Towards high quality work-based learning in the Baltics and beyond

1. Towards high quality work-based
learning in the Baltics and beyond
RIGA, 24 JANUARY 2020
Digital Open Badge-Driven Learning
– Inspiring Competence Development for Teachers and Students
Dr Sanna Brauer
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Professional Teacher Education
University of Oulu, Faculty of Education
Learning & Education Technology Research Unit

2. ● 5 institutes of vocational teacher education.
● Regulated by law (356/03) and statute (357/03).
● The Professional Teacher Education Programme consist of 60
ECTS credits and provides a teacher qualification to work as a
teacher at vocational institutions or at universities of applied
sciences.
● Combining study and work: study paths for both practicing
teachers and teacher candidates who want to gain the official
teacher’s qualification diploma.
● A general entrance requirement for vocational teachers is
Bachelor’s (or higher) degree and 3 years of professional work
experience.
● Multidisciplinary groups and multiform studies to meet the
needs of adult students.
● Fast track or flexible part-time studies from 9 months to 3
years.
Professional Teacher Education,
Vocational Programs in Finland

3. Kuvat: Suomen Partiolaiset - Finlands Scouter ry

4. 1. Why Digital Open Badges?
Future: increasingly numerous ways to develop
competences.
● Digital open badges offer novel possibilities in identifying
and recognising different competences independent of
how they were acquired.
● Electronic microcredentials are used in learning to
encourage students, to pinpoint progress and to support
credentialing.
● Clear principles of judgement: equal, egalitarian and
transparent way of assessment
● Badges as macrocredentials offer an option to digitise
certificates and diplomas.

5. CASE ”LEARNING ONLINE”
Competence-based Professional Development
for VET trainers
• ”Learning Online” is a national competence
development program designed for
vocational teachers. Over 23000
competence-based badges (three levels of
UNESCO’s ICT-CFT) since 2014.
• Efficient professional development:
• Badges are assessed based on an
application: tangible tasks to apply new
competences in working life.
• Promotes independent self-evaluation of
existing competences and identification
of individual competences needed in
working life.
• Supports validation of prior learning

6. PERSONAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
Personal Learning Environments and Personal Learning Networks in professional teaching
PROFICIENCY GOALS
-Understand the opportunities and available via a personal learning environment and network e.g. own skills
development and visualising your own processes. -Understand how a personal learning environment can be
utilised in professional teaching.
THEMES
-Personal learning environment and network possibilities and challenges in professional teaching.
SKILLS DEMONSTRATION
-Describe your current or a planned personal learning environment and/or network using any desired media
e.g. video / written document. You may also describe a PLE from the perspective of your students and how
they would utilise a PLE.
-Also describe with which kind of tools or environments your described PLE will be accomplished. Upload your
media e.g. to a cloud service and provide a link in your application.
“an image file embedded with
information” (Grant, 2014, p. 7)
A badge includes an identification
image, graphic or icon, the name of
the badge, issuer identification and
other information content.
The metadata describes the principles
of judgement and explain how the
competence in question should be
demonstrated (e.g., an online
document).
Even if competencies are acquired
differently they should be assessed
equally.
Badge Design and
Criteria Building

7. “The competition between teams was nice, but the
most important thing was playing. I used to play
Mafia Wars for four hours a day until my husband
banned it. This is how I satisfy the craving when
going to bed but not feeling sleepy yet. One more.
I got one more badge. It seemed to me the best
quality (of education), the most addictive and
interesting learning experience of my life,
although not an easy achievement.”
In-service teacher on skills set developer-level III
EXPERIENCE GAMIFIED
”LEARNING ONLINE”

8. 2. Digital Open Badge-Driven Learning: The Competence-based
Approach, Digital Open Badges and Gamification in
Professional Development
• The first European doctoral dissertation to
address the structure and process of digital
open badge-driven learning
• An application of competence-based
approach and gamified learning process.
• Recent theoretical approaches to digital
badging and principles for designing
motivating gamification with badges.
• Supports a competence-based approach in
continuing professional development to
meet the individual professional needs.
1/23/20 Sanna Brauer 8

9. Conceptualising Digital Open Badge-Driven Learning
Brauer, 2019; cf. Salmon, 2018
• A competence-based
learning process grounded
on the badge constellation of
competences.
• Identification and recognition
of different competences,
acquired differently, using
digital open badges.
• The entity involves learning
materials, badge criterion,
instructional badging,
scaffolding and peer support.

