With some of the world’s largest multi-nationals, such as Logica, Vodafone, Sony and Safeway now using Totara LMS, innovation has become a core value for Totara. Now, the latest feature to be added to Totara LMS is Open Badges: A flexible, more visible way to reward staff. Read this guide to find out how Open Badges work.

1. Reward your staff for learning
An introduction to the new Open Badges function to Totara LMS

2. An introduction to the new Open Badges function to Totara LMS
Reward your staff for learning
Telephone: 01535 604026 marketing@webanywhere.co.uk / www.webanywhere.co.uk
With some of the world’s largest multi-nationals, such as Logica, Vodafone, Sony and Safeway now using
Totara LMS, innovation has become a core value for Totara. Now, the latest feature to be added to Totara
LMS is Open Badges: A flexible, more visible way to reward staff.
The Open Badges project was co-funded by the Mac Arthur Foundation and Mozilla, famous for developing
the Firefox web browser which one quarter of the world’s population are now using. The aim of the project
was to enhance recognition of learning and motivate students and employees alike through the rewarding
of ‘badges.’
Open Badges are a simple idea: Through learning achievements, both practical and theoretical, employees
can be rewarded with them. Each badge contains metadata - information regarding the achievement -
when the badge was awarded, what for and who by. For example, a yellow badge with thumbs up may
symbolise an employee with excellent customer service skills. This is a visual signpost of how qualified a
workforce is, and also helps to illustrate the skillset for each individual employee. Open Badges can be
posted and viewed anywhere the employer, or employee, wishes.
Introduction
Blended learning programmes are commonly adopted by many corporates - and this is currently on the
increase; in fact, most organisations have at least experienced e-learning at some stage. However, these
haven’t always been good experiences, and, according to recent statistics, many executives do not feel they
are receiving the return on investment from their e-learning projects that they would like. Open Badges is
a feature that can profoundly change the influence and effectiveness of a learning platform within a
business.
Where are we now?

3. Telephone: 01535 604026 marketing@webanywhere.co.uk / www.webanywhere.co.uk
An introduction to the new Open Badges function to Totara LMS
Reward your staff for learning
Jenny is a mid-level employee. She works as part of the sales team in one of the largest retail companies in
the UK selling consumer goods. Along with her sales role, she is studying at a local business school as she
is keen to develop her managerial skills. The first year of her studies is funded, but after this year she will
lose the funding. Given Jenny does not have the funds, she will have to stop her studies and pursue her
career.
At work, Jenny has recently had her performance review. This was a quick ten minute discussion with her
Team Leader. The problem is, she is constantly short of target as when she sells an item she fails to also
bundle the warranty for the product which is what her line manager would like her to do. Therefore, the
overall judgement is that Jenny is ‘underperforming.’ Given the performance review is mainly results
based, Jenny’s team leader has failed to realise when the store is quiet she will use the computer on the
shop floor to access the Learning Management System (LMS). She is often seen accessing the LMS as she
is very ambitious and really loves learning. In fact, Jenny is the top scorer in sales, customer services and
even stock control within the store. However, Jenny is not considered to be a top performer.
The retail company’s Head of Learning and Development, Nicola, worked with the Talent Manager, Paul, on
possible concepts to improve their e-learning strategy. They looked at proprietary systems to plug into
their LMS and other tools to manage talent spotting and career development programmes. One day, Paul
spotted the Open Badges functionality. Luckily, he was able to plug this into their LMS, quickly and
efficiently. The project was carefully designed to ensure that all 100 stores’ learning programmes were
linked effectively to the Open Badges infrastructure.
Back at the store, Jenny continued to take the e-learning courses within the LMS. It was clear after a few
weeks that she was developing much faster than the others. Her Store Manager developed a competition
to see how many badges employees could achieve in one month, and the prize was a restaurant voucher.
Jenny came top of the leader board and won the voucher; not only was the Store Manager able to see
Jenny’s potential but her peers began to work closely with Jenny, learning from her excellent customer
services and the way she managed difficult situations. Back at Head Office, Paul and Nicola began to use
the Open Badges tool for data mining. They immediately spotted Jenny’s development at the store and
were able to map a better career path for her on the customer services desk.
Through Nicola and Paul’s analysis at the Head Office of talent within the workforce, Jenny was promoted
to Customer Services Team Leader. She then had sufficient funds to continue her studies.
Open Badges in the workplace: A story
The current creative economy is utilising the power of technology, allowing organisations to grow and
develop in a collaborative manner. The traditional economy ideology was very much ‘top down’ where
employees were told what to do. Now, through the use of technologies, the creative economy is embracing
a ‘bottom up’ approach in the workplace.
The new ‘Creative Economy’

4. Open Badges
Ecosystem
Capturing learning
achievements
Supports innovation in
the creative economy
Telephone: 01535 604026 marketing@webanywhere.co.uk / www.webanywhere.co.uk
An introduction to the new Open Badges function to Totara LMS
Reward your staff for learning
Using Open Badges, employees will be incentivised to develop themselves and share this with their peers
within the learning ecosystem. Employees will be able to quickly identify peers with similar skill sets, man-
agers will be able to see who can support their projects and stakeholders will be able to spot talent.
Organisations will also have the opportunity to link their Open Badges ecosystem to LinkedIn, which is the
most widely-used business social network globally. This will enable their brand and the competency of their
workforce to be identified by their clients, thus enforcing their presence in the market and creating a better
brand.
The Open Badges benefits
Motivates the workforce
Achievement signalling
Reputation building
Community building

5. Telephone: 01535 604026 marketing@webanywhere.co.uk / www.webanywhere.co.uk
An introduction to the new Open Badges function to Totara LMS
Reward your staff for learning
As we see from the above story, Open Badges will provide endless benefits to our organisations.
Capturing Learning Achievements - through the use of badges, core competencies of employees will
be captured and recorded and held within a single learning record
The Open Badges Benefits
Want to learn more?
Why not give Webanywhere a call - on 01535 604026
Achievement Signalling - management and executives will be able to identify pools of talent and
specialists quickly and easily
Motivating the workforce - badges will provide employees with recognition of their learning whilst
motivating them to achieve more!
Supporting Innovation - workforces will be motivated to work with those with similar badges to
develop themselves and therefore innovating within the company. Furthermore, development of the
social community will foster and promote collaboration
Reputation Building - those who are developing their competencies within the company will be
identified and their reputation within the business will become known (like Jenny!)
Community Building - the Open Badges functionality will enable a wider community within the
learning ecosystem of your company
Webanywhere is a Moodle and Platinum Totara LMS partner. We specialise in delivering online
e-learning portals and content development. Our customers include Dominos Pizza, Zara and the
British Safety Council.

6. stretch beyond
The future of course management
Webanywhere specialises in learning technologies that enable
the concepts described in this paper, and stretch the learning
potential of an organisation’s most important asset - its people.
To discuss social learning, multi tenancy or the effective
implementation of a learning management system in your
organisation, contact our workplace learning team on
01535 604026, or email workplace@webanywhere.co.uk.
© Webanywhere Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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