Listen to session audio: http://bit.ly/audio_fdla2013 Slidecast of invited spotlight session at Florida Distance Learning Association 2013 Annual Conference

1. Badges = Engagement + Data
Exploring the Potential of Badging
Kelvin Thompson, Ed.D
University of Central Florida
#FDLAconf13
@kthompso
#badgify
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

2. A BADGING STORY IN 8 TWEETS

12. WHAT ARE BADGES?

13. Badges Are…
“visual representations of 21st century skills and
achievements”
- Open Badges Initiative of the Mozilla Foundation
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/About

14. Badges Are…
“a validated indicator of
accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that
can be earned in [diverse] learning
environments”
- Macarthur Foundation on behalf of Digital Media + Learning
Digital Badges for Life Competition
http://www.macfound.org/media/files/BadgesforLifelongLearning_Info.pdf

15. WHAT CAN I READ?

16. http://bit.ly/CT_badges

17. http://bit.ly/7things_badges

18. WHO IS BADGING?

19. https://play.rit.edu

20. http://bit.ly/shu_badges

21. http://bit.ly/eli_badges

22. Badging Platforms
HOW CAN I BADGE?

23. http://openbadges.org

24. http://bit.ly/purdue_badges

25. https://credly.com

26. Badging = Engagement + Data
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

27. Student Engagement
…two critical features…
The first is the amount of time and effort students
put into their studies and other educationally
purposeful activities. The second is how the
institution deploys its resources and organizes the
curriculum and other learning opportunities to get
students to participate in activities that decades of
research studies show are linked to student learning.
National Survey of Student
Engagement web site
http://nsse.iub.edu
http://bit.ly/QrbLuF

28. Student Engagement
… such activities as student-faculty
interaction, peer-to-peer collaboration, and
active learning…
Chen, Gonyea, and Kuh (2008)
http://bit.ly/MyZZv1

29. Badging = Engagement + Data
DATA

30. BADGING = ENGAGEMENT + DATA

31. An Institution-Scale Pilot
CASE STUDY: UCF’S INFO LIT MODS

32. UCF’s InfoLitMods
Subject
Information Literacy
Type
Academic-supporting
Level
Undergrad & grad
Size
Institutional scale
Badge Source
Graphic designer
Badge Platform
UCF Middleware + Credly
Focus
Competencies
Grades/Badges
Badges… (but)
List/Easter Eggs
Badge list
Viewable By
Status
Self or Public
Underway

33. http://infolit.ucf.edu

35. InfoLitMods Year One (2008-2009)
• 13,840 assessment completions by
• 4,433 students in
• 422 course sections taught or led by
• 94 faculty members who created
• 430 instances of
• 4 information literacy modules with an
•
average score of
85.30% across all modules' summative
assessments.

36. InfoLitMods Year Four (2011-2012)
• 38,423 assessment completions by
• 8,082 students in
• 159 unique courses taught or led by
• 160 faculty members who created
• 1275 instances of
• 13 information literacy modules with an
•
average score of
85.19% across all modules' summative
assessments.

37. How Does It Work?
Structure of Pilot Project

39. http://credly.com

45. Support
CDL Developers

46. So How’s It Going?
Initial Findings (as of 9/3/2013)

47. Initial Data
4082 - assessments that should have delivered a badge
4062 - badges sent via institutional email addresses
2154 - individual students who’ve earned badges
14 - students earning badges from non-assigned mods
4 (1 student) - Number of badges claimed via Credly

48. Badging @ UCF Next Steps
• InfoLitMods
– Earners driven by assignment (currently)
– Watching for student-driven uptick later
– Troubleshoot module-to-middleware process
• Phase II: “Gold Seal” Badges for FacDev
• Beyond: Multiple conversations re: badging

49. BADGING = ENGAGEMENT + DATA

50. CASE STUDY: BLENDKIT2012

51. BlendKit2012
Subject
Type
Blended learning
Professional Development
Level
Size
Badge Source
Badge Platform
Focus
1230 enrolled
Graphic designer
Developer + Mozilla Framework
Competencies
Grades/Badges
Badges only
List/Easter Eggs
Badge list
Viewable By
Status
Self
Complete

53. BlendKit2011
• Open readings, document templates, how-tos
+
• Five weeks of facilitation:
– Weekly encouraging messages
– Weekly 30 min. webinars featuring guest blended
learning instructors & discussion with others
– Weekly reading/activity reflection prompts for
blogging (more interaction with others).
– Social networking opportunities for more interaction
• Participants choose with which of these to engage!

54. BlendKit2012 Modifications
• an LMS-based communications hub for registered
participants
• three participant roles for registrants:
1) completer, 2) participant, and 3) auditor
• online badges for completion of course activities
• certificates for successful completers of
BlendKit2012
• new guest faculty for weekly webinars
• additional faculty case study audio interviews

61. BlendKit2012 Badges  Data
• Participants may be engaging with materials in
isolation
• Badges based upon evidence
• Individual engagement more evident
• Example
Reading Reaction on public blog (fewer) v. entry on
Reading Reaction Form (more)
Paragraphs of personal reflection made evident!

62. BlendKit Next Steps
• Build upon successes (yes, we had some!)
• Use UCF middleware + Credly
• Consider streamlining/automating without
sacrificing rich qualitative data
• Integrate with LMS (Instructure Canvas)
grade book

63. BADGING = ENGAGEMENT + DATA

64. CASE STUDY: EME5050

65. EME5050
Subject
Ed Tech
Type
Academic
Level
Grad
Size
25
Badge Source
Badge Platform
Focus
Purdue Passport
Credly
2nd level Competencies
Grades/Badges
Grades + Badges
List/Easter Eggs
Easter Eggs
Viewable By
Status
Class
2nd Iteration Underway

67. Full Text at: http://bit.ly/badge_intro

72. EME5050 Next Steps
•
•
•
•
Evaluate current design/modify
Maintain student notifications
Maintain badge leaderboard
Consider re-making more attractive
badges
• Study perceived value-add for students

73. BADGING = ENGAGEMENT + DATA

74. Badging Lessons Learned
Clear criteria (announced or not)
Visible evidence
Verification
Badge

75. Badging Observations
• Each stakeholder determines value
o Issuer, Earner, “Observer,” (Displayer)
• Potential value in each phase of badging:
o
Underlying data/record
o
Notification email
o
Claiming (“Save and Share”)
o
Making public
o
Linking to specific badges

76. Unanswered Questions to Ponder
• Why do badges appeal to some but not
others?
• Does badging really engage the unengaged?
• What is the right balance of automation and
personal attention for course badging?
• What is the relationship between badges and
formal credentials?
• What is the right balance of curricular and cocurricular badging at an institution?

77. Questions/Comments

78. Contact
Dr. Kelvin Thompson
kelvin@ucf.edu
@kthompso
http://bit.ly/kelvin_info
http://bit.ly/fdla13slides_thompson