Celebrating OER and the Five Points of Openness that free Badged Open Courses encapsulate. Presented at the Badging for HE Conference, March 2016, during Open Education Week.

1. Digital badging at
The Open University
Patrina Law, Head of Free Learning
@HigherEdPatrina

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Why do we do free learning?
ELIZABETH THE SECOND
by the Grace of God of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland and of
Our other Realms and
Territories Queen, Head of the
Commonwealth, Defender of the
Faith…

3. Engaging new learners
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What is OpenLearn?

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Our commitment to ‘open’

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What has this activity achieved?
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Benefits to institutions of OER
Increases access to education
Provides an opportunity to assess and plan education choices
Showcases intellectual outputs, promoting profile and attracting students
Converts learners into fee paying enrolments
Accelerates learning
Adds value to knowledge production
Reduces faculty preparation time
Generates cost savings
Enhances quality
Generates innovation through collaboration.
(Stacey, 2012)
For OU students in particular:
 A taster for online/distance
 Delivers improved progression for those that use OpenLearn
 A vehicle for module choice / qualification pathway

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Who are our OpenLearn learners?

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How do they feel about their
learning?
58%
‘A test to give confidence my next
module choice is appropriate for me’
38%
80%
Declare improved
confidence in ability to study.
Are students. 29% of enrolled
are OU students.
Want OU-branded recognition
for informal learning.
More likely to take
another free course.
More likely to
recommend OU
content to others.
80%
80%
‘The free extracts of courses gave me
confidence to enroll in my first module…I
have also been using them to practice
time management.’
‘A good talking point and something
to include on my CV’
‘Fees are now too high for me to
consider continuing my degree’
‘Thank you for providing a resource
for people that cannot get to a facility
due to physical or financial difficulty. ’

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Recognition in an informal /
non formal environment
Cross (2007) describes informal learning as ‘the unofficial,
unscheduled, impromptu way people learn’ but in an
environment where ‘...no one assigns grades…’ and ‘...no one
takes attendance.’
We have moved from Cross’s anonymous world to one of
identified informal learning. There is a growing demand that
learners want recognition for their achievements in the free
learning space that can be acknowledged publicly.

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?

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OpenLearn learners want OU-branded
recognition for their learning.
80%

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What are badges?
Image credits: Thornhill School http://thornhillschool.org.uk/current/latest-news/-/post/blue-
peter-badges; and Patrina Law.
As a coming together of games culture and the
traditional badge issuing by clubs and societies, a
digital badge has developed to become “…an
online visual representation of an accomplishment
or skill” (Ostashewski & Reid, 2015) issued in a
variety of formal and non formal settings.

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• An incentive for learners
• To identify progress
• To signify achievement and learning
On assessment in badges (Hickey (2012):
o Summative functions - assessment of learning
o Formative functions for individuals - assessment for learning
o Transformative functions for systems - assessment as learning
Defining the potential of digital badging
On assessment in learning (Abramovich et al., 2013):
“…the potential benefit of an assessment is determined
by its ability to both maintain learning motivation and
accurately communicate a student’s learning.”
Assessments (using Moodle quizzes in BOCs) presented in the
way that Hickey identifies, we are attempting to communicate
feedback and provide motivation to learners in an environment
that cannot provide tutorial support.

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In support of motivating
learners in the open
OpenLearn Badged Open Courses (BOCs):
1. Give informal learners the recognition they’ve
requested.
2. Give prospective students the skills to be
prepared for undergraduate study.
3. Give our current students a means of
developing and displaying skills relevant to
career progression.
 Cheaper to produce than our MOOCs
 No tutoring overhead
 Badging infrastructure interoperable with open
standards

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

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5 points of openness

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Badge display
Mozilla Backpack
(or other aggregator)
My OpenLearn Profile
Social networks
Printable certificate https://backpack.openbadges.org/backpack/login

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BOC impact – first 10 months
• 2000+ badges issued
• The BOCs are generating around 12,000
new visitors a month to OpenLearn
• They drive a very high proportion of
learners to click-through to make an
enquiry to the OU (26.2% Feb-Nov 2015)
• Completion rates of BOCs are higher
than our MOOCs
• 300 formal module registrations have
been made (mostly entry level)
• 2,300 prospectus requests
• 254 qualification sign-ups (mostly new
students)
• Satisfaction rates are very high (~98%)
• Surveys have shown that up to 57% say
that they will be sharing their
achievements with an employer
or prospective employer

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BOCs as a motivator and for recognition
• 71% perceive digital badge and certificate as equally
important
• Responses to ‘What does earning a badge mean to
you?’
Source: SurveyMonkey. End of course survey, Succeed with maths, Part 1.
“The basic
accreditation from
these badges adds
more value to the
work I put in”
“Thank you for giving
me the confidence to
do something I
thought I had no
intellect to actually
do”
BOC impact – data analysis

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BOCs supporting professional development
• 39-57% will show badge to employer
BOCs as preparedness and driver for study
• Promising demographic for undergraduate recruitment
(younger than OpenLearn overall) and existing
qualifications: only 7-17% hold undergraduate degree
compared to 26% on OpenLearn (MOOCs >70%)
• Reasons for studying: Professional development (84%),
personal interest (78%), preparation for study (54%)
• 58% had not taken online course before
BOCs supporting disabled learners
• Between 15% and 37% declare a disability (OpenLearn
overall is 23%; UK adult population is 16%)
“A good talking
point and
something to
include on my
CV”
“Refreshed my
maths skills and
going on to do the
open learn
English course,
will be applying to
do an access
course in March”
BOC impact – data analysis

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Learners are clear about how they like to learn
• Responses to ‘Please rate how you felt about the different ways
of learning on OpenLearn’.
Source: SurveyMonkey. End of course survey, English: skills for learning
BOC impact – data analysis

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BOC impact – reasons for studying…
Word cloud source: SurveyMonkey. End of course survey, Succeed with maths Part 1

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Challenges…?
1. Were we setting the bar too high? Were we going to
deter completion?
2. Are the detractors right to question the value of a
badge?
3. Scant research and almost no empirical data.
4. Was using repurposed content really going to save
on production costs?
5. Can we convince others of the robustness of the QE?
6. Developing assessment – a challenge for most
writers – 45 questions for Weeks 4 and 8; 15
questions for remaining weeks. A big ask.

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Solutions…
1. Setting the bar too high? Test and see – OpenLearn is
rapid response environment for developing
approaches to elearning.
2. Detractors? Development of IMS Global Open Badge
Extensions for Education.
3. Still scant research and almost no empirical data.
4. Will continue to mix new and repurposed content;
identify at module specification where possible.
5. Quality of learning experience assured through
academic authoring and critical readership. As with
MOOCs and other OpenLearn courses.
6. Assessment expertise developed, but remains a
challenge.

27. A mechanism to engage with partners
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The future of digital badging at
the OU
In 2016
Succeeding in postgraduate study Digital scholarship
Working in the voluntary sector Resilience and flexibility
Returning to STEM Commercial communication and negotiation
Succeeding in a digital world Leadership and followership
Cyber security Understanding business structures
Supporting student preparedness as induction
Support learner CPD
BOCs on the OU Student Record and HEAR
Promoted by lecturers and University careers advisors
Highly impactful outreach mechanism
Succeed with maths – Parts 1 &2 Succeed with learning
Introducing the voluntary sector English: skills for learning
Taking your first steps into HE Succeed in the workplace

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www.open.ac.uk/about/open-educational-
resources/what-we-do/badging-free-content-the-ou
www.open.edu/openlearn
@HigherEdPatrina #openbadgesHE