Defense of Master's Thesis, Graz University of Technology, December 2017

1. 1
S C I E N C E n P A S S I O N n T E C H N O L O G Y
u www.tugraz.at
Open Badges for
Certification of Lecturers and
Universities
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Master‘s Thesis, Robert Hafner

2. 22
Outline
• Concept
• Research Questions
• Open Badges
• Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Project
• TYPO3
• Implementation
• Conclusion
• Future Work
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3. 33
Concept
Starting Point
• Working Group „Open Educational Resource“ of
Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria (fnm-
austria)
• Create a label to certify lecturers and Austrian
universities with Open Badges
• Central authority
• Parts and levels
• Certification system
• Specification Open Badges v.2.0
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4. 44
Certification System
Requirements
• Self-developed Open Badge issuer system
• Open Source Software
• Modules or Extensions
• Long Term Support (LTS)
• Active community
Content Management System TYPO3
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5. 55
Research Questions
Q1: What are the aspects of a successful Open Badges
system?
Q2: Is TYPO3 a suitable technology for Open Badge
issuing to certify lecturers and Austrian universities?
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6. 66
Open Badges
Definition:
“Open Badges communicate skills and achievements by
providing visual symbols of accomplishments packed
with verifiable data and evidence that can be shared
across the web.”
Source: Badge Alliance, https://openbadges.org/about/ , last accessed 13.12.2017
Image (PNG, SVG) + Metadata = Open Badge
Method: baking
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7. 77
Open Badges Ecosystem
• Issuer: Awards Open Badges
• Recipient aka. Earner
• Displayer: Platform for displaying Open Badges
• Consumer: Employer, social organisation, community, …
• Backpack service: Stores Open Badges for Recipients, connects Displayers,
and Recipients
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Source: Erik Knutson, Concentric Sky, licensed CC-BY

8. 88
Open Badges Vocabulary Specification v2.0
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
JavaScript Object Notation-Linked Data (JSON-LD)
Core Data Classes:
Validation and verification
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Robert Hafner
Source: https://www.imsglobal.org/sites/default/
files/Badges/OBv2p0/faq/index.html IMS Global

9. 99
Conclusion Q1 1/2
• Conventional institutions have problems setting up an
ecosystem
• Acceptance increases by reducing the formal level of
institution
• Inclusion in existing social environment
• Internal endorsement works better than external
endorsement
• If the ecosystem competes with alternative information
sources - badges did not succeed
Source: Hickey, Daniel T, J Willis, and J Quick “Where badges work better”, 2015
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10. 1010
Conclusion Q1 2/2
Gamification
• Recipients need to be informed about the current
position and how to reach the next level
• The closer a recipient is to the next level, the higher
the steering influence of the issuer
Source:Anderson, Ashton, Daniel Huttenlocher, Jon Kleinberg, and Jure Leskovec „Steering user behavior with badges”, 2013
Incentives
• The incentives are less effective if the number of
awarded badges increases
Source: Easley, David and Arpita Ghosh, „Incentives, gamification, and game theory: an economic approach to badge design”, 2016
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11. 1111
Open Educational Resources
Definition:
“Open Educational Resources are defined as
technology-enabled, open provision of educational
resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a
community of users for non-commercial purposes.”
Source: UNESCO, „Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries”, 2002
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12. 1212
Open Educational Resources
Metadata standard for learning material
• IEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM)
• 9 categories and 60 elements
• Dublin Core
• 15 elements
• Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI)
• 17 elements
• CreativeWork, AlignmentObject, EducationalRole
Source: Rensing, Christoph „Standards für Lehr-und Lerntechnologien-Metadaten, Inhaltsformate und
Beschreibung von Lernprozessen”. 2013
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13. 1313
Project
• Stakeholder – all involved persons and organisations
• Actors-Roles
• Lecturer
• Inserts data metadata
• Austrian university
• Inserts data
• Central Authority/Administrator/Editor
• Checks input and issue Open Badges
• Consumer
• Visitors of website
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Robert Hafner

14. 1414
Modularisation
• Generate and maintain content (text, news)
• Module for client input data (lecturer and universities)
- without login
• Verify the input and maintain the conditions
• Open Badge issue system
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15. 1515
TYPO3
CMS: application to manage, create, store, edit, and
distribute content (files, images, and media) for the web
• Certifications
• Editor, Integrator, Developer, Consultant
• Structure
• Core system, Extensions
• Front End, Back End, TypoScript
• Long Term Support
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16. 1616
TYPO3 Extension
Inbuilt principles:
• Object Oriented Programming
• Coding Standard
• Domain Driven Development
• Model View Controller Pattern
• Test Driven Development
Front End, Back End Plugin
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17. 1717
Implementation/Content
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Robert Hafner
Robert Hafner, CC-BY

18. 1818
Implementation/User Input
SYS:Form Domain Model
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Robert Hafner, CC-BY
Robert Hafner,
CC-BY

19. 1919
Implementation/Conditions
Lecturer: input is serialized and inserted into the domain
model
University: input is inserted into the domain model by
the Editor
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Robert Hafner
Robert Hafner, CC-BY

20. 2020
Implementation Open Badges Issuer System
Five Open Badges
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Robert Hafner, CC-BY

21. 2121
Conclusion Q2 1/2
• Editorial Content
• Perfect
• Data Input
• SYS:Form
• Conditions
• Depends on programming language
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22. 2222
Conclusion Q2 2/2
Open Badges issuer system
• Domain modeling made by extension_builder
• fails if number of models increases significantly
• real_url extension is needed for verification of the
linked Data Classes
• collapse of the TypoScript
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23. 2323
Future Work
• Login System for lecturers and universities (Campus
Management System)
• Backpack services
• Careful implementation of gamification
• Dashboard with charts
• Extension class for the Open Educational Resources
metadata
• Blockchain Badgechain
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Robert Hafner

24. 2424
Alternatives
• Web application framework such as Zend
framework, Spring MVC, Django, etc.
• Provider of Open Badges issuer system (Open
Badge Factory) and a Web Content Management
System
• Fork the server of Open Badge issuer system
Badgr-Django
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25. 2525
Thank you
for
your
attentation!
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Robert Hafner