The Center for Scholarly Technology http://cst.usc.edu/
cst@usc.edu
Digital Badge Platforms
1. What Is It?
Digital badges are similar to traditional badges in that they are earned and awarded for completing specific activities and achievements. But unlike traditional badges, digital badges are virtual and so are collected, managed, and hosted online. These badges may stay on the site where they were originally earned or may be exported to other online repositories, such as Mozilla Backpack, for sharing and other badge management functions.
Badging platforms are generally cloud-based systems where individuals or institutions can go to create digital badges that will be issued to participants once they complete the
requirements. These platforms include tools to manage users, create and issue badges, add badge metadata, and track badges. The features available will vary depending on the platform used.
Many badging systems now embrace the Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI), which provides a standard framework for coding the metadata into the badge itself. Badging solutions can range from a stand-alone website such as Credly, where the main function of the site is to create and issue badges, to a plugin that is added to an existing website or LMS to simply pass data back to a badging platform.
Although badging platforms are rapidly changing, Mozilla Open Badges is beginning to emerge as the standard framework for documenting and distributing badges. Their OBI framework for tagging badges with metadata includes the badge issuer, criteria to earn the badge, and evidence that the badge was earned. Badging systems such as Credly and BadgeOS have adopted the OBI standard for badge creation and have added additional features for badges. Many badging systems allow earned badges to be exported (You’ve already mentioned Mozilla Backpack).
The badging platforms examined by our team included the main platforms used during the fall of 2013. A few smaller K-12 based systems were not included in this list. The platforms in this report include:
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Achievery•
Badge Forge•
BadgeOS (WordPress plugin)•
Basno•
Blackboard at USC•
CourseSites (Blackboard free site)•
ClassBadges•
Credly•
Openbadges.me•
Sash2. Who’s Using It and How?
Our research indicates that a number of organizations, educational providers, and
communities such as NASA, Purdue University, Penn State, the United States Air Force, and the City of Chicago, are already using digital badges to reward and recognize a variety of skills and achievements. A quick survey of issuing agencies reviewed for this paper indicated that overall, these tools may be more popular in the K-12 environments, the United States Military, and non-profit organizations than in universities. Major research universities that are actually issuing badges and certificates of completion are, for the most part, “piloting” their use
Abstract:
• What are digital badges • Badging platforms
• Current use of badging platforms • Potential challenges
• Badges for teaching and learning Contact:
Center for Scholarly Technology Jamie Putorti-Sandheinirich email: putorti@usc.edu
Case Study: Digital Badges at JEP
The Joint Educational Project (JEP) at the University of Southern California is one of the oldest and largest service-learning programs in the country. Established in 1972, JEP partners with approximately 100 courses every semester to place over 1,000 students in local schools, non-profit organizations, and hospitals. The JEP staff identifies and coordinates service-learning assignments, develops complementary curricula, grades students’ weekly reflective essays, and provides a summary of each student’s performance to instructors at the end of the semester.
Service-learning helps students to develop disciplinary knowledge as well as a range of “soft” skills and abilities, such as critical thinking, civic engagement, and leadership. While these skills are often touted as the heart of the program pedagogy and what defines it as a high-impact practice in higher education, rarely do service-learning students receive credit for these supplemental or informal outcomes. This is particularly the case with JEP students, since most faculty offer participation in JEP as an extra credit option or in lieu of another course assignment.
JEP is interested in exploring digital badges as a way to recognize these otherwise
unacknowledged outcomes of the program. The informal nature of badges—as well as their frequent use in informal learning contexts—make them particularly appealing as a way to identify and reward learning that takes place outside of
within programs and departments but not at the institutional level. It remains to be seen if university resources will be committed to launching institution-wide badging programs after the completion of these pilots. Considerations before moving to a larger badge program may include both student and faculty adoption rates as well as the perceived value of badges and other support-related issues.
3. Why Do We Think It Is Significant?
Universities and colleges are exploring the use of badges for awarding non-academic credit. Conferences, professional organizations, trainers, and even some accreditation agencies are also beginning to use badges to recognize activities and achievements. Some examples of non-academic badges include badges for completing a marathon, conference, workshop, or training session in leadership.
At this point, many of these initiatives are at the pilot level. However, as more organizations begin exploring digital badging and start to clarify their requirements, more platforms will emerge in response to market needs. These new badging platforms will lay the foundation for a new way of earning, managing, and sharing achievements and credentials.
4. How Does it Work?
An individual or institution decides to issue a badge and creates an account on the badging platform. Depending upon the platform selected, a badge is created on or uploaded to the badging site. Upon completion of the requirements, badge earners are “awarded” the badge. This is typically done through an email notification. Badge earners can log in to the badge site to “claim” their badge.
