Technical Math Digital badge presentation for League of Innovation's STEMTech 2016 in Philadelphia PA.

1. Digital Badges Encourage Attainment
of Discrete Math Skills
Brenda Perea, Instructional Design Project Mgr.
Katherine Woodmansee, Instructional Designer
Colorado Community College System

2. COLORADO COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM BADGE CONSORTIUM

3. • 76 percent of CEOs of companies in the Inc. 5000 say finding qualified people is a major concern for their
companies.
• In a survey of 126 CEOs of major U.S. companies conducted by the Business Roundtable and Change the
Equation, 97 percent of respondents cited the skills gap as a problem, and 62 percent reported trouble
finding applicants for jobs requiring information technology and advanced computer knowledge
Finding and retaining people with the skills they need.
Employers Frustration
3

4. CONSULTED WITH BUSINESS ADVISORY GROUP
Concerns were:
▪Students cannot:
▪do math in the real world
▪problem solve with ”real issues”
▪“give an answer unless someone tells them
they are right”

5. TO QUOTE NASA ASTRONAUTS:
“HOUSTON WE HAVE A
PROBLEM”

6. RETHINKING HIGHER EDUCATION MATH
New Ideas sometimes require out of the box thinking
Develop a free and open MOOC
▪ Open for all and however provided an incentive for Colorado residents
▪ provided a loop to lure participants to higher educational institutions in the state with
challenge test for credit
▪ Start with Technical Math for Industry
▪ CTE math pathway
How is Math Used in the Workplace?

7. STEP 1—CHUNK
COMPETENCIES IT
AREAS OF SPECIALTIES
Competencies
I. Demonstrate knowledge and use of ratios, proportions and percent.
II. Demonstrate knowledge and use of units of measure.
III. Demonstrate knowledge and use of signed numbers.
IV. Demonstrate knowledge and use of powers of ten and scientific notation.
V. Demonstrate knowledge and use of algebraic operations.
VI. Demonstrate knowledge and use of algebraic equations and formulas.
VII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of systems of equations.
VIII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of angles.
IX. Demonstrate knowledge and use of triangles.
X. Demonstrate knowledge and use of circles and polygons.
XI. Demonstrate knowledge and use of geometric solids.
XII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of basic trig properties for sin, cos and tan.
XIII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of vectors.
XIV. Demonstrate knowledge and use of finance.
XV. Demonstrate knowledge and use of graphs.
XVI. Demonstrate knowledge and use of logarithms.
XVII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of statistics.

8. I. Demonstrate knowledge and use of ratios, proportions and percent.
II. Demonstrate knowledge and use of units of measure.
III. Demonstrate knowledge and use of signed numbers.
IV. Demonstrate knowledge and use of powers of ten and scientific
notation.
V. Demonstrate knowledge and use of algebraic operations.
VI. Demonstrate knowledge and use of algebraic equations and
formulas.
VII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of systems of equations.
VIII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of angles.
IX. Demonstrate knowledge and use of triangles.
X. Demonstrate knowledge and use of circles and polygons.
XI. Demonstrate knowledge and use of geometric solids.
XII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of basic trig properties for sin, cos
and tan.
XIII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of vectors.
XIV. Demonstrate knowledge and use of finance.
XV. Demonstrate knowledge and use of graphs.
XVI. Demonstrate knowledge and use of logarithms.
XVII. Demonstrate knowledge and use of statistics.
STEP 2--DESIGN
NUMBERS CONVERSIONS &
MEASUREMENTS
ALGEBRAIC ESSENTIALS
GEOMETRY
BASIC TRIGONOMETRY,
VECTORS & LOGARITHMS
STATISTICS AND GRAPHS
FINANCE

9. DESIGN
▪We developed the MOOC with 5 topics with material from
NROC, Khan Academy and contextualized the material for
Advanced Manufacturing….
▪For instance Module 1 had 11 lessons with a combined
instructional pages of approximately 78 not including the
exam

10. STEP 3—TEST IT OUT
Findings
▪ Students were struggling with completing the designed MOOC
▪ Complaints was that there was too much material and it was overwhelming
▪ Really, only the successful students were completing all the modules in
the MOOC
▪ Struggling students gave up
Statistics
Year 1: (2 MOOC sessions) 1231 participants
Only 22 completed the course, but 667 or 54% completed at least one
module

11. REDESIGNED THE MOOC INTO
SMALLER MICRO-LESSONS
Micro-Assessment at the end of
each Micro-Lesson
To pass a student must pass a
comprehensive randomized multiple choice
test at 80% or higher on the first attempt.

