Putting It All Together General Interest LKRyder Bb Achievements
Now that you know what badges are and how they are being used, it's time to consider how you might be able to use badges even without an LMS. You might also be considering whether motivation, achievement, encouraging behaviors for learning, or even just introducing some fun, are at the heart of your intended use for badges.
It is important to remember, as stated in our readings, that if you use too many badges, their meaningfulness and/or motivational impact will be diluted. Badges that are too difficult can be a barrier. Badges instead of grades in an overly gamified course design can disincentivize intrinsically motivated students who would otherwise eagerly do the work because they enjoy it. Think carefully about the best way to implement a badging initiative in your course design, maximizing its impact on the areas that can most benefit from the unique characteristics of game designs and/or nuanced recognition of achievements.
Examples of using badges in training and education (not Blackboard Achievements)
There are many ways to earn badges on the web and start collecting evidence of your achievements. Several Open Source Resources (OERs) and free education and learning sites will grant badges for work you complete. It is good idea to try out some of the existing models that are available and see how it impacts your motivation or interest. Take a look at these badge earning opportunities:
There are many other ways to collect badges for learning on the web, and students could use supplemental material and collect badges that apply to your course. The instructor can view and assess the validity of the badge toward coursework if the student keeps a Backpack, which would not require you to have the capability of issuing badges yourself.
If you have the capability of issuing badges, and might be considering gamification and badging, be sure to provide opportunities for intrinsically motivated students to succeed and earn badges doing what they would already do (excel in classwork) as well as making progress and effort visible to all students in the class. In the example below you can see that completing all the work will earn the badge automatically, but extra badging opportunities are provided to promote learning behaviors.
File:Quest Map Modern Art History.pdf
The file above is an example from an Art History course where the gamification involved weekly quests, with weekly tools and badges that could be used to earn additional points toward 3 badging schemes for desirable behaviors: cognitive, social and teaching presence in an online community of inquiry. As you can see the weekly quest is not contingent on an LMS although this course was designed in Moodle. It will be recreated in Blackboard, but could also be used in some of the other non-LMS products listed below.
As you put together the possible strategies for using badges inside and outside of your standard instructional setting, consider gamification of some of the less intrinsically fun parts of your course content. Learning facts, memorizing vocabulary, reviewing foundation knowledge and breaking down reading tasks are all great ways to use gamification to create a more fun activity while supporting the type of behavior and time on task we know leads to deeper learning.
How can I issue digital badges if I don't have an LMS?
Issuing badges is more complex than just designing or making the badge image itself. You need to have some strong technical background and the ability to set up very specific types of communications between various servers, or you need to find a plug-in for a product you are already using, or you can find a standalone product that may or may not integrate with the OpenBadges project.
If you have the institutional resources to set up a web server that issues badges, Mozilla has significant resources here at this site:
Mozilla Badges/Onboarding-Issuer
Some of the other products for which you can install badge issuing capabilities are:
- Wordpress
- Drupal
- Googlesites
You can see a list of these and other "widgets" and how to use them here:
Additional badging for education resources are also available
Here is a K-12 resource: Classbadges
Here is a robust platform: Credly
You can also try using a free LMS:
Free LMS that have badge capabilities:
- CourseSites is a free Blackboard LMS site where you could use the Achievements Tool. If you try this, come back and use the Blackboard Achievements path to learn how to use the badges and certificates.
- Moodle
Where do learners display their badges?
If you want to use badges in your class/course design, but are not using an LMS, your students can create a "backpack" of earned badges with links to what they did to earn them by creating an account in the Mozilla Open Badges Backpack. This becomes a portfolio of badges from various sources that an individual can use to demonstrate their achievements within or without a traditional academic setting.
Students could complete online badge granting activities through OER sites like Kahn Academy, and those badges can be supplemental to the class grading schemes.
Use this link to create an account and experiment with collecting badges.
Some learners, especially professionals, may want to display earned badges in their online profiles, such as on LinkedIn. The links below provides detailed instructions on how to bring badges from Mozilla (or Credly, another platform) to your LinkedIn page.
How to display open badges on your LinkedIn profile
How to Display your Open Badges on your LinkedIn Profile
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