Find the sweet spot of learner engagement by combining the bite-sized power of microlearning with the motivating effect of digital badges. By chunking your content to create microlearning-style tutorials and using digital badges to reward learners and mark their achievements, you will increase learner persistence and success in your online courses!

1. BADGES AND
MICROLEARNING
THE PERFECT MATCH

2. CAL STATE FULLERTON FACULTY
MASTER OF SCIENCE INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
Lindsay O’Neill
jloneill@fullerton.edu
• Case Study
• Program Design
Dr. Cynthia Gautreau
cgautreau@fullerton.edu
• Badges
• Microlearning
Dr. Barbara Glaeser
bglaeser@fullerton.edu
• Learner Persistence

3. GET READY TO RESPOND
We’ll use Kahoot! for a survey and terminology
overview.

4. BADGES

6. DIGITAL BADGES

7. DIGITAL BADGE DEFINITION
•Digital badges are an indicator of accomplishment. Better than
certificates, they have metadata which links back to show what
student did to earn it.
•Badges are also known as microcredentials!

8. DIGITAL BADGES AND HIGHER
EDUCATION
o New to higher education
o Stole the idea from Boy Scouts, video games, and others
o First appeared in 2011, in a white paper by Mozilla Foundation,
Peer 2 Peer University, in collaboration with The MacArthur
Foundation.

9. How do you
recognize
accomplishments
in Pac Man?

10. Too young to remember Pac Man--
what about The Walking Dead?

11. CONFERENCE BADGES

12. DIGITAL BADGES: THREE PARTS
Issuer creates and awards the badge
Recipient receives the badge from issuer
Consumer views the badge on LinkedIn

13. LINKEDIN DIGITAL BADGES
ISSUER

14. RECIPIENT

15. CONSUMER

16. MICROLEARNING
OVERVIEW

17. MICROLEARNING DEFINITION
•Definition: few seconds to 15 minutes!
Often 4 minutes or less.
•Or, as long as it takes to cover a learning objective (or
two).

18. MICROLEARNING DESIGN STRATEGIES
•Learning that happens in small bursts
–Focus on ONE learning objective.
–Typically includes a short high quality video
–Often 4 minutes or less of instruction
–Ask the learner to demonstrate their knowledge (less focus on
answering questions---show what you can do!)

19. LEARNER
PERSISTENCE

20. LEARNER PERSISTENCE
● This part contains SCIENCE which may cause
confusion.
● PERSISTENCE IS RECOMMENDED FOR
MAXIMUM UNDERSTANDING
Self-Determination Theory:
The ability of a learner to self-regulate which
involves learning to control behavior in a
learning environment.

21. THE SELF-REGULATED LEARNER
Learners who can self-
regulate are more effective
because they:
• Are aware of learning as
it happens.
• Over time, they learn
what behaviors result in
maximum learning.
• Learn to do apply these
behaviors strategically
to a variety of learning
situations.
These behaviors are strongly influenced by
motivation.
To encourage motivation, we need to “energize” the
learner (Deci, Vallerand, Peletier, and Ryan, 1991).
Badging does this!

22. HOW DOES BADGING ENERGIZE
THE LEARNER?
Need for COMPETENCE
Badging tells the
learner he or she has
met the learning goals,
and thus, are
competent in that
topic/activity/skill
Need for RELATEDNESS
Badging helps the
learner relate to the
instructor and peers
when they see
themselves on the
Leader Board
Need for AUTONOMY
Badging rewards the
learner for regulating
their learning in ways
that resulted in
success!
ENERGIZATION with badges is based on three goals of behavior:

23. SO HOW DO WE APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE?
BADGING WILL BE MOST SUCCESSFUL IF:
The learner values badges as a reflection their true learning
competence.
• Give choice to the learner to earn badges or skip them.
1.

24. SO HOW DO WE APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE?
BADGING WILL BE MOST SUCCESSFUL IF:
Badges are not seen as “rewards” that are bestowed capriciously by the
instructor, which removes the need for autonomy and control.
• Set badging up so that the learner sees it as an activity under
their control - again, choice is important.
2.

25. SO HOW DO WE APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE?
BADGING WILL BE MOST SUCCESSFUL IF:
The learner can portray him or herself in the most positive social light,
which meets the need for relatedness.
• Allow learners to opt out of the leader board
3.

26. Four Types of Learner:
•Aggressive independent (AI)—High in energy with little need for approval, they prefer to work alone
and are frequently disorganized and impulsive. Direct with others, they prefer to solve situations in
real time, not proactively.
•Passive independent (PI) —Low in energy with little need for approval, they prefer not to participate
and may act contrarily to their own best interests. Frequently underachieving, they may develop
negative feelings toward per-sonal academic ability.
•Aggressive dependent (AD)—High in energy with high need for approval, they are motivated to
participate and actively seek help outside of class. Though frequently high achievers, peer esteem
increases stress instead of satisfaction.
•Passive dependent (PD)—Low in energy with high need for approval, they are compliant and
nonconfrontational. Gentle and caring, their need for approval causes disagreement and criticism to
be interpreted as personal rejection
DO LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS MATTER?
(Fanferelli & Mcdaniel, 2015)

27. DO LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS MATTER?
(Fanferelli & Mcdaniel, 2015)
•44 participants enrolled in either a Badged or Unbadged Web
and Graphic Design Courses.
•Students could view their own badges but not others.
•Results:
–Satisfaction with the course was highly related to the number of Badges earned.
–Passive Dependent (PD) learners performed significantly worse than Aggressive Dependent (AD)
learners in Badged courses than Unbadged courses for engagement and reflective and integrative
learning.
–Why?
• Even though both groups have a high need for approval that Badges provided, it seemed that the higher
energy levels from ADs resulted in higher performance beyond the earning of badges.
–So what?
• Dependent learners will benefit from badging systems that offer badges more frequently, during regular
intervals, to provide a more consistent source of potential approval

28. CASE STUDY
Microlearning + Badges

29. • Regional university
• 40,000 students
• Pressure to scale up
library instruction
SETTING

31. TECHNOLOGY
Design & Development
• Software: Articulate Storyline 2
• Tutorials packaged as SCORM
Implementation
• Badges module added onto
Moodle
• SCORM packages embedded
into library course
• Badges set up to issue for 100%
score on tutorials

32. TUTORIAL STRUCTURE
Services &
Collections
Services
Research
services
Librarians vs.
Circulation vs.
Interlibrary Loan
Collections
Kinds of
materials
How to locate

33. SERVICES & COLLECTIONS

34. PROGRAM SUCCESS
Meta-Badge
1,074
badges issued
Tutorial Badges
5,744
badges issued
(About 1,000 hours of
instructional time)
In last 13 months:

35. PROGRAM DESIGN

36. PROGRAM DESIGN
• Start with the big picture
• Badge programs should be:
–Hierarchical
–Organized
• Badge art should convey
meaning
University of Central Florida
Spark Tutorials

37. CHUNK YOUR LEARNING ACTIVITIES
• Tutorials of 15 minutes or less to earn low-level badge
• Higher-level badges might take more time – but be
conscientious of time to completion

38. AN EFFECTIVE PROGRAM USES THE
BACKWARD DESIGN MODEL

39. Learning
outcomes
Assessment
(simulations,
scored quizzes,
graded
projects)
Content
(videos,
readings)
Practice
(games,
unscored
quizzes)
BACKWARD DESIGN

40. Learning
outcomes
Content
(videos,
readings)
Practice
(games,
unscored
quizzes)
Assessment
(simulations,
scored quizzes,
graded
projects)
ORDER OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES

43. Student masters
learning
outcomes
BADGE!
DESIGN GOAL

44. BADGE ISSUANCE
Minimum
threshold
met?
Assessment
Digital badge
issued
Yes
No

45. TAKE IT HOME

46. SUMMARY
• Badges = microcredentials
• Microlearning = 4 to 15 minutes
• Digital badges = motivational
• Design thoughtfully!

47. QUESTIONS?
Lindsay O’Neill
jloneill@fullerton.edu
Dr. Cynthia Gautreau
cgautreau@fullerton.edu
Dr. Barbara Glaeser
bglaeser@fullerton.edu
Slides: jlindsayoneill.com/perfectmatch
CAL STATE FULLERTON FACULTY
MASTER OF SCIENCE INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY