Teachers’ Perceptions of the NASA STEM EPDC Digital Badging System as a Model of Personalized Professional Development

Unlike the ineffective generic approach often used for teacher professional development, NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative (EPDC) Digital Badging offers access to a highly organized system of knowledge and personalized, online professional development (PD) through digital badging. This qualitative case study provided an in-depth view of teacher perspectives of the value of NASA STEM EPDC Digital Badging as a model for personalized STEM professional development. The population for this study consisted of ten K-12 teachers, from a rural Southwest Virginia school system, who participated in the STEM-UP after school program and experienced PD through NASA STEM EPDC Digital Badging. Data from STEM-UP 2019 program evaluations and teacher responses from semi-structured interviews were used to inform this research. This study focused on teacher demographics, educational advantages and motivating factors that caused teachers to persist with the program, their perceptions of the badging for personalized learning and how the training fit into the over-all learning ecosystem. Data shows that teachers perceive the badge training as motivating, useful, personalized and effective as a form of PD that easily transfers learning into the classroom. Results of this study imply that NASA STEM EPDC Digital Badging was useful for the STEM-UP teachers and may be effective PD in other learning situations

Teacher Perceptions of the Digital Badge in Kindergarten Reading Attainment

Educators are consistently seeking appropriate measures of assessment and guidance tools in the 21st century. Tools in classrooms today are lacking the needs relevant to digital natives. Digital badges are a form of assessment, achievement, and accomplishment that show competencies and growth. This phenomenological research study was conducted to examine the experiences of seven teachers and three principals in a suburban school in a Northeastern state regarding the implementation of the digital badge in early literacy. The analysis of the data showed digital badges as intrinsically engaging, preferred over report cards, with a strong impact on instruction and relationships, validating, visual, and creating equitable and opportunity-based learning. Digital badges in their infancy may create challenges in continuation toward carry through to future grades and immature software hardships. The study was guided by a constructivist framework. Using a phenomenological approach, participants completed semistructured interviews, and provided artifacts. Findings revealed the digital badge creates strong partnerships among families, students, teachers and administration. The digital badge serves to engage students and increase academic achievement based on nationally normed tests. Teachers’ perceptions of digital badging were favorable; the digital badging process serves student and learner-centered preferences

Gamificação de competências transversais na Universidade de Aveiro

The need for future employees to show skill beyond that of “hard” knowledge is growing in several industries of the job market. To address the changing expectations of future employers and to guarantee a prosperous professional life, higher education institutions (HEI) are making increasing efforts to provide their students with soft skills, which go beyond that of the traditional courses’ curriculum. Therefore, HEIs are faced with the challenge of teaching transversal competencies to their students while ensuring that their development is authenticated and valued by employing organizations. To this end, open badging and micro-credentials are increasingly being employed, since they provide an answer for both the need for soft skill validation and for motivating their development. Digital badges have been subject to educational research in recent years, with results which point to a successful relationship between gamification, badges and learning outcomes. This work aims to further this research by establishing a theoretical framework for implementing a digital badge strategy to encourage students to perform activities that promote the development of soft skills. Our findings will inform the creation of a badge system suited be adapted and applied to various learning contexts and institutions.A necessidade de trabalhadores demonstrarem competências para além das de conhecimento técnico está a aumentar em diversas indústrias no mercado de trabalho. Para encarar as crescentes expectativas de futuros empregadores e garantir um futuro profissional mais próspero, as instituições de ensino superior (IES) estão a investir cada vez mais na aquisição de competências transversais por parte dos seus estudantes, que vão para além das do currículo tradicional. Deste modo, as IES estão perante o desafio de ensinar competências transversais aos seus alunos ao mesmo tempo que procuram assegurar que o seu desenvolvimento é autenticado e valorizado por organizações empregadoras. Observa-se, para este fim, uma crescente adoção de “Open Badges” e micro-credenciais, visto que estas oferecem uma solução tanto para a necessidade de validação de competências transversais como para a motivação para a sua aprendizagem por parte dos alunos. Durante os últimos anos, os crachás digitais têm sido alvo de investigação educacional, cujo resultado aponta para uma relação proveitosa entre gamificação, crachás e resultados de aprendizagem. Este trabalho tem como objetivo expandir essa investigação ao estabelecer um enquadramento que sirva para a implementação de uma estratégia de crachás digitais para encorajar alunos a realizarem atividades que promovam o desenvolvimento de competências transversais. Os resultados deste estudo poderão ainda ser utilizados para guiar a construção de um sistema de crachás apto para se adaptar a vários contextos de aprendizagem e instituições.Mestrado em Comunicação Multimédi

