Presentation at the 1st International Workshop on Open Badges in Education (OBIE2014) Tallinn, Estonia, 17 August 2014

1. Exploring the Potential of
Open Badges in Blog-
Based University Courses
Hans Põldoja, Mart Laanpere
Tallinn University
1st International Workshop on Open Badges in Education (OBIE2014)
Tallinn, Estonia, 17 August 2014

2. Blog-based courses

3. Assessment issues in blog-
based courses
• Private grading in open learning environment
• Recognizing the learning outcomes of informal
participants

4. Badge design patterns?

5. Composite badges
Blog posts on each of the
13 course topics
OpenEd
Overview
Badge
In-depth blog posts on 3
selected course topics
OpenEd
Researcher
Badge
(Wiley, 2013)

6. Activity-based badges
N blog posts or tweets
Activity
Badge
N received comments or
retweets
Quality
Badge
Completed milestone or
assignment
Result
Badge
(Santos, Charleer, Parra, Klerkx, Duval, & Verbert, 2013)

7. Grade-based badges
95% of points or more Gold Badge
85% of points or more
Silver
Badge
75% of points or more
Bronze
Badge
(Rughiniș & Matei, 2013)

8. Hierarchical badges
Course
Level
Badge
Project
Level
Badge
Lower
Level
Badge
Lower
Level
Badge
Lower
Level
Badge
Project
Level
Badge
Lower
Level
Badge
Lower
Level
Badge
Lower
Level
Badge
(Randall, Harrison, & West, 2013)

9. Our proposal: outcome-
based badges

10. Basic knowledge badges
Basic
knowledge on
learning
objects and
repositories
Basic
knowledge on
authoring tools
Basic
knowledge on
computer-
based
assessment
Basic
knowledge on
new
technologies
Basic
knowledge on
copyright of
digital
learning
resources
Basic
knowledge on
quality of
digital
learning
resources
Content
package author
Assessment test
author
e-Textbook
author
Advanced
knowledge on
learning objects
and repositories
Advanced
knowledge on
authoring tools
Advanced
knowledge on
computer-based
assessment
Advanced
knowledge on
new
technologies
Advanced
knowledge on
copyright of
digital learning
resources
Advanced
knowledge on
quality of digital
learning
resources
Blogging assignment 1 Blogging assignment 2 Blogging assignment 3 Blogging assignment 4 Blogging assignment 5
Group assignment on
developing a digital
learning resource
Blogging assignment 6 Literature review
Describing the
advantages and
disadvantages of learning
objects approach
Searching for learning
objects from learning
object repositories by
metadata and licenses
Creating simple content
packages, tests and e-
textbooks, and describing
these with metadata
Following copyright
principles for digital
learning resources
Evaluating the quality of a
learning resources using
an evaluation framework
Using one authoring tool
to create a more
comprehensive digital
learning resource
Analyzing the current
issues, research studies
and trends in one sub-
topic related to digital
learning resources
Learning outcomes
Assignments
Advanced knowledge badges
Skills badges

11. Students' perspectives on
Open Badges
• Main benefits: feeling of recognition and
confirmation about accepted assignments
• Badges would become more valuable, if they are
used in several courses, not as a one time
experiment
• Students are interested in recognizing prior
learning with badges

12. Recommendations for future
courses
• Offer at least two levels of badges for each
assignment
• Provide more choice of different badges / learning
paths
• Visual aesthetics of badges is also important for
learners

13. Food for thought
• Extending the badge metadata (“weight”, etc)
• Combining outcome-based badges with other
types of badges
• Student-designed and student-awarded badges for
peer-assessment
• Combing personal learning contracts and badges

14. References
• Wiley, D.: Assignments: Introduction to Openness in Education, https://
learn.canvas.net/courses/4/assignments
• Santos, J.L., Charleer, S., Parra, G., Klerkx, J., Duval, E., Verbert, K.:
Evaluating the Use of Open Badges in an Open Learning Environment.
In: Hernández-Leo, D., Ley, T., Klamma, R., Harrer, A. (eds) EC-TEL
2013. LNCS, vol. 8095, pp. 314–327. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2013)
• Rughiniș, R., Matei, S.: Digital Badges: Signposts and Claims of
Achievement. In: Stephanidis, S. (ed) HCI International 2013 - Posters’
Extended Abstracts, pp. 84–88. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2013)
• Randall, D.L., Harrison, J.B., West, R.E.: Giving Credit Where Credit Is
Due: Designing Open Badges for a Technology Integration Course.
TechTrends. 57, 88–95 (2013)

15. Thank You!
Mart Laanpere
!
mart.laanpere@tlu.ee
@martlaa
Hans Põldoja
!
hans.poldoja@tlu.ee
@hanspoldoja
http://www.hanspoldoja.net