Soft skills such as communication, teamwork, creativity and entrepreneurship are more and more in demand on today’s labour market and they may prove to be the decisive factor between two candidates with equivalent qualifications and experience. But how can we measure, improve and publicly display these skills in CVs or e-Portfolios? The ERASMUS+ funded eLene4work (http://elene4work.eu) and Open Badge Network (www.openbadgenetwork.com) projects are doing a crucial job to answer these questions. An open badge is not simply an online representation of a skill somebody possesses, but also a means that allows its earner to verify their skills, interests and achievements. The aim of this workshop was to highlight how tailor made open badges can serve to promote the acquisition and demonstration soft skills demanded by the 21st century labour market. After a short presentation, participants were involved in an engaging group activity and were able to experiment with creating their own open badges, using OBN partner, DigitalMe's open badge design canvas (http://www.digitalme.co.uk/assets/pdf/digitalme-badge-design-canvas.pdf). This practical workshop was a preliminary teaser of a more comprehensive MOOC (http://www.openbadgenetwork.com/outputs/open-badges-network/) being developed by the Open Badge Network project.

1. 1
Ildikó Mázár, Deputy Secretary General, EDEN
2016 eucen Autumn Seminar, 25 November 2016, Barcelona
Open Badge Network: the use of
Open Badges to recognise
non-formal and informal learning

2. Introducing EDEN
 The most comprehensive European association of its kind
 Registered in the UK in 1991
 Platform for professional co-operation and information
exchange www.eden-online.org
 Open for all levels and sectors of education and training
 Open for institutions, individuals and networks
 Organises annual and thematic conferences
 Participates in EU projects (research and practice)
 Recognises excellence
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3. Open Badge Network
 www.openbadgenetwork.com
 Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme
 Supporting the development of an Open Badge ecosystem
 Promoting the use of open badges to recognise non-formal
and informal learning
 Collecting practical use cases (submit your own)
 Discussion papers for individuals and organisations
 Discussion paper on open badge policies
 Designing a MOOC – please register to get involved
www.openbadgenetwork.com/members/register/
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4. 4 /21
What are open badges? Why use open badges?

5. 5 /21
Which soft skills
are the most important?

6.  By 2020, 90% of jobs will require digital skills (Cedefop)
 McKinsey (2014). ‘Education to Employment, getting
Europe’s youth into work’, ILO Global Employment Trend
 74% of universities consider they prepare their graduates well for the
world of work
 38% of students believe the are prepared
 35% of employers agree with this statement
 Tools the eLene4work project offers
 Self Assessment of soft skills and digital soft skills
 Orientation Guide to help improve skills
 Personal Journal to support the students' learning process
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Recognition of soft skills

7. The design process
 Using Digital Me’s badge design canvas
 Setting criteria (this is key to quality badges)
 Identifying badgeable skills, knowledge and behaviours
 Who is the badge for?
 Value proposition for earners, issuers, audience, displayers
 Learning pathways
 Resources and sustainability
 Graphical design
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8. 8 /21
What makes a badge?
Open Badges are
Versatile, adaptable, stackable
Standardised, evidence-based, verifiable, portable and shareable

9. 9 /21

10. 10 /21
Badge versatility

11. 11 /21
Reviewing the PPT and/or the recording of the webinar will allow you to pause and
spend as much time as you need to fill in the canvas blocks

12. 12 /21
What do you want to badge?

13. 13 /21
Badge Name: Workshop Participant

14. Audience and Value
 Who is the badge earner?
Professionals who don’t require formal recognition of their learning
 Who is the badge issuer
Workshop organiser/endorser/validator, i.e. EDEN
 Who is the audience / consumer
Current and prospective employers of badge earners
 What opportunities does the badge unlock?
New ways of CPD; identifying skill gaps; a creative means of organising
non-academic and informal achievements; clustering similar achievements
 Where does a user find out about the badge?
EDEN website; Partner communications (e.g. EUCEN, OBN); conferences
and formal/informal meetings; open badge databases; endorsers
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15. Audience and Value
 Why bother earning the badge?
 Earner: Confidence building; Sense of achievement; Informal but
official recognition of achievement; Point of reference and evidence to
new knowledge, skills, achievements
 Issuer: Recognising excellence; Brand awareness; Incentive of
modernisation; Raising interest
 Audience/Consumers: Awareness of initiative; identify interest and/or
expertise
 Displayer(LinkedIn, Moodle, etc.): Reputation; Community; Loyalty
 What is in it for the issuer?
 Value recognition (statistical record of acceptance rate)
 Widening brand/service recognition
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16. Strengthened skills, knowledge,
competencies and behaviours
 Non-formal learning ability
 Professional commitment
 Curiosity, openness to innovation
 Independence
 Collaboration and teamwork
 Communication
 Critical thinking
 Specific knowledge/skill, i.e. ability to design a badge
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17. Evidence
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 Attendance
 (Self) assessment
 Completion of task
 Publishing result
 Endorsements
 …

18. Learning pathways
 Map your learning offering
 Organise your learning offering
 Consider your options for improvement and expansion
 “Pie”-type badges
 ”Level-up” badges (bronze, silver, gold)
 Connect with parallel, relevant, external learning resources
 Allow learners / prospective earners to explore, engage
 Be creative and adaptable
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19. Resources & sustainability
 Time for concept development
 Time to fill in the canvas
 Align with curriculum or competency framework (if needed)
 Time and skill to design badges (low key) or
 Pay professional designer (high profile)
 Issue badges manually (low key) or
 Issue badges via existing platforms (high profile)
 Time to create support material
 Time to create and issue, re-issue individual badges
 Time to evolve open badge portfolio
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20. 20 /21
Report example

21. Resources
 www.openbadgenetwork.com
 www.badgealliance.org
 www.openbadgefactory.com
 www.openbadgepassport.com
 www.openbadgeacademy.com
 www.openbadges.org
 www.makewav.es
 https://backpack.openbadges.org
 http://elene4work.eu
 www.eden-online.org/recognition/eden-open-badges
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