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where badges are being piloted are varied but strong themes include staff and academic CPD , employability / entrepreneurial modules , development of soft skills such as leadership , and also in MOOCs .
Issuing of badges 31 respondents said they were using the institutions ’ virtual learning environment ( learning management system ) to issue their Open Badges , but in the ‘ Other ’ category there were 5 responses saying “ Moodle ” so the initial figure should rise to 36 , and the other responses should drop to 22 ( figure 15 ). This high figure is expected as most institutions have some form of VLE , and Open Badges are part of the core product of the two most popular VLEs ( Blackboard and Moodle ).
40.00 % 35.00 % 30.00 % 25.00 % 20.00 % 15.00 % 10.00 % 5.00 % 0.00 %
How are you issuing your badges ? ( Or how are you planning to issue them ?)
Series1 Series2 Series3 Series4 Series5
Figure 15 : Issuing badges
17 of the ‘ other ’ responses are either for the creation of the institution ’ s own application to issue badges , or exploring other badge software . In total , 49 ( 40 %) are exploring a different mechanism than using the institutional VLE / LMS for awarding badges .
Conclusions It can be seen from the results of the survey that there is interest internationally in the use of Open Badges , although it can be safely assumed that the technology is in the early adopters ’ stage of Roger ' s ( 2010 ) innovation adoption lifecycle . There is a geographic difference with European institutions describing themselves mainly in the exploratory stage , whereas the United Kingdom and rest of the world allocate themselves differently .
Most respondents who answered the survey , regardless of institutional role , have an awareness of Open Badges , but this can be expected as it is a self-selecting survey . There is a strong academic interest in the use of Open Badges , and the
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student response seems to be very positive . This correlates with the findings of Hakulinen mentioned on page 4 of this report . When comparing the purpose of Open Badges , Europe and the rest of the world are not using them extensively for staff CPD .
Further research is needed in relation to the barriers for entry with a shortage of good practice examples and the need for further development of the badge concept being seen as the main barriers . Further exploration of the areas of the concept requiring development would be beneficial .
With 49 respondents exploring different mechanisms other than the VLE / LMS to deliver badges , does this also suggest that the implementation found in some VLEs is not meeting the requirements of educational institutions ?
References
Abramovich , S ., Schunn , C . & Higashi , R . M . ( 2013 ). Are badges useful in education ?: it depends upon the type of badge and expertise of learner . Educational Technology Research and Development , 61 ( 2 ), pp . 217 – 232 . Available at : http :// link . springer . com / 10.1007 / s11423-013- 9289-2
Clark , R ., Howard , K . & Early , S . ( 2006 ). Motivational Challenges Experienced in Highly Complex Learning Environments . Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters . Available at : http :// digitalcommons . chapman . edu / educatio n _ books / 16 [ Accessed May 25 , 2016 ].
Glover , I . & Latif , F . ( 2013 ). Investigating perceptions and potential of Open Badges in formal higher education . In World Conference on Educational Multimedia , Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2013 . pp . 1398 – 1402 . Available at : http :// shura . shu . ac . uk / 7173 /.
Hakulinen , L ., Auvinen , T . & Korhonen , A . ( 2013 ). Empirical study on the effect of achievement badges in TRAKLA2 online learning environment . Proceedings - 2013 Learning and Teaching in Computing and Engineering , LaTiCE 2013 , pp . 47 – 54 .
Kapp , K .( 2013 ). The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook : Ideas into Practice , Hoboken : Wiley .
Lau , H . -H . et al . ( 2014 ). Impact of participation in extra-curricular activities during college on graduate employability : an empirical study of graduates of Taiwanese business schools .
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