This document provides an introduction and overview of an interaction design methods course. It outlines the course objectives, structure, themes, and assessment methods. The course aims to provide both practical and theoretical skills in interaction design. It is structured around 7 meetings, a group project, and independent work. Students will work through various design methods like idea generation, personas, prototyping. Assessment is based on open badges earned for assignments. The document discusses using badges to recognize different skills and provides examples of badge levels. It also introduces the learning environment and resources like blogs, Moodle, and GitHub that will be used.

1. Introduction to the
course
Hans Põldoja
IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods

2. Hans Põldoja
Head of studies, lecturer of educational technology
Tallinn University, School of Digital Technologies
Education:
Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture (2016)
Tallinn Pedagogical University (2003)
hans.poldoja@tlu.ee
http://www.hanspoldoja.net

3. Introductions round

4. https://ifi7313.wordpress.com

5. Course objectives
• Practical: overview of interaction design methods, practical
IxD skills and group work skills
• Theoretical: working with academic literature on the field,
presenting design research in MA thesis

6. Structure of the course
• 4 ECTS / 104 hours
• 7 meetings (28 hours)
• work on a group project (58 hours)
• work on literature (18 hours)

7. Week 1: Idea generation
February 2–4
Week 3: Requirements
analysis
February 16–18
Week 5: Prototyping
March 2–4
Week 7: UI Design
March 16–18
Idea generation,
competitive reviews
Personas, scenario-
based design
Thursday Friday Saturday
Week 9: Final presentations
March 30 – April 1
User stories,
information
architecture
Developing paper
prototypes
Designing high-
fidelity prototypes
Final presentations
Testing and revising
paper prototypes
Independent work: Finalizing personas, organizing scenario-based design sessions
Independent work: Writing user stories, designing information architecture
Independent work: Testing paper prototypes
Independent work: Designing high-fidelity prototypes

8. Week Theme Contact hours Group
assignments
Reading Total
30.01.2017 Idea generation 8 4 2 14
06.02.2017 Personas and scenarios 8 2 10
13.02.2017 User stories 4 4 2 10
20.02.2017 Information architecture 6 2 8
27.02.2017 Prototyping 8 6 2 16
06.03.2017 Prototyping 4 2 6
13.03.2017 User interface design 4 6 2 12
20.03.2017 User interface design 12 2 14
27.03.2017 Final presentations 4 8 2 14
28 58 18 104

9. Group projects
• Types of projects:
• Web applications
• Mobile applications
• Content-driven projects
• Group size: 3…4 members

19. Learning environment
• Course blog: https://ifi7313.wordpress.com
• Group blogs
• Moodle for readings and grading: https://moodle.hitsa.ee
• GitHub
• SlideShare, YouTube, etc.

20. https://moodle.hitsa.ee

21. Assessment and grading

22. Assessement
• Exam
• 6 graded assignments
• 2 optional assignments
• Grading based on open badges achieved for the assignments

23. https://openbadges.org

24. (Class Hack, n.d.)

25. (Open Badges, 2013)

29. Põldoja, H., Jürgens, P., & Laanpere, M. (2016).
Design Patterns for Badge Systems in Higher
Education. In M. Spaniol, M. Temperini, D.K.W.
Chiu, I. Marenzi, & U. Nanni (eds.), Advances in
Web-Based Learning — ICWL 2016 (Vol. 10013, lk
40– 49). Cham: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1007/978-3-319-47440-3_5
Design Patterns for Badge Systems in Higher Education
Hans Põldoja
(✉)
, Pirje Jürgens, and Mart Laanpere
Tallinn University, Narva mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia
{hans.poldoja,pirje.jurgens,mart.laanpere}@tlu.ee
Abstract. Open Badges as a method for assessment and recognition of learning
originates from the context of informal learning. Thus, it cannot be introduced
into formal higher education without reconsidering the existing assessment
processes.This paper presentsexperiencesfrom three years of using Open Badges
in a master level course. In each iteration, the badge system was revised based on
learners’ feedback. Special attention was given to supporting learners with
different learning styles. To summarize our findings, this paper proposes a set of
design patterns for developing badge systems in higher education. While the
learning styles proved to be useful as generic design guidelines for separating two
alternative learning pathways for the course, more research is needed on advanced
learning-style-based learning pathways.
Keywords: Open Badges · Assessment · Higher education
1 Introduction
Open Badges (OB’s) is a web technology for recognizing and verifying knowledge,
competencies or involvements gained in online or offline settings. In a basic sense,
badges are digital images that contain embedded information about the accomplish‐
ments. The development of the Open Badges technology started in 2010, when a group
of open education activists came up with the initial concept during the Mozilla Drumbeat
Festival. Inspired by the use of digital badges in gaming and various social apps, they
proposed that badges could be used for verifying learning. The technical specification
of the Open Badges Infrastructure (OBI) was developed together with the Mozilla
Foundation and released in 2012. While digital badges are typically used within a single
environment, OBI was developed as an open standard that allows people to collect
badges from different issuers. The initial scenarios about using open badges focused on
informal learning contexts [1]. However, in recent years there have been a number of
studies about using badges in schools [2, 3] and in higher education [4–6].
Introducing open badges to formal higher education courses provides an opportunity
to reconsider the existing assessment procedures. Recent research on open badges has
proposed a number of reasons for adopting badges. Ahn, Pellicone, and Butler [7] see
badges as motivators for behavior, pedagogical tools for promoting particular learning
activities, and credentials for recognizing learning achievements. While Jovanovic and
Devedzic [8] identify similar roles for open badges, they discuss additional benefits such
as supporting alternative forms of assessment (e.g. peer-assessment), providing learners
© Springer International Publishing AG 2016
D.K.W. Chiu et al. (Eds.): ICWL 2016, LNCS 10013, pp. 40–49, 2016.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-47440-3_5

