Presenter: Inger-Marie Falgren Christensen Organisation: University of Southern Denmark Description: The gap between educational institutions and students is widening. Many institutions maintain traditional methods and adopt new at a slow pace. Some educators and developers are looking to gamification to bridge the gap. This workshop will help participants’ explore the potential of badges in education. An introduction to badges and the purposes of using these in education will be provided. Ways of integrating badges into courses will be explained. Furthermore, the process of designing and issuing badges in Blackboard Learn will be demonstrated. Participants will get the opportunity to discuss how badges can be integrated in their context, share examples and design badges for their own students.

1. Using badges to motivate
and engage students
Pernille Stenkil Hansen and Inger-Marie F. Christensen,
University of Southern Denmark

2. Welcome
• Let’s get to know each other
• Kick-off poll
2
Image from colourbox.com

3. Agenda
09.30 Welcome
09.45 What are badges and why use them in HE?
10.00 Ways of integrating badges into courses and study programmes
10.25 Showcase and discuss best practice
10.45 Break
11.00 Designing and issuing badges in Bb Learn
11.30 Design exercise: design your own badge and badge activity
11.50 Implementing badges:What potentials and challenges do you see?
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4. What are badges?
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5. 5
Open-Micro-Credentials by Prof. Dr. Ilona Buchem

6. Credentialing
”Another interesting aspect of badges is the potential
to signal finer-grained skills, knowledge or
dispositions”.
”Rather than guessing a person’s skills from a single
credential, stakeholders can gather a nuanced picture
of a person’s skills through a collection of smaller
smaller credentials”.
(Ahn et al. 2014)
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7. Open badges are…
• Free and open
• Transferable
• Stackable
• Evidence-based
Open badges make it easy to:
• Get/give recognition for the things you learn/teach
• Verify skills and display your verified badges across the web
(https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges)
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8. Digital badges in HE –
3 perspectives
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Badges as
credential
Badges as
motivator
Badges as a
pedagogical
tool

9. Why use badges in HE?
”An inherent assumption from the gamification
perspective is that an external indicator, such as a badge,
can act as a motivator to encourage individuals to
participate, act or pursue tasks”
“In systems where badges are visible to the learner they
can serve as a way to visualize the learning path of
content and activities.”
(Ahn et al. 2014)
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10. Ways of integrating badges into courses and
study programmes
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• Main purpose: motivation and engagement
• Awarding badges
– as a pass – signposting main learning path
– for the acquisition of study skills and academic skills
• signposting important “general” skills
– that acknowledge level of performance
• bronze, silver, gold
– for extra credit:
• platinum badge for submitting all assignments and/or doing extra work
– for extracurricular work – acknowledging informal learning
• NOTE: avoid side-tracking students from main learning goals by
offering badges for efforts that lead in another/irrelevant
direction

11. Teaching for Tomorrow: Module badges
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12. Exit survey on the Teaching for Tomorrow course
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• Link to electronic questionnaire sent via e-mail
• Exit survey sent to 54 participants (initially enrolled)
• 50 % completed the survey fully = 27 participants
• 11 % gave some answers = 6 participants

13. Badges awarded
• Module 1: 44
• Module 2: 36
• Module 3: 30
• Module 4: 28
• Module 5: 24
• Module 6: 23

14. To what degree did you experience the badge assignments as a
suitable way of assessing your learning?
14
• All (27 informants)
• Completed (14)
• Intend to complete (10)
Low/somewhat low
degree = 11 %
High or some
degree = 63 %

15. To what degree did the badge assignments help you reflect
on your learning?
15
• All (27 informants)
• Completed (14)
• Intend to complete (10)
Low/somewhat low
degree = 22 %
High or some
degree = 63 %

16. To what degree did receiving a badge motivate you to
complete the modules of the course?
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• All (27 informants)
• Completed (14)
• Intend to complete (10)
Low/somewhat low
degree = 30 %
High or some
degree = 59 %

17. Accreditation of informal learning
• Badges received on the MOOC Open education offered by
Open University, UK
• Signposting most significant activities
• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges
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18. Carpe Diem MOOC
• Offered by Gilly Salmon, Swinbourne University ofTechnology
• CourseSites badges
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19. Let’s talk about badges in HE
• Enroll in CourseSites course
• Go to CourseSites: http://bit.ly/badgesBBTLC2016
• Password: badge2016
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20. Showcase and discuss best practice
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1. Turn to your neighbour(s): Share and discuss best practice of
using badges to motivate and engage students (10 minutes)
2. Go to CourseSites>BadgeAssignment>Badge 1: Showcase and
discuss best practice
3. Individual work: Upload a short description
of your examples in the blog
(10 minutes)

21. 21
Time for
a break…

22. Designing and issuing badges
• Designing badges
• The Badge ecosystem
• Open badge anatomy
• Setting up badges in Bb Learn
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23. 23

24. A badge is more than a picture…..
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Open Badges Anatomy (Undated) by Kyle Brown
CC-BY-SA

25. An example of a design
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26. Where to start? Develop a concept
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27. Setting up badges in Bb Learn
1. Set up the badge activity
– assignment, quiz, blog, column in Grade Center, text/video for review
2. Create folder for certificate(s)
3. Go to CourseTools / Achievements to create badge and
trigger(s)
4. Provide students with clear instructions
5. Students engage with the activity
6. The badge is released automatically or after teacher has
graded/given feedback
7. Badges can be published to Mozilla Open Backpack
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28. 1. Set up the badge activity
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29. 2. Set up certificate folder
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30. Certificates
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31. 3. Create badge and trigger(s)
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32. Select achievement type
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33. Name the achievement
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• Choose folder for certificate
• Decide: visible to students before receiving?
• Type in description: Badge awarded for… /
learning goals achieved!

34. Define triggers – set up one or more
rules/criteria
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Attempt activity = badge released
Badge released according to
score achieved
Badge released when student has reviewed item

35. Select reward – create badge
• Type in issuer
• Set expiration date if required
• Choose image from catalogue or
• Browse to upload own image
• Decide: Publish to Mozilla?
• Save and exit
• You have created your first badge
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36. Design exercise: Design your own badge and
badge activity
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1. Individual work: design your own badge and badge
activity (10 minutes) – use the template provided.
– In what context would you use badges?
– What do students need to do to earn the badge (criteria and
activity)?
– How can you create a relevant visual identity – badge image?
2. Go to CourseSites>Badge Assignment>Badge 2:
Design your own badge and badge activity.
3. Individual work: take a picture of your
completed template and upload it to the blog
(5 minutes).

37. Implementing badges: What potentials and
challenges do you see?
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1. In groups, discuss the implementation of badges: What
potentials and challenges do you see?
(10 minutes)
2. Go to CourseSites>BadgeAssignment>Badge 3: Implementing
badges –
discuss potentials and challenges
3. Individual work: Upload a summary
of your discussion in the blog
(5 minutes)

38. Evaluation of today’s workshop
• Exit poll
• Questions
• Thank you for
participating
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39. References
• Abramovich, S. (2016). Understanding digital badges in higher education
through assessment. In: On the Horizon,Vol. 24 Iss 1 pp. 126 - 131
• Ahn, J.; Pellicone,A. and Butler, B. S. (2014). Open badges for education: what
are the implications at the intersection of open systems and badging? In:
Research in LearningTechnology.Vol. 22.
• Hurst, E. J. (2015). Digital Badges: Beyond Learning Incentives. Journal of
Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 12:3, 182-189.
• MacArthur Foundation (undated). Badges for lifelong learning.
https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/BADGESFORLIFELONGLEARN
ING_INFO.PDF (accessed March 29, 2016)
• Grant, S. L. (2014). What Counts As Learning: Open Digital Badges for New
Opportunities. Irvine, CA: Digital Media and Learning Research Hub.
Hub. http://dmlhub.net/wp-
content/uploads/files/WhatCountsAsLearning_Grant.pdf (accessed March 23,
2016)39