12. FAIR WARNING
▪ We broke down the material into the sub-topics within the 5 major
topics
▪ Estimated time in each sub-topic to be no longer than 10
minutes, many sub-topics were much shorter
▪ Continued to edit the content material from NROC, Khan
Academy and contextualized the material for Advanced
Manufacturing….
▪ For instance Module 1 has 3 subtopics each with approximately 26
items of content
▪ Each of those sub-topic lessons might have topical lessons of 7
content items

13. TESTING--IN YEAR 2
Findings
▪ Students completed specific micro-lessons
▪ Employers discovered the MOOC and were sending their employees to
the MOOC to upskill or reskill their workers
▪ Problem to solve:
▪ Employers had no way to tell if employees completed any section of the
MOOC
Statistics
Year 2: (4 MOOC sessions) 2039 participants
38 completed the course, 1427 or 70% completed at least one module

14. INTRODUCING DIGITAL BADGES
RECOGNIZING SKILL ATTAINMENT AT A GRANULAR LEVEL

15. What is a Digital Badge?

16. STEP 4--VISIONING ON HOW TO START….2015
▪ Vision is that piloting MOOC Math badges would be developed which could be the
model for a system wide badging initiative
▪ Every badge issued or accepted is tied to: specific standards/or competency,
evaluation and evidence of micro-learning.

17. REDESIGNED THE MOOC INTO SMALLER
MICRO-LESSONS
Each micro-assessment has the potential for a digital
badge
To pass a student must pass a comprehensive randomized multiple
choice test at 80% or higher on the first attempt.
Each specialty area had a cumulative assessment-
assessment has the potential for a digital badge
To pass a student must pass a comprehensive randomized multiple
choice test at 80% or higher on the first attempt.

18. IN YEAR 3 WITH DIGITAL BADGES
Findings
▪ Employers were still sending their employees to the MOOC and were asking the employees to
show them the earned badges on Credly.com
▪ Students completed specific micro-lessons specifically to earn digital badges
Statistics
Year 3: (4 MOOC sessions) 1039 participants
28 completed the course, 727 or 70 % completed at least one sub-topic to claim a badge
AND…. Of the 727, 436 completed a Topic to earn a Mastery Badge:

19. Digging Deeper into Digital Badge
Metadata

20. WORKFORCE TARGETED BADGES

21. COMPETENCY BASED DIGITAL BADGES
▪ Badge competencies were targeted at CTE courses to accelerate students into and through
programs
▪ Examples:
▪ Welding AAS has a MAT108 requirement
▪ Stackable welding certificates building up to the AAS no MAT108 requirement. With badging math
competencies, the value of the certificate increases since industry wants students to have certain MAT108
skills in the field.
▪ Certified Nursing Program has no math requirement, but to be successful need to understand ratio, proportion,
percent, and units of measure.
▪ Badge those areas of the MOOC, then their “application” into the program is ranked higher due to the math
badges
▪ Machining requires basic trigonometry and advanced geometry
▪ Stackable certificates do not require math course, students will be able to show math competency required
for most entry level jobs

22. CCCS Workforce Targeted Badges
Industry driven badge competencies: Technical Math for Industry
https://www.cccs.edu/badges/technical-math/
22
WWW.CCCS.EDU/BADGES

23. CCCS Workforce Targeted Badges
Industry driven badge competencies: Machining Level I—NIMS Competency based
WWW.CCCS.EDU/BADGES
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https://www.cccs.edu/badges/machining-level-1/

24. CCCS Workforce Targeted Badges
Industry driven badge competencies: 4-year to 2-year Engineering Graphics
https://www.cccs.edu/badges/msu-denver-engineering-graphics/
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https://www.cccs.edu/badges/engineering-graphics/

25. On and Off Ramps for Learners in the Journey Post-Secondary
Education and Careers

26. BUILDING CAREER AND LEARNING PATHWAYS WITH DIGITAL BADGES

27. POTENTIAL BADGING PROJECTS SPRING 2017
▪ CYBERSECURITY
▪ WELDING
▪ GUNSMITHING TO AGRA-BUSINESS
▪ OSHA

28. CC BY AND ATTRIBUTION
▪ This Workforce Solution, presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work created under the
Department of Labor, TAACCCT3 grant, permissions beyond the scope of this license
may be available at CCCS