The concept of badging (or ‘soft accreditation’) has been piloted in various forms in the Open University (OU) in 2013. This presentation shows what the University learnt from its pilot projects and how it is subsequently developing a suite of badges for informal and formal students.

1. Badging open content
Patrina Law and Andrew Law
The Open University

4. Context: Who Are Our Informal Learners?
5% are under 18
62% are over 45
81% speak English as their first language
41% are full-time employed
20% are retired
19% consider themselves to have a disability
When asked the reasons for their interest in OpenLearn
study materials nearly 84% say ‘personal interest’ but
learners study for a wide range of reasons

5. Context: Who’s Using OpenLearn and Why?
“I have tended to use these free modules from OU and
elsewhere as tasters to help me decide on more formal
distance learning courses.” OpenLearn user
“I’ve used OpenLearn to try things out before signing up for
a module…you have the ability to 'taste' areas of the
modules before signing yourself up for something which
may or may not be suited to you.” OpenLearn user

6. “…a clickable graphic that contains an online record of
an achievement, the work required for the
achievement, and information about the organization,
individual, or other entity who issued the badge.
…Digital badges can "certify" that information has
been consumed or that skills have been acquired by
the badge earner. It can also establish membership,
participation, or attendance for a badge holder…“
Bixler and Layng http://tinyurl.com/PSUDBWhitePaper
What are digital badges?

7. Badging today
• There are several systems created to issue
and display digital badges e.g. the OU will
use Moodle.
• Mozilla Open Badges is the cloud system that
is open to all to upload badges into. They
have created a new NFP called the Badge
Alliance to drive the initiative.
Who’s delivering badges?
•Educators, multinationals, NFPs, professional development
groups.
•Largely US-based, dominated by school education
•Integration with undergraduate curriculum in its infancy

8. Badging pilot Activity on OpenLearn
A select number of pilots were carried out in 2012/13 (unsupported,
open courses):
•Masters in Online and Distance Education module (in conjunction
with a formal presentation as an open offering)
• Succeed with Maths - SWiM
(in conjunction with UK Adult
Learner’s Week)
• Learning to Learn – L2L (in
conjunction with UK Adult
Learner’s Week)

9. Pilot Feedback: overall approach
• Despite poor functionality, quizzes and badges
were highly valued by learners and
development of these functions should continue.
• Some dissatisfaction with usability and some
learners found navigation problematic.
• Although not as popular as quizzes and badges,
the ‘teacher in the room’ devices such as video
introductions were popular with many learners.

10. Build badged courses on OpenLearn
• Move away from core HE subjects (already
served by FutureLearn and OpenLearn)
• Focus on employability and skill development of
our informal learners and formal students alike
• Display of badges through the My OpenLearn
profile
• Badged content to be free of charge

11. Benefits of Badging
• Important confidence building step as learners realise their
potential to be formal students
• Accessible routes into the University for students who
might not otherwise have an opportunity to participate in
HE
• The Open University Charter: …to provide education of
University and professional standards for its students and
to promote the educational well-being of the community
generally
• The Careers and Employability Project aims to design and
deliver a high quality student experience in relation to
careers services and employability skills development

13. Assessment framework
• Learners will need to achieve
50% to pass an assessment
• Learners will be given three
attempts
• If they fail on the third attempt,
they can retake after 24 hours
• Practice assessment will be
available throughout the
course
• All pages of the course must
have been ‘read’
• Formal assessment takes
place at halfway and at the
end of the course
Two successful assessments = 1 badge

14. Badge display
Mozilla Backpack
My OpenLearn Profile Social networks e.g.
LinkedIn

15. The evaluation strategy
1. Short-term data study:
a. Who are our learners and where do they go?
b. How were they motivated?
1. Long-term data study:
a. How did they perform when they became OU students?
b. Did badges help when seeking/changing employment?
We will aim to:
• Learn from different approaches to free course delivery.
• Inform the business of the OU in provision of open courses.
• Provide academic insight into learner motivations and
ongoing success (or otherwise) in a formal setting.

16. Next Steps
• IT development of OpenLearn and the
MyOpenLearn profile (Jan-July 2014)
• First badged content live (July 2014)
• Evaluation (July 2014 onwards)
patrina.law@open.ac.uk @HigherEdPatrina
andrew.law@open.ac.uk @AndrewJLaw