Badges ? To get started safely

30 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 3 minutes… online training courses fragment for a variety of reasons such as 

• facilitate customization,
• allow access to a variety ofs according to various pathways,
• better integrate à schedules, environments
• accomodate different pédagogical approaches,
• rreduce the rate of décrochage during a leçon, etc.
   

The sources of these trainings are as diverse as the individuals' interests, the expectations of their environment, or the frequency of changes in their work or life.

As the duration of training courses tends to shorten and their number multiplies, badges represent a way to value short training actions, to illustrate their coherence and also to facilitate their promotion on social networks, which is not a bad thing.

Sure, the id is great, but the value of a badge system like Open Badges à a training site seems like a substantial technical and pedagogical investment, an investment that may turn many off, especially if it is unclear how enthusiastic or mixed the response will be.

So, before investing significant effort, why not experiment on a more affordable scale?

Start

Here's the formula offered by Badge OS, «An operating system for engagement, more simply an add-on that you add to WordPress.It is quite easy to link a WordPress blog to a site, in any system, and just as easy to activate the BadgeOS module from within and start awarding badges to those who deserve them according to your criteria: Full marks, number of points, status, etc. Most digital actions can be considered: watch a video, comment on an article, follow a link, get a certain result, and it can be automated or managed manually, like when you give a grade at the end of a course.

Recognition and Sharing

The mission of a badge is one thing, controlling and promoting it is another. Copying the image of a badge and taking credit for it is anyone's guess, so how can the viewer know if the badge is actually real?BadgeOS offers free integration with Credly's «Open Credit» API (application programming interface), which takes care of the control and distribution of badges. The technical side of things isn't something small organizations can do, and that's exactly what this integration allows: to take advantage of a powerful, free system without the hassle.

Expand

Even if the technical aspect is getting simpler and simpler, no one can deny the effort of pedagogical intégration.To make the obtaining of a badge meaningful is to give it value, and this value lies both in the effort that must be made to obtain it and in the rigor of the evaluation and control.

A nice badge with a good reputation increases the value of its wearer.  A series of badges can show progress, perseverance, competence and ultimately elicit true recognition.A black belt in judo announces the color of the opponent.A badge of competence put by a company or a recognized institution signals in the same way the caliber of the person.It remains only to show that its value is always representative.

In response to the dispersion and fragmentation of training, badges offer an accessible way for institutions to integrate their offerings into the lifelong learning system of individuals and for them to show the threads of their learning activities.

Putting it into action

BadgeOS  

Credly     

Open Badges 

Initiated by the Technology Showcase in Education (October 15, 2014) - Open Digital Badges in Education