What have we learned from Open Badge Factory statistics and user feedback?

1. What have we learned from Open
Badge Factory statistics and user
feedback?
Eric Rousselle
Discendum Oy

2. Discendum Oy
• Finnish eLearning service provider
• Our clients: educational, vocational establishments and
companies
• Our services:
– Optima and Totara LMS
– Kyvyt.fi ePortfolio
– Open Badge Factory
• Mahara and Totara partner
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3. Open Badges Concept in a nutshell
• Developed by the Mozilla Foundation
• ”A digital badge is an online representation of a skill you’ve
earned. ” – Source: openbadges.org
• Granular, user centered, portable
• New online standard to recognize and verify learning (Open
Badges Infrastructure)
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4. Open Badges Anatomy
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Source: http://www.openbadges.org/en-US/about.html#how-it-works
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5. Roles of the Open Badges concept
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Source: http://www.openbadges.org/en-US/about.html#how-it-works
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6. Backpack and displayers
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Source: http://www.openbadges.org/en-US/about.html#how-it-works
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7. 10.7.20147

8. What is Open Badge Factory?
• An Open Badge management system provided as a cloud
service
• OBF has been designed to serve organizations
• Core ideas:
– Trusted badges / verified issuers
– Strong management features (roles and reports)
– Distributed issuance of badges (Open API / Plugins)
– Advanced features such as:
• Badge requests
• Milestone badges
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9. Open Badge Factory is an open
innovation project
funded by The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology
and Innovation
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10. Project partners and advisers
• Discendum (development and coordination)
• The Teacher Training School of Turku University (piloting)
• Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius (research and
consulting)
• OK Study Center (piloting)
• IlonaIT Oy (piloting)
• Raisoft Oy (piloting)
• Learning Agents Inc. (adviser)
• Mozilla Foundation (adviser)
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11. The OBF project schedule
• Started officially on 1.8.2013
• First version released on 15.1.2014
• Piloting period from January to December 2014
• Release of the final version December 2014
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12. Organizations piloting OBF
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• About 120 pilot organizations from 22
countries
• 34 organizations from Finland:
– 14 non-profit / vocational
– 13 educational
– 7 business

13. What did we learn?
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Source: http://www.openbadges.org/en-US/about.html#how-it-works
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14. Our sources
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Source: http://www.openbadges.org/en-US/about.html#how-it-works
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• Finnish pilot organizations and partners’ feedback
• Earners’ feedback (Discendum’s badges)
• Potential customers’ comments
• OBF statistics about Discendum’s badges
• OBF system level statistics

15. At a general level
• Open Bagdes concept seems to generate interest worldwide
• About 70% of OBF issuer organizations are vocational
organizations
• Schools and universities (about 25% of OBF users) show a
growing interest, but in the world of formal learning the role of
badges is yet to be clarified
• Open Bagdes is a new concept, most potential badge issuers
and earners have never heard about it
• We have got encouraging feedback from business sector
organizations but getting them involved requires case studies
and references
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16. OBF’s sysadmin statistics
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17. Some facts
• Creating a test badge is easy, but creating meaningful badges
and badge systems requires strategic thinking, planning skills
and team work – That takes time and requires resources!
• Only 12% or earners have put their badges in their backpack.
Why? This average number does not reveal the entire truth
but it’s a fact that
– Earner’s need to get some information about the concept before
they get their first badges
– The process of receiving a badge in the backpack and displaying
it is for many earners far too complex and meaningless
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18. An alternative to the backpack?
• ”Where do our employees store and display their badges? In
the Mozilla backpack? Are you serious?”
• The main issue with the backpack is not the complexity of
receiving a bagde, but the fact that it’s just a technical
repository. It’s meaningless at least in the working life’s
context!
• A good alternative to the backpack is a badge passport,
which could be developed as an easy-to-use micro-porfolio.
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19. A ”badges first” approach to portfolios
• Could be an alternative to heavy academic portfolio practices
• As criterion-based trust statements, open badges can make
portfolios more meaningful and simplify the work of their
authors and ”consumers” (searchability)
• The first step could be simple: gathering badges in the
passport
• The second step: organizing and displaying views
• The third step: reflecting and building the big picture, building
a substantial portfolio
• Key words are: simplicity and usability
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20. The OBF micro-portfolio
• Simplicity:
– Receiving / rejecting badges with one mouse-click
– Easy displaying of badge pages (links, embedded code)
• Community features:
– Groups
– Networking based on badges (search, skill profiles, skill gaps…)
– Endorsements
– Leader boards and gaming features supporting motivation
• Other:
– Multilingual badges
– Resume
– Importing / exporting of badges
– Open Source and development on Drupal
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21. Seaching for skilled earners
Issuers Earners Audience

22. Competence map / goals / gaps

23. Information and contacts
Openbadgefactory.com
eric.rousselle@discendum.com
heli.karjalainen@discendum.com
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