Open Digital Badges and Reward Structures

Abstract

In recent years, web-enabled credentials for learning have emerged, primarily in the form of Open Badges. These new credentials can contain specific claims about competency, evidence supporting those claims, links to student work, and traces of engagement. Moreover, these credentials can be annotated, curated, shared, discussed, and endorsed over digital networks, which can provide additional meaning. However, digital badges have also reignited the simmering debate over rewards for learning. This is because they have been used by some and characterized by many as inherently "extrinsic" motivators. Our chapter considers this debate in light of a study that traced the development and evolution of 30 new Open Badge systems. Seven arguments are articulated: (1) digital badges are inherently more meaningful than grades and other credentials; (2) circulation in digital networks makes Open Badges particularly meaningful; (3) Open Badges are particularly consequential credentials; (4) the negative consequences of extrinsic rewards are overstated; (5) consideration of motivation and badges should focus primarily on social activity and secondarily on individual behavior and cognition; (6) situative models of engagement are ideal for studying digital credentials; and (7) the motivational impact of digital credentials should be studied across increasingly formal "levels." Digital badges are a new kind of learning credential that can contain hyperlinks that provide easy access to relevant web-enabled information. In contrast to grades and degrees, digital badges can contain specific claims about competencies, details about how those competencies were acquired, and links to evidence such as completed work and traces of engagement. Recognizing

A Badge, Not a Barrier

“…Not all challenges to implementation are easily addressed, and many of the sociocultural issues are still ongoing in our project, such as the broader acceptance of badge credibility, consistent with our previous fndings and related work on digital badge systems [22,46,47,59]. Nevertheless, as a secondary contribution of this paper, we draw on our fndings to propose a set of design recommendations to address each of the three categories of challenges associated with badge system design and implementation.…”

“…In recent years, digital badges have become increasingly central to discussions about alternate forms of assessment and credentialing [9,29,46,70]. Proponents, pointing to features like evidence-containing metadata and transportability across contexts, claim that badges have the potential to recognize learning in a richer, more transparent, and more equitable manner than traditional credentials such as diplomas [29].…”

“…To date, the bulk of research on badges has focused on their potential rather than the actual impact of their longterm implementation [46,48]. Initiatives such as Mozilla's Open Badges have worked to create a uniform standard for microcredentials, ostensibly to gain more acceptance and thus wider use [48].…”

Evaluation of awarding badges on Student’s engagement in Gamified e-learning systems

“…Following the literature, the target population of the present study was screened adequately to be experimented to draw a more precise understanding of the current levels of engagement aspects (Welch et al 1992). This study uses badges as awards as incentives for successful completion of quizzes and other parts answered by the students (Hickey and Schenke 2019).…”

Supporting learners’ STEM-oriented career pathways with digital badges

“…This work suggests that digital badges are not a panacea for creating equity across every community. However, badges do offer an opportunity for broader inclusion across multiple contexts because they can be used to recognize achievements in any learning environment or workplace provided the proper infrastructure is in place (Hickey et al , 2015; Hickey and Schenke, 2018).…”