Soms creëren we onbedoeld barrières voor potentiële studenten door de manier waarop we het onderwijs organiseren. Met opkomende technologieën hebben we echter de mogelijkheid om in plaats daarvan bruggen te slaan naar nieuwe leermogelijkheden. Open microcredentials, of open badges, zijn een potentiële kans om zulke nieuwe bruggen voor het leren te creëren. Rick West, associate professor aan de Brigham Young University in Utah (VS), werkt sinds 2012 aan het concept van educatieve badges. In deze presentatie laat hij je zien hoe open badges voor studenten meer flexibiliteit mogelijk maken in hoe, wanneer, wat en waarom ze leren. Daarvan zal hij een aantal goede voorbeelden laten zien. Tijdens zijn sabbatical begin 2019 was hij in Nederland en bezocht hij de pilotprojecten van het SURF edubadges-project. In deze sessie deelt hij ook de inzichten die hij hier heeft opgedaan en geeft aanbevelingen mee aan de Nederlandse instellingen.

1. Bridges & Pathways:
Supporting Flexible Learning Through
Open Credentials

2. A Little About Me
Associate Professor @ BYU
Instructional Psychology & Technology Dept.
My Research: 21st Century Higher Education
- How do we teach creativity?
- How do we develop relationships in online learning?
- How do we make education more learner-focused? (open credentials/badges)

3. What is changing
in education for
the 21st Century?

4. Lifelong learning is required.
The Economist, Jan 14, 2017

5. Dennis Callahan, Degreed

6. Competencies not Courses
e-Commerce business course competencies, Capella University

7. July 7, 2017 By Canada Study News

8. Experiences not Lectures

9. Learning is Open
Michelle Pacansky-Brock August 26, 2015

10. That’s a good thing.
Cameron Pipkin Jun 10, 2015
Students Are Taking Control

11. We need new credentials to
match 21st
Century learning

13. Comparing Credentials in Formal Education
• Degrees awarded after a long period of time
or a great deal of experience
• Learning from ONE institution.
• Transcripts have lots of information, but is it
useable?
• Credential detached from evidence and
criteria
• Learner doesn’t own the credential
BYU

15. Introducing Open Microcredentials!
Small, focused on skills/knowledge
Can be transferred across systems
Shareable on CVs/social media
Data rich!

16. • Open badges are digital images
embedded with rich metadata
• Badges tell a story about the:
• Issuer
• Learning objective
• Earner
• Not the same as a digital badge

19. Why?
Microcredentialing

20. Thought: Because they can
build bridges and pathways
cghealthcouncil.org

21. <1> Building Bridges
Nescio Bridge

22. What are common
barriers in education?

23. Single Parent
- Time
- Distance
- Sustained attention
Immigrant
- Language
- Culture
- Time
“Traditional”
student
- Time, job,
interests, goals

24. Why do we do education the way we do?
● Why does learning have to happen in a semester/term?
● Why does it have to all come from the same university?
● Why do you only get recognized for your learning at the
end?
● Why do universities own the data on your learning,
instead of the student?
● Why do faculty decide what students must learn? Can
students have more choice in the matter?

25. How could open credentials create
more bridges?

26. A Case Study: BYU-Pathway Worldwide
An effort to bridge the barriers of:
● Cost
● Access
● Relationships
● Lack of preparation and self confidence
Information provided by Troy Martin, Jacob Adams, and the
BYU-Pathway Team

27. Research
Undergrad/graduate
Location-based
Undergraduate
Online/in person
Experiential learning
Business College
Location-based
Practitioner focused
BYU-Hawaii
International Outreach “The hidden many”

30. Why?

31. My sabbatical 2019
Great opportunity to
study how you are
attempting to build
bridges …
And not just for
bicycles!

32. Exploring Design and Implementation Strategies for Open Badges
Richard E. West • Professional Development Leave 2019
I visited a lot of universities to see how
they planned to use badges

33. We then administered a survey to
students/faculty
And did interviews with
students/faculty

34. How could open credentials create more bridges in
the Netherlands?
● EduID allows students to float between institutions
● Collaboration across institutions can allow students to
waive courses
● International MOOC participants can take credit home
● Partnering with employers can increase buy-in

35. What do students/staff/faculty think? (survey)
A few caveats …
● Really small sample size (n=9 staff/faculty; n=5 students)
● Also interviews with students/faculty/staff
● Participants have not earned many badges … yet
But maybe we can still see a few patterns...

36. Insight 1: Badges can be motivating
“The opportunity of receiving a badge made me more motivated to do
well”
“expressing your individuality is something I really would like about, like,
show that you are unique”
“And I show a passion with my open badge, I think that would really help
the employer understand why they should hire you”
➔ Staff/faculty felt the badges were more useful than
students? Why? (Maybe because they seek promotion, not a job)

37. Insight 2: The end “consumer” is important
Edubadges would be a success if…
“It actually gave me an advantage over students without them”
“when a lot of organisations are involved and recognize the value of
the badges.”
How can we build bridges to this “end consumer” … the
employers and graduate programs?

38. Insight 3: Partnerships are important
The features people want the most are:
- Endorsements from employers/universities
- National or EU standards/credit alignment
- Expectations for earning the badge

39. Universities will play a critical role
Open Credentials
may open up
opportunities for
other partners…
But universities
can still serve as
leaders.

40. Insight 4: Badges have to be different
“we already learned the stuff we needed for receiving an
edubadge, so it was not useful”
“It was mandatory, … so it was an extra thing you had to do on top
off million other things.”
“If they would hold value, it could be cool. But now it is just a
badge, it does not seem that impressive/important.”

41. We need to use open creds to spark innovation
Open credentials
already do many new
things …
But we can’t stop there.
They need to be the
spark to real
pedagogical change.

42. Conclusion: Communication & Collaboration key
I saw many examples of innovative uses of open credentials here
in the Netherlands. The foundation is strong!
Strategies to grow more success:
● Communication to students/employers about open creds
● Collaboration among universities/employers to develop value
● Focus on the users … students! What will help them?

43. After creating the bridge…
… students need help finding the path.

44. <2> Open Credentials as Pathways
First … a lesson I learned...

45. The Paradox of Choice...
I found that too many choices
overwhelmed.
My role as a guide was still needed.
Learning Pathways was a solution.

48. Sounds familiar ...

49. A couple of examples...

50. 50
- Course prerequisite on
badging
- Extracurricular, but
credit-supported
- Focused on online portfolios
- Students earn badges as part
of developing portfolios

52. badge course Cert MS
36
12
3
1

53. Accelerating
this innovation:
What if
multiple
institutions
participated?

54. 54
What if your transcript
had career skills in
addition to academic
ones?

56. Pathways
Auto-issued
larger badges

57. Browse for
assessment
If you can
pass, great!
If not, there’s
training

58. • Over 19,000 credentials issued
• Credentials for users/customers of product
• Tied to online training
• 78% indicated they would participate again
• 83% believed it improved their skills
• 67% shared their credential online
• 93% acceptance rate New paper: Value of open badge microcredentials to
employees, customers, and the organization: A case
study. International Review of Research in Open and
Distributed Learning

59. • IBM Badges convert to credit
• 54 participating master’s
programs

60. Aurora Public Schools
1. ~7000 badges issued by 21 schools
2. 20 community endorsers!
3. Badges help unlock internship opportunities
Dukes (Director of Workforce Readiness): “The big difference is on a
resumé you may have the language “I’m a critical thinker” but on a
badge you have the evidence that shows you’re a critical thinker.”
Riebau (Director of Educational Technology): “Also, we’ve established
a feedback loop with our business partners . . . For instance, say a
student got an internship because they cashed in certain badges, then
we (get input) from the industry partner who says…the student has
demonstrated these skills and they are an asset to our company and we
would eventually like to hire them.”

61. So, where are we with open credentials?
Still exploring options and what works.

62. What could be the future?
● Student control of their learning, data, and choices
● More representation of ALL student learning
● Increased focus on career skills and academic skills
● Stackable, modular, lifelong learning
● Universities will remain key in mentoring and guiding as
people seek skills

63. 63
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and NASPA: Association of Student Affairs
Professionals and the Lumina Foundation

64. Netherlands can lead the way ...
You have many built-in strengths
- Common competency frameworks
- Common badging platform, designed for the Dutch
- Improvements upon the core Badger software
- Strong Dutch movement focusing on learning
flexibility

65. There are many barriers to learning
We must create the bridges and pathways to
help learners succeed.
cghealthcouncil.org

66. I’ll be in the
Wacky
Space after
lunch break.
Come chat!