5. What Are Its Potential Challenges?
Experts agree that it is too early to determine the impact of digital badges on other certification mechanisms that are already in place. While we see the potential of the digital badge to augment the current degree-centered, higher education system, there are variables and uncertainties, which need to be clarified for badges to take their place as a recognized proof-of-competency or achievement.
As it stands now, any person or organization can create and award badges. On some platforms, it may be hard to determine if the organization awarding the badge is truthfully representing itself. It would be possible for anyone to create “university badges” to distribute for any reason. However, some badging platforms are now providing a “Certified” issuer feature as proof that they are the institution they claim to be.
Some sites that issue badges based on the OBI standard list the requirements for earning badges and also include how they verify that these requirements were met for badge completion. However, there is not yet an organization that monitors these standards or guarantees that the requirements were met. Additionally, it might be hard to compare the value of a badge for community service from one organization to the next. Yet, requiring all issuers of badges to meet an official badging standard may discourage adoption.
The inability to export badges might hinder the growth of badging at an institution. Students might not see the value in earning a badge that cannot easily be displayed or taken with them. To help with badge adoption, badge earners should have the ability to fully manage their badges, including how they are exported and displayed. Badges would also work well as part of an ePortoflio ecosystem, which would include tools for users to continuously update and
the classroom. Badges can make JEP’s learning objectives more transparent as well as establish clear pathways for students to achieve those objectives. A digital badge system further provides the opportunity for service-learning students to develop competencies outside of the traditional academic calendar and at their own pace. Students could pursue a badge in Community-Based Research, for example, over the course of several semesters and service-learning assignments. In addition, the social networking features of many digital badge platforms provide helpful ways to connect JEP students who typically have little opportunity to learn from one another, given the nature of the program as a voluntary and supplemental course activity.
A fully developed digital badge system could build on JEP’s peer education model, allowing students who have “leveled up” the opportunity to suggest and design badges as well as to nominate other students to receive them. Digital badges have the potential to address some of the limitations imposed by JEP’s programmatic structure while capitalizing on many of its strengths.
Despite this optimism, digital badges and the platforms that host them raise some concerns. Will badges inhibit creativity or serve primarily to turn student learning and experience into commodities? Will student privacy be protected by external providers? How will issuers address concerns about the credibility, validity, and reliability of badges? Perhaps most
fundamentally, will students care? These are just a few of the many issues that will need to be sorted out in the coming years as digital badges gain more traction in higher education
Related Links:
Achievery: http://www.achievery.com
Badge Forge: http://www.badgeforge.com
BadgeOS: http://badgeos.org
Basno: http://basno.com
Blackboard: http://www.blackboard.com
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Privacy issues will need to be addressed, such as those concerning students who are earning badges that are kept on a system outside of the university.•
Badges may not be thought of as a serious credential and thus may only be useful for extra-curricular activities.•
Potential employers may be interested in seeing students earn badges for skill sets that universities are not awarding badges for.•
Whether students will be interested in earning badges.6. What Are Its Implications for Teaching and Learning?
In the literature there is no general consensus as to the impact of badges on post-secondary education. There is a growing trend among colleges and universities to offer badges in conjunction with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and distance education. Badges are an essential part of many MOOCs. However, badges are also being used in campus classrooms in the form of game-based learning, as well as for demonstrating some level of competency in certain areas and subjects. Although some of the literature notes that badges have a general function, there are no standardized classifications for skills and activities. One implication for teaching and learning is assessment. Some scholars note that badges acquired at an institution would attest to the students’ proficiency or mastery of a subject. For non-traditional students, badges could provide a place where situational credit, such as running your own business, counts toward a badge in entrepreneurship. Yet, to date, a universal standard to assess proficiency does not exist.
Pilot programs continue to be launched to determine the impact of badges on teaching and learning. One area that is being examined is a badge for teaching information literacy. The University of Arizona, University of Central Florida, and Purdue University are currently working on pilot programs to study this area. These results may lead us to a better understanding of the impact of badges on higher education.
7. Where Is It Going?
Digital badging platforms will continue to grow if more businesses and educational institutions invest in badging programs. While small niche players may remain viable for the next few years, they may face competition from larger companies who will enter this market. It is also likely that we will see the integration of badging features into larger existing online platforms such as Blackboard. For higher education, badging platforms that use the OBI standard may be the preferred choice, as these platforms provide a way to show that the user has met the criteria required to earn the badge. Platforms used by higher education should consider allowing the badge earner to export the badges earned.
