Digital Badging at The OU, UK to EADTU 2014

1. Digital badging at The Open University:
identified informal learning
Patrina Law and Andrew Law
The Open University

4. Our research approach: how do we evaluate
our informal learners?
Surveys in 2013 and 2014 to:
•Review the demographic profile of learners, students and teachers using
OpenLearn,
•Understand how the content serves learners’ needs,
•Examine how the availability of free educational content is impacting
informal learners and their motivations to take up formal study,
•Understand learners’ challenges and successes when using the platform,
and
•Examine where learners are visiting within the platform, what they are
searching for and where they go next.

5. Recommendations from 13/14
A number of recommendations were made within The OU. Those relevant to
this study are reported here:
Create an entire badged open courses (BOC) curriculum targeting access
students
Improve the usability of the OpenLearn platform especially around the user
experience of moving through an online, unsupported course, and
Extend syndication of free content to reach new audiences (in 2013,
syndication beyond OpenLearn was to iTunes U and YouTube only).

6. Badges aren’t new
Image credit: Thornhill School http://thornhillschool.org.uk/current/latest-news/-/post/blue-peter-badges
A means to recognise learning, to
motivate learners, and to provide
evidence of skills and achievements in
a variety of formal and informal settings

7. How badges are understood at the moment
Anderson et al. 2014 comments on their use in MOOCs to motivate learners to
participate in a group, not an incentive to complete a course of study.
Abramovich et al. (2011) note that “The symbol, in the form of a badge, can
then be displayed by the learner to let others know of their mastery or
knowledge” in a closed, supported environment. This element of badge display
contrasts with informal open learning when learners progress at their own pace
and not in a cohort, and may be less important in this setting.
Digital badging creeping into HE though no overarching policy or agreement
overall between providers.
OU approach is unique as it is being used to support and motivate learners in
the informal sector.

8. Benefits of badging in an informal space
 To enhance brand and reputation.
 Test your skills – are you ready for HE study
 As a taster when considering study.
 Reaches underserved population who can’t afford to study but wish to
learn from us (part of OU Charter on free learning for the community)
 To provide accessible routes into the University for students who might
not otherwise have an opportunity to participate in Higher Education
 As a demonstration of skills to an employer to encourage sponsorship

9. Who was studying the badging pilots
compared to the average OpenLearn user?
• 36% already hold an undergraduate qualification or higher compared with
56% of the general OpenLearn learner population.
• 12% are retired compared with 20% of the general OpenLearn user
population.
• 31% consider themselves to have a disability compared to 19% of the
general OpenLearn learner population. Indeed, 40% of Learning to Learn
learners who completed the enrolment survey declared a disability*.
*83% of these report a mental health problem.

10. Create an entire (BOC) curriculum targeting
access students

11. Badge display
Mozilla Backpack
My OpenLearn Profile Social networks e.g.
LinkedIn
Printable certificate

12. BOC assessment framework
• Learners will need to achieve
50% to pass an assessment
• Learners will be given three
attempts
• If they fail on the third attempt,
they can retake after 24 hours
• Practice assessment will be
available throughout the course
• All pages of the course must
have been ‘read’
• Formal assessment takes place
at halfway and at the end of the
course
Two successful assessments = 1 badge

13. Comparing 2013/2014 data sets across OpenLearn
Data concurred from year to year in terms of demographic profile.
Motivations of learners remained the same:
‘the learning helps me feel more positive and confident’
‘I would love to study but most course are simply unaffordable to me’
‘Fees are now far too high for me to consider continuing with my studies
towards a degree’
‘Conducted a test to give confidence my next module choice is appropriate
for me’
‘I am 70. Learning is like O2 to the mind’
Over half of respondents (58%) said that using the materials had improved their
confidence in their ability to study.
Around 80% said that after using OpenLearn materials they are more likely to
recommend OU content to others.

14. What are informal learners now looking for?
• 75% of learners responded ‘Yes’ or ‘Maybe’ that they would be prepared
to pay for educational content provided online; of these 85% selected
‘Online courses with certificates or qualifications’.
• Qualitative data collected in response to the question ‘What other
features would you like to see from The OU on OpenLearn?’, also revealed
a desire to see certification awarded for informal learning:
• ‘Certificates paid/unpaid’
• ‘Better format of Statements of Activity for printing for CPD purposes’
• ‘I tend to use sites where the student is able to print off a certificate of
completion. I wish OU did this as it enables me to see who has
completed which MOOC’

15. Identified informal learners
Cross (2007) describes informal learning as ’the unofficial, unscheduled,
impromptu way people learn’ but in an environment where ‘...no one assigns
grades…’ and ‘...no one takes attendance.’
We have moved from Cross’ anonymous world to one of identified informal
learning. Whilst learning is still taking place as a supplement to formal
learning there is a growing demand and expectation that informal learners
want recognition for their achievements and engagement that can be
acknowledged beyond a closed forum of learners.

16. The challenges to understanding recognition in
an informal space
• Will free badges and associated certificates be perceived as having
different value to a for fee certificate bought from a MOOC provider?
• Will a free digital badge have meaning as currency for achievement and
credibility with employers, or is it purely a motivational tool, in this
context, to support informal learners on an open platform?
• Are badged certificates or the digital badges themselves equally desirable
to informal learners?

17. Next Steps
Evaluation strategy
1.Short-term data study:
a. Who are our learners and where do they go?
b. How were they motivated?
2.Long-term data study:
a. How did they perform when they became formal
students and were they better retained?
b. Did badges help when seeking/changing
employment?
c. Review the landscape of identified informal learning
and learners’ perceptions of themselves in the open.
We aim to:• Continue to inform the OU in the provision of open courses.
• Continue to understand more about badge motivation in an HE
setting, and in an open, unsupported one.
• Extend the strategy for BOCs to support higher apprenticeships
(transitioning learners from vocational learning to HE)