10. 3. Digital open badges have become a successful tool in Finland for
fostering professional development
• Several national badge constellations of competences will be published
in 2020-2023.
• Development and pilots should inform ongoing Europass development
Teacher’s Badges
offers to create and
establish a national
digital badges system
to support the
recognition and
acknowledging of
professional
competences of
vocational teachers
during their teacher
studies as well as their
entire professional
career.
Competitive Skills aims to develop a
national system, which enables the
verification of adults’ problem solving skills
in technology-rich environments (PIAAC) by
identifying and recognising competences
acquired outside the formal education
system, at different levels of education, and
in transition phases of the education
structure. In addition, the project provides a
requirement framework of competence
(NQF) for securing IT-related problem-
solving skills in VET.
Chips For Game Skills -
project focuses on
identifying different
professions of games
industry and developing a
common assessment criteria
– a digital open badge
system – which clarifies the
definition and understanding
of the professional
competences required in
such a working life
positions.

11. Continuing professional development, CPD, is the ongoing process of
developing, maintaining and documenting your professional competences
Competences achieved in VET
Competences achieved in HE
Competences achieved in
WORKING LIFE
GENERIC WORKING LIFE COMPETENCES
VISUALISATION OF
DIFFERENT
COMPETENCES IN A
MODULE
STRUCTURE

12. Results

13. 4. Who owns the “open”?
Different stakeholders have various value expectations
of badges
• Learning pathways should include collaboration
between different stakeholders so that badges
hold value and are highly recognised in society
• Different development projects share various
networks: municipalities, secondary education,
universities of applied sciences, schools of
professional teacher education and research
universities
• Role of National Ministries and Agencies and
European collaboration
BERLIN DECLARATION of Validation of Prior Learning: The VPL Biennale Book 2019

14. 5. How to get
(Inter)National?
Frameworks, recommendations and official guidelines
(e.g. DigiCompEdu/Org/NQFs/PIAAC)
• Fit the language (ESCO)
• Network! National, international, technical,
pedagogical - different kind of expertise is needed
• Share Experices - Learn from Others!
• Study Research - Do Research!
• Apply for resources for diverse purposes: to
ground theory, to pilot practices, to develop
technologies, to educate trainers, to disseminate
results...

15. 6. Key Success Factors of Microcredentials:
Excellent learning outcomes, by quantity and quality
• Visualise study progress and optional study paths.
• Validates formal, non-formal, and informal studies
• A sense of excitement similar to that of playing games:
inspiring gamification encourages the participant to
proceed.
• Evidence: the demonstration of competence in question
- tangible applications in working life.
• Personal development plans - driver for personal
growth.
• Interaction, collaboration and feedback

16. 7. Main challenges
The criteria for the future skills and knowledge are developing
and evolving while staying compatible with the nationwide
administration and learning management systems.
• Technologies under development
• (Inter)National guidelines for quality badging
• Freely organised networks as stakeholders
• Transition from simplistic grading to assessment of competences can
be a demanding challenge for both teachers and students
• Personalisation, customisation, individual study paths
→ scaffolding resources
Brauer, S. (2019). Digital Open Badge-Driven Learning –Competence-based
Professional Development for Vocational Teachers (doctoral dissertation). Acta
Universitatis Lapponiensis 380. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-110-1

17. THANK YOU!
• Please follow my current research on Research Gate:
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sanna_Brauer
• LION https://www.linkedin.com/in/sannabrauer
• sanna.brauer@oamk.fi

18. 18
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