A digital badge is a credential ideally suited for the electronic, networked world of 21st-century work. This session ex...
Leadership in Educational Entrepreneurship through Badges! ! presented by
Dennis Viehland Massey University for
2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference 18 April 2013
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 in the 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 in business (now). Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Presentation Outline" •
What is a digital badge?
•
Why badges?
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Badge leaders, processes, and hierarchies
•
Badge opportunities
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New and proposed badge programs
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Open forum: Challenges, initial steps, role of institutional IT
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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, earned or achieved. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Transportable" The electronic nature of digital badges allow them to be transported – from issuer to earner to prospective employer. - - - Dennis W. Viehland - - • Digital badges provide: Degrees •
• •
•
Increased visibility of a person’s education and skills portfolio Proof of competency is no longer hidden behind education or corporate walls. A skills-and-competency pathway with a record of certification.
Awards
Leadership
PHIS-NZ
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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. •
Name: Rocket Science 101 Awarded to: Katy Hadalen Description: understand basic physics of rocket launch and ascent Criteria: www.astronautacademy.org/badges/RocketScience101-A Issued: February 20, 2013 Issuer: Astronaut Academy (NASA, Cape Canaveral, Florida) Contact:
[email protected] Verifiable: www.astronautacademy.org/badges/1103245A
A badge can only be taken seriously if it backs up its claim with evidence. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Infinitely Sharable" • •
Imagine a world in which people shared badges. We already share • • • • • • •
Photos Connections Our status Interests Couches Playlists Tweets
Why not badges? Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Authenticatable" •
Authentication addresses questions such as: • •
•
Authentication is: • • •
•
Did this issuer issue this badge to this user on this date? Is this badge still valid? Has it expired? Essential for badges for formal education AuthenPreferred for badges for informal ticated education badges Badges with Optional for most other badges
Authentication of badges • •
metadata, but not authenticated
Adds another level of complexity to Static badges the badge process Is “on development roadmap” for Mozilla’s OBI Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Why Badges?" In a world of MOOCs, independent study and work-based training, learners want recognition for informal learning. • With badges, credit for informal learning is available immediately, not months or years later. •
Formal Education
Informal Education
Compulsory
Voluntary
Curriculum-based
Personal interest
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
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Why Badges?" Badge programs in K-12 and youth programs mean these learners will expect 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
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Why Badges?" The cost of a college degree is rising, and losing value. • Employers increasingly seek measures of skills and competencies, not credit hours. •
The digital badge is the perfect credential for the world of 21st century work. Source of graphic: http://www.mybudget360.com/is-college-worth-it-money-and-debt-cost-of-collegeand-student-loan-debt-for-profit-education/ Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Why Now?" Web 2.0 has created a sharing culture that will drive 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. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
How do Earners Benefit?" •
Portability of their credentials • •
•
Visibility of their skills portfolio •
•
Sharable with employers, friends, connections, and the world
Potentially, a pathway to advanced credentialing • •
•
Not a transcript locked in an administrative system Not a piece of paper on their wall
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. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
How do Universities Benefit?" •
Provide additional value to learners •
Badges offer numerous new opportunities
For first-movers and best-movers, a competitive advantage 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?
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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 in employee professional development. Companies such as BigDoor help businesses use badges and other gamification strategies in marketing, professional development, etc. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Challenges for Digital Badges" •
Credibility: Actual skills or superficial activities? • •
How does the badge ecosystem deal with “badge collectors” who never actually learn anything? How does the badge ecosystem deal with issuers who issue 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/) Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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 institutions that will translate directly into badge accreditation. Lower prestige schools will rush to badge accreditation and higher prestige schools probably will be laggards.
The badge needs to carry with it the information required to understand it and assess its value. •
The Mozilla Open Badges Infrastructure requires metadata to be attached to each badge to explain it. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Key Players in Digital Badges"
Currently, Mozilla is best known for their Firefox browser. In the future, Mozilla wants to be best known for the Open Badges Infrastructure (OBI).
The Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory is producing resources for digital badges.
The Digital Media and Learning Conference (DML) showcases top initiatives in badges.
These foundations have supported initiatives such as the OBI and the DML Conference.
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Open Badges Infrastructure" The technical infrastructure to support digital badges • 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/ •
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Badge Issuing Platforms" These companies assist schools, community groups, libraries, and others to set up badge programs.
BadgeStack offers consulting services for badge program design and a platform for badge issuers. BadgeStack is OBI compliant, WordPress-ready, and supported by Learning Times. Clients include the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Longwood University, and the University of Southern California.
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
University Roles in the Digital Badge Process" All universities will issue badges for internal reward programs and credentials, including transcripts.
Many universities will establish badge backpacks for students and, entrepreneurially, for alumni.
Eventually all universities will accept verifiable digital badges as entry qualifications for study. Source: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Not all Issuers are Created Equal" Because of their premier reputations, badges from higher education institutions Colleges will be the most highly and valued in the digital universities badge world.
Currently, most badge Other learning programs are focused organizations for This is an opportunity here, on non-univerprofessional development, we cannot ignore. certification, ESL, etc. sity education. Organizations with badge programs for achievement, interests, peer/ mentor recognition, etc. in sports, hobbies, and informal learning.
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
But attention will rapidly move here.
Not all Badges are Created Equal" These top-of-the-pyramid badges are exactly what colleges and universities are best situated to award. This is an opportunity we cannot ignore.
Complete badges with authentication
Badges with metadata and transportable, but without authentication – some informal education
Static badges that are limited in transport and without metadata – mostly for sports, hobbies, and participation
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
BadgeOpp: Reward Participation" Consumers understand the value of their information and seek compensation by perks, rewards, discounts or badges. The proposed Joint Educational Program at the University of Southern California will give incremental badges for participation. Open2Study, a MOOC provider in Australia, awards incremental badges – bronze, silver, and gold – for participation and contribution. Geekzone, a technology community in New Zealand gives incremental badges for posting in Geekzone forums. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
BadgeOpp: Motivate Learners" •
LaGuardia Community College •
•
Awards badges to students who successfully complete workshops in 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/
•
Badges for Adobe CS5 (top) and Microsoft Office (bottom)
Motivation badges at Khan’s Academy: Source: http://www.khanacademy.org/badges Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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 the consumers of education, and it could pay the bills on the learning side.” • Salman Khan in MIT Technology Review Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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 specified qualifications in their community.
Colleges and universities already give limited credit for work experience…. Why not do so explicitly? With badges. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
BadgeOpp: Access to Transcript" link to digital badge
Prospective employers reviewing online resume, including digital badges.
Will transcript delivery be the last paper process to go digital?
Name: Bachelors of Business Studies Awarded to: Fiona Wilma Wilson Description: Major: Information Systems; Minor: Computer Science Criteria: www.massey.ac.nz/badges/ 37852009 Issued: 16 April 2012 Issuer: Massey University Contact:
[email protected] Authentication: www.massey.ac.nz/ badges/37852009
authentication link
Digital badge in backpack. • Offered to prospective employers. • Click on badge to view metadata. • Click on links to access transcript and authenticate.
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Authenticated transcripts on university administrative system
BadgeOpp: Recognize Prior Learning" In a world of verifiable badges, colleges and universities will adapt to accept badges from creditable 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 more creditable and more efficient to manage than a piece of paper. •
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
BadgeOpp: Host Badge Backpacks" For internal access, ease-of-use, and control, most colleges and universities will decide to host institutional badges in a badge backpack, perhaps as part of their learning management system. • At graduation the badge backpack can be archived, retained for access or….. • Entrepreneurial universities may continue to host a backpack on a subscription basis for: •
• •
Students who want selective information (employmentrelated badges) kept here. Students who have few badges from other issuers. Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
SA&FS Badge Program at UC-Davis" •
The Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems major at the Univ of Calif-Davis is using badges to: •
• •
•
Help students find and represent learning experiences outside the University Help students build learner identities and communities Clarify learner goals and gaps
Conceptual homepage for graduate of SA&SF program
The structure is being used non-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 Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Joint Educational Program at USC" Service-learning students in the Univ of Southern California’s Joint Education Program will receive participation badges integrated into the MyUSC portal and transportable to external Web sites.
Source: http://dmlcompetition.net/Competition/4/badges-projects.php?id=3249 Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
CS2N at Carnegie Mellon University" •
The Computer Science Student Network (CS2N) at Carnegie Mellon uses badges to: • • •
•
Motivate students Help students define pathways and goals Indicate when they have mastered concepts
CS2N badges: • •
A mapped pathway for learning includes one course and four artifacts completed.
Are OBI compliant Comply with the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative
Source: http://www.cs2n.org/teachers/badges Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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 and tasks, and award badges. Badges can be published in a Mozilla badge backpack. Currently in beta, a number of trials are in progress. My Passport badges in my badge backpack (left) and metadata (right). Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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 in learning (“grade inflation” in badging)
Any missing? How to address?
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
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 a auxiliary agency • •
A department of continuing education A school for professional development
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Open Forum: Role of Institutional IT" •
Every EDUCAUSE CIO should: • •
•
Badge technology is low tech, but • •
•
Track new initiatives in digital badges Think about implications for his/her college or university. The data need protection – so security is an issue. A badge program is linked to external IT – Mozilla’s Open Badge Infrastructure.
Other thoughts?
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
Open Forum" •
Questions?
•
Comments
•
More discussion?
Leadership through Badges 2013 Enterprise IT Leadership Conference
