care of their families.
For David’s course, open badges act as a motivator and encourage student engagement in the coursework. Students can track their accomplishments and gained skills with the badges they have earned. “It has been implemented in an informal fashion, to reward students for participation, peer review, and completing activities,” explained David. When discussing the use of open badges, and how students feel about the badging system, David mentioned that “the response from the students has been positive…It is phenomenal and exciting how it has engaged the students, who were eager to earn badges when completing activities.”
David raised an interesting point about how open badges can affect the post-secondary institution. He suggested that badges can be a powerful tool to support the credibility of earning a degree at UBC, and can possibly make students more employable when they are done their program.
Cindy, Strategist, Learning Resource Design at CTLT, discussed the use of open badges on the Digital Tattoo website. The Digital Tattoo is an open educational resource designed to encourage users to think about their online presence and online identity. “It is a resource for students, created by students,” mentioned Cindy. As a student generated resource, it is fostering peer-to-peer learning, outside of the classroom. The Digital Tattoo website is unique in that it doesn’t just involve UBC students; it is open to the general public and anyone can contribute content and participate in discussions. “We don’t have a cohort of students,” mentioned Cindy. “Whoever comes on whatever day, that is our group.”
Similar to the MET program, the Digital Tattoo uses open badges as an incentive to encourage students to engage with the content. Cindy mentioned that open badges were used on the Digital Tattoo website as a way for “increasing comments [and] content development.” The goal of the badging system on the Digital Tattoo website is to, “support decision making in regards to digital identity themes,” noted Cindy. She explained that the learning process has two pathways: a badge earner (a member of the UBC community who logs into the website with their Campus-Wide Login (CWL)) and a non-badge earner (someone who doesn’t use a CWL). For badge earners, earned badges become a map of their learning path to show how they navigated through the material. At the present moment, Cindy noted that badges are only issued to users who have a CWL, as the badging system is integrated with the CWL. This has proven to be a major barrier. As an open educational resource, the Digital Tattoo needs to be accessible to the general public. Cindy mentioned that the Digital Tattoo team is looking into how they can make the badging system open to everyone, not just those with a CWL.
Jon Festinger is the instructor for Video Game Law, and similar to David and Cindy, Jon piloted the use of open badges in his course in an effort to encourage more student engagement. “This course is about engagement, so it was a natural fit with badges,” mentioned Jon. In Video Game Law, badges drive engagement and motivate students by rewarding those who post content and comment on the material. Jon mentioned that he saw a large increase in the amount of comments that were posted on the website after he implemented badging as part of his course. “Students commented a lot more…and they were good comments,” noted Jon.
Although Jon exuded positivity and excitement about the badging system, he did raise some concerns about the competitive nature of badging. To address this, Jon acknowledged that he has not implemented badging scores or leaderboards in the course. He explained that the badges are only visible to the students who have earned them. “We don’t want students to compare themselves to others,” mentioned Jon. By keeping the earned badges private, it remains low pressure, optional, and a lot of fun.
Jon noted that many of the students who take the course are avid video game players. As a result, they are used to reward systems such as badges. “They are used to badging or achievement systems and suddenly they experience that in a pedagogical environment and it’s familiar,” explained Jon. “Badges make it fun and make it engaging.”
Jon has seen positive results after implementing a badging system in his course, but he did express concerns about how it affects building student collaboration skills. “In the real world, success is about collaboration and thinking in groups, in multidisciplinary and diverse ways, and badging tends to be very individualistic,” noted Jon. As the University moves forward with this teaching and learning initiative, it is important to think about how to capture collaboration with badges.
With these concerns in mind, Erin was quick to point out that “the three pilot projects are raising more questions than can be answered at this point.” Open badges appear to be a potentially powerful tool that can help encourage more engagement with course content, but how far can they go? “It really is early days…I believe there needs to be more testing with badges,” explained Erin. “We need more badges to be tested across departments. This year we are looking for 20 new spaces to pilot badges.” As open badges continue to develop, the potential they carry is significant and can positively change the landscape of teaching and learning in higher education.
This article was published in the July 2015 CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues. Below is a list of articles included in the issue:
- Register Today for the 2015 CTLT Summer Institute
- Applying Principles of Learning to Teaching – With or Without Technology
- 5 High Impact Teaching Practices
- Flexible Learning in Nursing
- Open Badges UBC – Pioneering Badge-Based Learning Pathways (currently viewing)
