This presentation provides an introduction to Mozilla's Open Badges Infrastructure and the opportunities an open, standards-based, digital credentialling system can provide. An insight into the Open Badges Discovery project will be provided and consideration given to how badge-based pathways to employment can be used to benefit people who are thinking about what their next step might be - be that education, training or employment.
8. OU Symposium 09/06/2014 8
»Assessments and
identification of learning,
attributes and competencies
»An open infrastructure for
issuing, managing and sharing
the credentials
9. Badge Backpack
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Online store for earner’s badges
Can display on: Professional profiles, e.g. LinkedIn /
Blogs / Personal websites / Social media / e-Portfolios...
14. Employer pathways
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Using a pathway as an issuer
»Create a pathway template that makes suggestions for
particular jobs
»Creates a clear statement about the employer’s needs
» Provides opportunity to highlight badges linked to
learning opportunities, eg Mozilla Web Literacy badges
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Using a pathway as an earner / prospective employee
» Fill in pathways with badges
»Tell their story
»Set goals (unearned badges)
» Plan a career
»Copy pathways to explore options
Earner / employee pathways
18. OU Symposium 09/06/2014
Jisc RSC Scotland
Issuing badges to:
»Accredit the acquisition and
application of digital skills
»Recognise contribution to the
learning of others
»Reward the sharing of practice
»Increase the learning of the
sector
»Motivate engagement with Jisc
services
Recognising digital skills development
From Flickr by justus.thane
18
19. Jisc RSC Scotland
Digital
Innovator
• iTechs
• Forums
• Webinars
Digital
Leadership
• OBSEG
Members
• Open
Badges
Design Day
• Assessment
Summit
Digital
Practitioner
• Learning
OnLine
courses
• F2F
workshops
• Day events
Current Open Badge Series
http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?page_id=3080
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22. Learning OnLine Open Badges
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Digital skills courses - Influencer Badge
23. Open Badges
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What people are saying about Open Badges
“It was nice to see a badges scheme in operation. I really
did think that collecting badges incentivised my
participation.”
Participant, Jisc e-Assessment for Learning course
24. Open Badges
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What people are saying about Open Badges
“…while academic achievements can be evidenced by
an…academic transcript, there is no such evidence of
so-called soft skills – the personal attributes that
enhance a graduate’s work ethic, job performance,
interaction with work colleagues and, ultimately,
their career prospects. I am convinced that Open
Badges can …evidence the development of these
personal attributes in a way that is recognisable to, and
trusted by, employers.”
TomCaira, Chair of the IndustrialAdvisory Board (Computing). University of theWest of Scotland
25. Opportunities provided by Open Badges
»Learners can use badges to consider career, learning or
interest-based pathways
»Provide evidence of skills and attributes not picked up in
formal qualifications
»Showcase these in online professional profiles
»Employers can search online to identify individuals with
the right mix of skills and attributes for a specific job
»Access evidence of what has been badged
»Create and influence relationships through endorsement
of badges
D14 - Open Thinking, Open Learning 30/05/2014 25
26. Further information
»Mozilla Open Badges
› http://openbadges.org
»Mozilla Discovery Project
› http://discover.openbadges.org/
»Jisc RSC Scotland Open Badges
› http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?page_id=2223
»Open Badges case studies
› rsc-scotland.org/?tag=open-badges
»Open Badges blog posts
› http://bit.ly/openbadgesposts
»Open Badges in Scottish Education Group
› http://bit.ly/obseg
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27. OU Symposium
The role of badging for recognising
skills, abilities and learning
Grainne Hamilton @grainnehamilton
http://grainnehamilton.com/
Notes de l'éditeur
Increasingly many of the ways in which we work, communicate and learn involve the online environment.
Increasingly employers and recruitment agencies are also using the online environment to find potential candidates for jobs.
- So how can we help meet the needs of digital learners and also help students to stand out and demonstrate their employability in the online environment?
Mozilla have developed an open infrastructure which allows anyone to earn, issue and share digital credentials across the web.
The most obvious part of the system are probably the badges, the digital credentials.
Open Badges are information infused images. This concept is nothing new, think of coats of arms or kite marks – the images provide information to the viewer
So what is a badge?
Online, visual representations of achievements, skills, attributes, learning, competencies, contributions etc
Digital badges with metadata baked in – these include criteria and can include evidence
Align to a standard developed by an international community
Underpinned by the Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI) developed by Mozilla
Provide an opportunity to capture and demonstrate some of those skills that are not currently explicit in an academic qualification, such as soft skills like presentation and communication skills, employability skills like leadership, the ability to mentor others, being a good team player and so on
The open infrastructure is key to ensuring the credentials or badges, are not locked away in closed systems but that earners can display these credentials in whichever online platform they find useful.
Earners store their badges in a badgepack. Currently there is one provided by Mozilla but as it is an open infrastructure, there is scope for other providers to create their own badge stores for providers to create their own. Earners can then choose to add their badges or groups of badges to online platforms such as recruitment sites, professional profile sites, on their own blogs, personal websites etc.
We have been exploring the potential of Open Badges at the Jisc RSC Scotland for over 2 years and piloting them with our courses and other services. Here is a quote from one of our participants. Borders College, who Suzanne will talk about in more detail soon have also been issuing badges this year, and can see clear potential for them. The Vice-Principal comments how they can help to motivate learning, improve retention and help learners stand out in the jobs market.
For any new accreditation system to be worthwhile, it must be useful for employers. Tom Caira, the Chair of the Industrial Advisory Board (Computing) at UWS which has around 80 members from the computing industry including large multi-nationals to local employers, talks about how he believes Open Badges could help to evidence some of the attributes employers are looking for.