Digital badges for STEM learning in secondary contexts: A mixed methods study

The deficit in STEM skills is a matter of concern for national economies and a major focus for educational policy makers. The development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has resulted in a rapidly changing workforce of global scale. In addition, ICT have fostered the growth of digital and mobile technologies which have been the learning context, formal and informal, for a generation of youth. The purpose of this study was to design an intervention based upon a competency-based, digitally-mediated, learning intervention: digital badges for learning STEM habits of mind and practices. Designed purposefully, digital badge learning trajectories and criteria can be flexible tools for scaffolding, measuring, and communicating the acquisition of knowledge, skills, or competencies. One of the most often discussed attributes of digital badges, is the ability of badges to motivate learners. However, the research base to support this claim is in its infancy; there is little empirical evidence. A skills-based digital badge intervention was designed to demonstrate mastery learning in key, age-appropriate, STEM competencies aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and other educational standards. A mixed methods approach was used to study the impact of a digital badge intervention in the sample middle and high school population. Among the findings were statistically significant measures which substantiate that in this student population, the digital badges increased perceived competence and motivated learners to persist at task

Refining Open Educational Resources For Both Learner And Institution

The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement over the past ten years has described many benefits of releasing learning for free, including business remunerations to institutions as well as a means to altruistically reach underserved groups. By examining learner behaviour and motivation, the papers collated for this PhD by Published Work bring a critical analysis to the experience of delivering OER addressing the broad research question “How can the refinement of OER benefit both learner and institution?”. A range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and associated website analytics are used to investigate the challenges of repurposing OER together with how the motivations of those wishing to take advantage of OER usage can be better supported. During the five-year time line of these papers, formal students and informal learners, predominantly UK-based, were surveyed by the author generating several thousand responses. These surveys focussed mainly on a large institutional endeavour to deliver OER at The Open University, key findings from which show the business impact of open educational practice where literature had provided only theoretical assumptions. The data also exposes the many and varied motivations of learners using OER where literature has focused largely on the experience and attitudes of educators. The thesis reveals learners’ problems with OER usability more generally, and critically, the desire for certification of OER study against the prohibitive costs of studying in higher education. It describes the development by the author and associated impact of the application of digital badges (or ‘micro-credentials’) to reward users of OER as recognition for informal learning achievements. The thesis includes recommendations that extend beyond one institution’s OER policy, regarding the design and curation of OER globally to better serve the needs of learners, particularly those who cannot afford formal study. It also highlights the need to bring together OER and micro-credentials more cohesively to explore the potential of a framework of core work-related skills needed for a digital economy. It is concluded that there is an economy of scale to the delivery of OER, but that the key to successful impact is through robust open educational practice, instructional design and tangible recognition to learners of their achievements

Principios de design de distintivos digitais para programas de educação profissional continuada: uma revisão exploratoria

Digital badges are visual representations of a skill, ability or knowledge acquired by a person. Their practical usefulness is to grant these features visibility through broadcasting on online platforms, in addition to storing and publishing evidence and data about the depicted achievement. This new technology is capable of transforming accreditation and evaluation processes for educational and corporate contexts, by providing specific information participants performance in training or work related activities. An exploratory review of sixteen digital badge projects applied in continuing professional education programs was carried out. Details on the design trends and results of these projects were published in twenty documents registered in Scopus and Web of Science. It was determined that the most used design principles were those related to the recognition and evaluation of competences and skills, a situation that agrees with the interest of the participants in that the knowledge learned obtain greater visibility and usefulness for their professional development. In any case, it is recommended to offer more information about the benefits of digital badges to enrich and promote learning experiences in similar educational programs.Las insignias digitales son representaciones visuales de una competencia, habilidad o conocimiento adquirido por una persona. Su utilidad práctica es otorgar visibilidad a estas características mediante su difusión en plataformas digitales, además de almacenar datos y evidencias acerca del logro alcanzado. Esta nueva tecnología puede transformar los procesos de acreditación y evaluación en contextos educativos y corporativos, al proveer de información específica sobre el desempeño de los participantes en distintas actividades. Se realizó una revisión exploratoria de dieciséis proyectos de insignias digitales aplicados en programas de educación continua profesional. Los detalles sobre las tendencias de diseño y resultados de estos proyectos fueron publicados en veinte documentos registrados en las bases de datos Scopus y Web of Science. Se concluyó que los principios de diseño más utilizados fueron aquellos relacionados con el reconocimiento y evaluación de competencias, hecho que concuerda con el interés de los participantes en que los conocimientos aprendidos obtengan mayor visibilidad y utilidad para su desarrollo profesional. Se recomienda difundir los beneficios de las insignias digitales para enriquecer la experiencia de aprendizaje en programas educativos similares.Os emblemas digitais são representações visuais de competências, habilidades ou conhecimentos adquiridos por uma pessoa, cuja utilidade é dar visibilidade a essas características em um ambiente digital. Essa nova tecnologia pode transformar os processos de acreditação e avaliação, ao fornecer informações específicas sobre o desempenho dos participantes em treinamentos ou atividades de trabalho. Foi realizada uma revisão exploratória de dezesseis projetos de emblemas digitais aplicados em programas de educação profissional continuada. Informações detalhadas sobre esses projetos foram publicadas em vinte documentos registrados no Scopus e Web of Science. Determinou-se que os princípios de design mais utilizados foram aqueles relacionados com o reconhecimento e avaliação de competências, situação que vai ao encontro do interesse dos participantes em que os conhecimentos apreendidos obtenham maior visibilidade e utilidade para o seu desenvolvimento profissional. Recomendase divulgar os benefícios dos emblemas digitais para enriquecer a experiência de aprendizagem em programas educacionais

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience