Presentation delivered by Jeffrey Buckley on his paper entitled "The Validity of Digital Badges as a Currency for Soft Skill Attainment" at the 2015 ILTA conference at the University of Limerick. The co-authors on this paper were Dr Donal Canty, Dr Niall Seery and Mr Adrian O'Connor from the University of Limerick and Mr Matt Kelly from Coláiste Chiaráin. This paper describes one of the application cases from the EU funded Grading Soft Skills (GRASS) project which the authors are currently working on.

1. Donal Canty, Jeffrey Buckley, Niall Seery & Adrian O'Connor
Technology Education Research Group
University of Limerick
Matt Kelly
Coláiste Chiaráin
Funded with support from the European Commission, within project
Grading Soft Skills: GRASS, No. 543029-LLP-1-RS-KA3-KA3MP
This communication reflects the views only of authors, and the commission cannot be held
responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein.

2.  3-year longitudinal research project financially supported by the European Union and is being
developed with the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP).
 The overall objective is to support, monitor, assess, and acknowledge the development of
learners' soft skills by leveraging state-of-the-art ICT tools.
 8 partners in the consortium from Serbia, Sweden, Ireland and Croatia.

3.  This research focuses on representing soft skills of post-primary students
in a measurable way, so that these skills can become the subject of formal
grading and recognition.
• School: Coláiste Chiaráin
• Course: Junior Cycle
• Module: Radio & TV Broadcasting - Junior Cycle Short Course
• Group: 1st Year
• Participants: 20 Pupils (12 Female, 8 Male)
• Duration: 4 Weeks (7 class periods)

4.  Main Objective
• To explore the nature of the evidence produced during a soft skills
related task which would ultimately contribute to the awarding of a
digital badge

6. Evidence

11.  Key Activities:
 Discussion on group work and two of the
new Junior Cycle Key Skills: ‘Working
with Others’ and ‘Communicating’.
 Initial ‘jig-saw’ activity to allow students
to develop a further understanding of
these skills through application.

12.  Key Activities:
 Group reflection on the ‘jig-saw’ activity
focussing on collaboration.
 Individual assignment entitled “what is
good group work?”.

13.  Key Activities:
 Students engage in collaboration activity
to assemble a video camera.
 Teacher gathers data by taking real time
notes.

14.  Key Activities:
 Teacher reviews videos of students
assembling the video camera for further
evaluation
 Students fill in questionnaires for peer
and self evaluation

15.  All groups successfully assembled the video camera.
 No student was awarded the ‘Effective Group Member’ digital credential.
“It was interesting to note that while a significant amount of time was devoted
to explaining the concept of "effective group membership" prior to the
assessment, and while all the students involved indicated that they
understood the concept, the entire focus of the group shifted to completing
the task as fast as possible rather than each individual contributing to the
success of the group as soon a the assessment began.”
Teacher’s comment after the study

16.  All moved to the table but Zoe remained alone working on the camera.
 Disagreement between Mary, Oran and Brandon. All trying to fix the tripod at the same
time.
 Mary moved away from the tripod and on to the audio section without solving the tripod
problem.
 No individual guiding the entire group.
 Mary and Oran debate the problem while Brandon watches but says nothing.
 Total confusion as they tried to mount the camera on the tripod. No agreement
amongst all.
 No one is sure if the take was recorded – Oran says he thinks it was not. Mary
becomes stressed. Zoe says it is fine. Brandon steps out of the conversation.

17.  To be awarded the badge the
students must successfully attain
in each of the four elements
 Each student demonstrated that
they understood the qualities of an
effective collaborator and that they
could recognise these in
themselves and in others
 No student demonstrated that they
could exercise these skills to solve
a problem
 No student was deemed to be an
‘Effective Group Member’ as a
result

19.  Tasks can be designed to integrate soft skills with hard skills in schools
 Digital badges were a valid currency in this application case for
accrediting soft skill attainment
 The strength of this validity lies in their capacity to track the evidence of
soft skill attainment through ICT and the triangulation of evidence
 As the integration of soft skills for assessment is a relatively new concept,
the assessment culture in post-primary schools can impact the students
perceptions of soft skill assessment
 These experiences can lead to rich discussion among students about soft
skills and assessment

20. jeffrey.buckley@ul.ie
Funded with support from the European Commission, within project
Grading Soft Skills: GRASS, No. 543029-LLP-1-RS-KA3-KA3MP
This communication reflects the views only of authors, and the commission cannot be held
responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein.