Evaluation and Credentialing in Digital Music Communities

Suhr, Hiesun Cecilia

doi:10.7551/mitpress/10004.001.0001

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…This suggests that at least some of the observed effect may be unique to badges, or at least processes which are closely tied to individuals’ ongoing interpretation of badges. Such an effect is consistent with our theory that learners’ perceptions of badges’ relevance—often manifested in qualitative studies as reports of badges having value, desirability, contextual meaning, or nontriviality (Davis & Singh, 2015; Suhr, 2014; Wardrip et al, 2014)—play a role in learner decisions to engage with the badged activities, and continue to do so over time.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…PBR is modeled as a latent factor representing the degree to which learners believed the programs’ badges to be relevant to them, in terms of contextual meaningfulness, value, and desirability; these are aspects underlying badge relevance that were highlighted in prior interview studies with badge earners (Davis & Singh, 2015; Suhr, 2014; Wardrip et al, 2014). PBR was measured using three items on the same 4-point Likert scale as engagement (i.e., 1 = no!…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wardrip et al (2014) interviewed a pilot cohort of students in a school-based badge system, noting that students’ appraisal of the badges’ meaning and value were connected to their assessments of the badges not being trivial to earn. Suhr (2014) likewise noted some members of an online music-making community dismissed its badges as undesirable because they were earned for achievements they considered trivial. In each of these cases, it is clear that potential badge earners are making value judgments about the badge systems, which then predicate their engagement with the badges.…”

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Qualitative studies suggest that this individual-level effect may manifest as differences in learners’ perceptions of badge systems’ relevance (Davis & Singh, 2015; Suhr, 2014; Wardrip, Abramovich, Bathgate, & Kim, 2014). Under this hypothesis, the degree to which individuals perceive a program’s badges as worthwhile and relevant to them subsequently affects the degree to which they engage with that program.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Perceived relevance of digital badges predicts longitudinal change in program engagement.

Higashi¹,

Schunn²

2020

Journal of Educational Psychology

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Digital badges have long been assumed to possess motivational qualities that could encourage learners to engage with learning content. However, prior studies have found the effects of badges to be complex, differing by learner, type of badge, and potentially other factors. Qualitative reports suggest that individuals' perceptions of digital badges may play a role in moderating badges' effects: badges are only motivating when they are perceived as relevant and desirable. In the current study, we examine longitudinal episodes of data from 2,410 middle and high school users of a badged online programming curriculum to test whether there is evidence that learners' perceptions of badges' relevance predict changes in engagement over time; and whether that relationship is equitable with respect to age, sex, and ethnicity. We also investigate whether a reciprocal relationship may exist in which engagement predicts relative increases in learners' perceptions of badges as relevant to them. Learners' positive perceptions of badges' relevance predicted rank-order increases in engagement over time. Further, this relationship did not vary by age, sex, or minoritized racial/ethnic status. In addition, higher engagement also predicted upward shifts in perceived badge relevance. These results suggest that learners' subjective evaluations of digital badges are closely related to changes in their engagement with program activities, that badged engagement neither widens nor closes educational equity gaps, and that learners' regard for badges and engagement in program activities may be mutually reinforcing. Educational Impact and Implications StatementDigital badges have been making inroads into classrooms and out-of-school time programs for nearly a decade, but their real-world effectiveness as motivational tools vary widely. In this study, we modeled individuals' opinions of badges, and found that learners who perceive a program's badges as sensible, valuable, and desirable become increasingly engaged with that program activities over time. This effect was equally true across age, sex, or race/ethnicity subgroups. Learners who are more engaged also tended to find the badges increasingly relevant over time, creating a "virtuous cycle" of increasing program engagement and perceived badge relevance over the course of the program. Thus, educational programs may be able to use digital badges to sustain and deepen student engagement, provided they create badges that participants find sensible, valuable, and desirable.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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