The question as to the use of badges is a different one. While higher education continues to explore the use of badges for alternative credentialing and as a way to encourage student participation, employers may be more interested in achievement-based badges that indicate specific competencies or skill sets of prospective, current, and future employees.
Sash: http://www.everfi.com/badging/
Research Team:
Alex Fairman, IT Coordinator, Joint Educational Project, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences
Susan Harris, Associate Director for Research & Academic Affairs, Joint Educational Project, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Tomo Isoyama, Manager, New Media and Emerging Technologies, Information Technology Services
Carl Kuzmich, Instructional Designer, Center for Scholarly Technology, Information Technology Services
Jamie Putorti-Sandheinrich, Senior Technology Analyst, Information Technology Services Chimene Tucker, Communication & Journalism & LGBT Studies Librarian, USC Libraries
This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Addendum: Product Comparison
Basic Overview Is Hosting Available? Custom Branding Allowed? Export of Badges to Mozilla Backpack?
Tools for Creation of Customized Badges?
Achievery Achievery is a free
Open Badges compliant site for creating and issuing badges. Participants must log in to the website to view their badges. Links to badges earned can be emailed to participants directly through the site.
It is hosted, but the platform is limited and provides a place to create badges or store and export badges.
No customization on the site.
Yes. Badges can be exported to Mozilla Backpack, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Yes. Furthermore, the tools are intuitive and easy to use.
Badge Forge This is a badge
creation tool that allows you to export the badges you create to your Mozilla Backpack. The tool is currently in beta.
It is hosted but the platform is limited and provides a place to create badges or store them. No customization on the site. Badges can be hosted on the site or exported to Mozilla Backpack.
The site has simple tools for badge creation and allows you to create OBI badges. The workflow/templates can be a confusing.
BadgeOS
(WordPress plugin) BadgeOS is a custom plug-in for WordPress developed by Learning Times. BadgeOS allows administrators to create badges, set conditions for earning them, and select display options. It works with other WordPress badge plugins such as BadgeStack and BuddyPress.
BadgeOS is a plugin for any WordPress site. Unique installations of WordPress can be hosted on any website. Yes. WordPress sites can be customized to include unique landing and login pages, customized user profiles, and other features through the addition of other plugins.
Yes. The plug-in allows for the sharing of Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI) compliant badges to the Badge Backpack.
Yes. Badges can be fully customized, including custom images, descriptions, point totals, expiration, and more.
Basno The Basno is a
badging platform for organizations that need a simple-to-use, hosted badge platform. Many badges on this platform are for recreational achievements.
Yes. This is a free (beta) hosted platform that provides a place to create, issue, and store earned badges.
No. The site is simply for badge creation and storage. It is not appropriate for a portal or landing page. Badges can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Yes. Users can create a badge or have someone else create a badge for a fee.
Blackboard (USC integrated)
Blackboard is a major LMS platform that has numerous modules available, including badging.
Blackboard is available as a fully hosted SAAS site or it can be self-managed on premise.
Yes. Yes. However, the USC instance is not yet configured to offer this option.
Note: We believe the information in this table is accurate as of November, 2013. Bear in mind that software functions are constantly evolving, with features being dropped or added in subsequent versions.
same features as the Blackboard LMS.
course.
Credly Credly is an online
web-based service that allows users to create, issue, and receive digital badges. The service is free to use for any user, but they also offer a premium paid account where users can verify badges issued by their organization.
Credly is a hosted web service, and cannot be installed on other web servers.
No. There is no customization for the landing page or portal on the Credly website.
Yes. This site is specifically designed to issue badges that are fully OBI compliant and can be exported and shared via the Mozilla Badge Backpack.
Yes. The user can create digital badges on the site. However customization options are limited to the templates given.
Sash Sash is based on the
Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI) and was created by EverFi, an education company that teaches technical skills to both K-12 and higher education students. It can be integrated into other platforms by using Node.js Javascript.
No. You would need to host it yourself.
Yes. It is open-source.
Yes. The badging platform follows the meta-data format established by the Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure and supports the issuer’s API.
Yes.
Mozilla Open Badges Mozilla Open Badges is not so much a platform but an open standard for the creation of badge content. Any OBI formatted badges can be hosted on the Mozilla Backpack site.
Mozilla Open Badges can be hosted on the Mozilla Backpack site. Other hosting is currently not available. Website customization is not available on the Mozilla site.
Yes. Not currently.
Openbadges.me Openbadges.me is a
free simple online badge-creation tool. Badges are created on the site and then downloaded.
Badge creation only, no hosting of content.
No customization. No hosting of content. Badges can be uploaded to Mozilla Backpack.
The badge creation software is easy to use and intuitive. Export of the created badge is simple.
