Skip to main content

Open Badges: Challenges and Opportunities

  • Conference paper
Advances in Web-Based Learning – ICWL 2014 (ICWL 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 8613))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The paper looks at the increasingly popular concept of Open Badges (OBs) and the technology that supports it, and provides several insights that might help researchers and practitioners decide on how to make the best use of OBs in specific educational settings. In spite of the current big hype around OBs among practitioners, academic literature on them is still scarce. There is a number of challenges that developers and the wider educational community face when it comes to developing and enacting an OB system – from pedagogical and motivational ones, to technological, to those related to institutional policies and to validity and credibility of badges. By discussing these challenges, the paper offers a critical overview and a reality check of practical opportunities for using OBs, thus indicating several avenues to inspire further research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Glover, I.: Open Badges: A Visual Method of Recognising Achievement and Increasing Learner Motivation. Student Engagement and Experience Journal 2(1) (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Halavais, A.M.C.: A Genealogy of Badges. Information Communication Society 15, 1–20 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Goligoski, E.: Motivating the learner: Mozillas open badges program. Access to Knowledge: A Course Journal 4(1) (2012), http://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/a2k/article/view/381/207 (retrieved January 10, 2014)

  4. Baker, E.L.: 2007 Presidential address the end(s) of testing. Educational Researcher 36(6), 309–317 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sullivan, F.M.: New and Alternative Assessments, Digital Badges, and Civics: An Overview of Emerging Themes and Promising Directions. CIRCLE Working Paper #77 (March 2013), http://goo.gl/zXzyUY (retrieved December 15, 2013)

  6. Ito, M., Gutiérrez, K., Livingstone, S., Penuel, B., Rhodes, J., et al.: Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design. Digital Media and Learning Research Hub., Irvine (2013), http://goo.gl/o76iI0 (retrieved January 25, 2014)

  7. Attwell, G.: The Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning? eLearning Papers 2(1) (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ash, K.: ’Digital Badges’ Would Represent Students’ Skill Acquisition. Education Week: Digital Directions (June 13, 2012), http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2012/06/13/03badges.h05.html (retrieved on January 24, 2014)

  9. Olneck, M.: Insurgent Credentials: A Challenge to Established Institutions of Higher Education. Presented at: Education in a New Society: The Growing Interpenetration of Education in Modern Life, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 26-27 (2012), http://goo.gl/vF03Hz (retrieved on January 18, 2014)

  10. Maney, D.: ‘Badges’ Fill Credential Gaps where Higher Education Fails. Denverpost.com (April 1, 2012), http://goo.gl/xSksaI (retrieved on January 19, 2014)

  11. Dominguez, A., Saenz-de Navarrete, J., de Marcos, L., Fernandez-Sanz, L., Pages, C., Martınez-Herraiz, J.J.: Gamifying learning experiences: Practical implications and outcomes. Computers & Education 63, 380–392 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Henderson, V.L., Dweck, C.S.: Motivation and achievement. In: Feldman, S.S., Elliott, G.R. (eds.) At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent, pp. 308–329. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Williams, R., et al.: Emergent learning and learning ecologies in Web 2.0. The International Review of Open and Distance Learning 12(3) (2011), http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/883 (retrieved on January 26, 2014)

  14. Joseph, B., et al.: Six Ways to Look at Badging Systems Designed for Learning (2012), http://goo.gl/qfDPn6 (retrieved on January 5, 2014)

  15. Santos, J.L., Charleer, S., Parra, G., Klerkx, J., Duval, E., Verbert, K.: Evaluating the use of open badges in an open learning environment. In: Hernández-Leo, D., Ley, T., Klamma, R., Harrer, A. (eds.) EC-TEL 2013. LNCS, vol. 8095, pp. 314–327. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Gibson, D., Ostashewski, N., Flintoff, K., Grant, S., Knight, E.: Digital badges in education. Education and Information Technologies (November 2013)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Deterding, S.: Situated Motivational Affordances of Game Elements: A Conceptual Model. In: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2011, pp. 1–4 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Rughinis, R.: Talkative objects in need of interpretation. re-thinking digital badges in education. In: CHI 2013 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2013), pp. 2099–2108. ACM, New York (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Hamilton, G.: Evidencing Employability Skills with Open Badges (2014), http://goo.gl/eiBlim (retrieved January 28, 2014)

  20. Nelson, S.: Comment to: Unpacking Badges for Lifelong Learning, by Grant, S. HASTAC (September 24, 2011), http://goo.gl/hz3ep5 (retrieved December 21, 2014)

  21. Rughinis, R.: Badge Architectures in Engineering Education. Blueprints and Challenges. In: The 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2013), Aachen, Germany, pp. 548–554 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Hickey, D., Itow, R., Schenke, K., Tran, C., Otto, N., Chow, C.: Badges Design Principles Documentation Project. Interim Report (January 20, 2014), http://iudpd.indiana.edu/JanuaryReport (retrieved from)

  23. Greene, J.A., Azevedo, R.: A Theoretical Review of Winne and Hadwin’s Model of Self-Regulated Learning. Review of Educational Research 77(3), 334–372 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. O’Byrne, W.I.: Challenges in Launching and Hosting an Open, Digital Badge Initiative (July 31, 2013), http://goo.gl/kZ2Icj (retrieved on February 11, 2014)

  25. Klein, J.: BadgeKit: An Invitation to Innovation (October 21, 2013), http://goo.gl/v1UeIA (retrieved on February 11, 2014)

  26. Knight, E.: BadgeKit, the Why (October 29, 2013), http://erinknight.com/post/65443778764/badgekit-the-why (retrieved on February 11, 2014)

  27. Cole-Karagory, M.: Introducing BadgeKit (November 19, 2013), http://www.slideshare.net/megan_cole/mozilla-badge-kitfinal (retrieved on February 10, 2014)

  28. Carey, K.: The Higher Education Monopoly is Crumbling as We Speak. The New Republic (March 13, 2012), http://goo.gl/uHZZcu (retrieved on January 25, 2013)

  29. Young, J.R.: ‘Badges’ Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas. Chronicle of Higher Education (January 8, 2012), http://chronicle.com/article/Badges-Earned-Online-Pose/130241/ (retrieved on January 25, 2013)

  30. Surman, M.: How We’re Making Education More Like the Web (February 12, 2014), http://goo.gl/58aqVd (retrieved on February 15, 2014)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Jovanovic, J., Devedzic, V. (2014). Open Badges: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Popescu, E., Lau, R.W.H., Pata, K., Leung, H., Laanpere, M. (eds) Advances in Web-Based Learning – ICWL 2014. ICWL 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8613. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09635-3_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09635-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09634-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09635-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics