Open Badges : Acknowledging Soft Skills Acquisition
(2016) 15th European Conference on e-Learning In Proceedings of the European conference on e-learning p.433-441- Abstract
- In 2010 the Mozilla Foundation established the Digital Open Badges concept as a virtual incarnation of physical counterparts such as a paper certificate or a youth organisation merit badge. Digital Open Badges offer embedded, verifiable, metadata containing information such as the issuer and award criteria. Open Badges can be used to reward learning, participation or achievement. They can be stored in various online environments, including the Mozilla 'Backpack' and social media platforms. Open Badges have been used to evidence informal learning, professional development, community and voluntary work. This study is part of an ongoing project at a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) to evaluate the potential of awarding Digital Open... (More)
- In 2010 the Mozilla Foundation established the Digital Open Badges concept as a virtual incarnation of physical counterparts such as a paper certificate or a youth organisation merit badge. Digital Open Badges offer embedded, verifiable, metadata containing information such as the issuer and award criteria. Open Badges can be used to reward learning, participation or achievement. They can be stored in various online environments, including the Mozilla 'Backpack' and social media platforms. Open Badges have been used to evidence informal learning, professional development, community and voluntary work. This study is part of an ongoing project at a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) to evaluate the potential of awarding Digital Open Badges in different contexts across the institution. It was decided to trial Open Badges on a programme run by Learning Development staff in the Library to support high achieving students, acknowledging and rewarding soft-skills acquired as part of the programme. Central to the success of the scheme was ‘buy-in’ from the students themselves; in order that the Open Badges had meaning and value to the recipients, a Participatory Design approach was adopted to engage students in the development process. Participatory Design is an iterative methodology that 'attempts to examine the tacit, invisible aspects of human activity' (Spinuzzi, 2005, p. 164) and incorporates them into co-produced systems. Soft-skills are an important complement to formal education in the 21st Century workplace (Devedžić et al., 2015). Measuring and rewarding ‘soft-skills’ such as; critical thinking, communication, leadership and team-working, has proved problematic in the past. Key objectives were to establish a set of soft-skills metrics and, a sustainable approach to acknowledging the acquisition of those skills. This presentation will discuss the outcomes from the study, including an assessment of the sustainability of Open Badges as a mechanism for rewarding soft-skills acquisition in an informal setting. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/6312b70a-9db0-4cd8-ae1b-bdf9e4b39ea8
- author
- Loughlin, Colin LU ; Hitchins, Ceri ; Barton, Charlotte ; Anthony, Julia ; Barker, Heather ; Warburton, Steven and Niculescu, Irinia
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016-11-27
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Open badges, soft skills, particpatory design
- categories
- Higher Education
- host publication
- 15th European Conference on E-Learning : (ECEL 2016) - (ECEL 2016)
- series title
- Proceedings of the European conference on e-learning
- editor
- Novotná, Jarmila and Jančařík, Antonín
- pages
- 433 - 441
- publisher
- ACPI (Academic Conference Publishing International)
- conference name
- 15th European Conference on e-Learning
- conference location
- Prague, Czech Republic
- conference dates
- 2016-10-27 - 2016-10-28
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85000751805
- ISSN
- 2048-8637
- ISBN
- 978-1-5108-3267-1
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 6312b70a-9db0-4cd8-ae1b-bdf9e4b39ea8
- alternative location
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309732639_Open_Badges_Acknowledging_Soft_Skills_Acquisition
- date added to LUP
- 2017-09-21 11:33:19
- date last changed
- 2022-01-30 22:52:16
@inproceedings{6312b70a-9db0-4cd8-ae1b-bdf9e4b39ea8,
abstract = {{In 2010 the Mozilla Foundation established the Digital Open Badges concept as a virtual incarnation of physical counterparts such as a paper certificate or a youth organisation merit badge. Digital Open Badges offer embedded, verifiable, metadata containing information such as the issuer and award criteria. Open Badges can be used to reward learning, participation or achievement. They can be stored in various online environments, including the Mozilla 'Backpack' and social media platforms. Open Badges have been used to evidence informal learning, professional development, community and voluntary work. This study is part of an ongoing project at a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) to evaluate the potential of awarding Digital Open Badges in different contexts across the institution. It was decided to trial Open Badges on a programme run by Learning Development staff in the Library to support high achieving students, acknowledging and rewarding soft-skills acquired as part of the programme. Central to the success of the scheme was ‘buy-in’ from the students themselves; in order that the Open Badges had meaning and value to the recipients, a Participatory Design approach was adopted to engage students in the development process. Participatory Design is an iterative methodology that 'attempts to examine the tacit, invisible aspects of human activity' (Spinuzzi, 2005, p. 164) and incorporates them into co-produced systems. Soft-skills are an important complement to formal education in the 21st Century workplace (Devedžić et al., 2015). Measuring and rewarding ‘soft-skills’ such as; critical thinking, communication, leadership and team-working, has proved problematic in the past. Key objectives were to establish a set of soft-skills metrics and, a sustainable approach to acknowledging the acquisition of those skills. This presentation will discuss the outcomes from the study, including an assessment of the sustainability of Open Badges as a mechanism for rewarding soft-skills acquisition in an informal setting.}},
author = {{Loughlin, Colin and Hitchins, Ceri and Barton, Charlotte and Anthony, Julia and Barker, Heather and Warburton, Steven and Niculescu, Irinia}},
booktitle = {{15th European Conference on E-Learning : (ECEL 2016)}},
editor = {{Novotná, Jarmila and Jančařík, Antonín}},
isbn = {{978-1-5108-3267-1}},
issn = {{2048-8637}},
keywords = {{Open badges; soft skills; particpatory design}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{11}},
pages = {{433--441}},
publisher = {{ACPI (Academic Conference Publishing International)}},
series = {{Proceedings of the European conference on e-learning}},
title = {{Open Badges : Acknowledging Soft Skills Acquisition}},
url = {{https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309732639_Open_Badges_Acknowledging_Soft_Skills_Acquisition}},
year = {{2016}},
}