30. Põldoja, H., & Laanpere, M. (2014). Exploring the
Potential of Open Badges in Blog-Based University
Courses. In Y. Cao, T. Väljataga, J. K. T. Tang, H.
Leung, & M. Laanpere (Eds.), New Horizons in Web
Based Learning (Vol. 8699, pp. 172–178). Cham:
Springer. http://doi.org/
10.1007/978-3-319-13296-9_19
Exploring the Potential of Open Badges
in Blog-Based University Courses
Hans Põldoja(&)
and Mart Laanpere
Institute of Informatics, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
{hans.poldoja,mart.laanpere}@tlu.ee
Abstract. Recent developments with personal learning environments and open
online courses have led educators to experiment with opening up their formal
higher education courses. In these courses, the online learning activities take
place in open learning environments based on various Web 2.0 tools such as
blogs. Although this type of courses have a number of pedagogical benefits, they
also raise issues related to private grading of students’ works and recognizing
the learning of informal participants. This paper presents our exploratory study
on addressing these issues by introducing open badges to master’s level course
that takes place in a blog-based learning environment. Students’ perspectives on
using open badges were evaluated through focus group interviews. The results
of the study indicate, that badges could have a potential in formal higher edu-
cation, if they are used more widely and provide an explicit choice of personal
learning paths for learners.
Keywords: Open badges Á Assessment Á Blog-based courses
1 Introduction
One of the recent trends in education is the blending of formal and informal learning.
This is supported by introducing social media, personal learning environments and
various open educational practices to formal higher education [1, 2]. Students can
enrich their learning experience by using open educational resources from other uni-
versities and taking part in Massive Open Online Courses.
In many cases, such developments have led university lecturers and professors to
increase the degree of openness in their courses. One approach is to move online
learning activities to open learning environments that are based on social media and
Web 2.0 tools such as blogs. The use of blogs in online courses provides a number of
pedagogical benefits such as motivating learners, enhancing the development and
expression of ideas, fostering interaction, collaboration and group work, inviting
feedback from other learners, and enriching the learning environment [3]. The use of
blog-based learning environments also allows educators to open up their course for
informal participants or members of professional communities who are not officially
enrolled to the course.
Open blog-based courses in formal higher education raise also a number of issues
that are not present in traditional courses. For example, blog-based learning environ-
ments typically lack special features that support private feedback and grading of
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Y. Cao et al. (Eds.): ICWL 2014 Workshops, LNCS 8699, pp. 172–178, 2014.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-13296-9_19

32. Badge Bronze Badge Silver Badge Golden Badge
Persona Creator 8 10 12
Scenario Writer 8 10 12
User Story Writer 5 7 9
Information Architecture Designer 8 10 12
Paper Prototyper 10 13 16
User Interface Designer 24 30 36
Total 63 80 97
Optional badges
Critic 5 10
Enlightener 10 15

33. Your project ideas?

34. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Hans Põldoja
hans.poldoja@tlu.ee
IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods
https://ifi7313.wordpress.com
Tallinn University
School of Digital Technologies