Sakai Badging for Professional Development

Digital badges are online credentials that can be displayed on job networks, social media sites, community portals, webpages, etc. to certify and highlight an individual?s knowledge and skills. This session will describe the development and implementation process of creating a badging system to recognize and certify professional development activities related to the Sakai CLE learning management system. The new Longsight badging site will allow Sakai users (i.e. instructors, trainers, and LMS admins) to earn different badges depending on the user's role and level of expertise in using Sakai CLE. This presentation will provide a brief tour of the badging site, and discuss both the tools used and the process of identifying the user competencies and designing a system to award credentials for those competencies. Plans for future development of Sakai native badging will also be discussed.

Transcript

1. SAKAI BADGING FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Presenter: Wilma Hodges Director of Training and eLearning Initiatives Longsight, Inc.
2. A LITTLE ABOUT BADGING… • Badges are awarded in recognition of accomplishment or skill. • Traditional physical badges are not new (e.g. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc.) • Digital badges allow for sharing online and via social media and are considered a “gamification” strategy in training and education. • Competency-based learning • Micro-credentialing • Many institutions and organizations are now awarding badges for academic accomplishments and professional credentials.
3. MOZILLA OPEN BADGE INFRASTRUCTURE (OBI) https://wiki.mozilla.org/images/4/44/Tech-diagram-v3_updated.png
4. A FEW DIGITAL BADGING RESOURCES http://openbadges.org/ Mozilla Open Badges web site containing a wealth of information about OBI and badging. https://www.hastac.org Curated collection of resources about digital badges. https://credly.com/ Service for earning, issuing, and displaying digital badges.
5. MY PROJECT: SAKAI BADGES • Longsight is an open source software support and hosting company. • In addition to technical services, we offer training and user support for clients using the Sakai LMS. • Goal - Awarding digital badges for: • Sakai Instructors • Sakai Trainers • Sakai Administrators
6. WHY AWARD SAKAI BADGES? • Recognize user skills and knowledge at three different levels (instructor, trainer, admin) • Provide a way for Sakai users to validate/verify their accomplishments • Provide a way for badge earners to showcase their skills to potential employers • “Gamify” some of our training and support resources • Illustrate how Sakai can be used to support competency-based learning strategies
7. DEFINE THE BADGES TO BE AWARDED Three Levels of Sakai Badges • Instructor, Trainer & Admin • Different skills at each level • Skills build upon one another Audience • Existing & Future Sakai users • Badging system as credentialing, not training
8. SELECT THE DELIVERY PLATFORM Built in Sakai • Allows me to build it in the same platform as the skills being assessed. • Serves as an example for faculty and trainers to use in their own course development. • Uses existing Sakai tools/functionality and feeds into the Sakai Gradebook.
9. DETERMINE THE MECHANISM FOR AWARDING THE BADGES Credly.com • Supports OBI • Handles badge distribution via CSV upload • Allows users to share their credit easily to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter • Uses Open Credit API to integrate credentials into numerous apps and sites • Sakai does not currently have the ability to award badges directly within the LMS. (Feature proposed for development)
10. MAP OUT THE COMPETENCIES What does it mean to be a skilled Sakai Instructor, Trainer, or Admin? • Instructors - working knowledge of major Sakai tools and tasks • Trainers - advanced knowledge of the Sakai tools, as well as workshop planning and presentation skills • Admins - advanced knowledge of the Sakai tools, and also “behind the scenes” system administration skills What skills must users demonstrate in order meet those criteria and how will those skills be measured or assessed? • Trade-off between authentic assessment and ease of scoring • Settled on randomized multiple choice questions for some of the criteria, combined with individualized showcase “Boss Challenge” as the final activity
11. BUILD IT Constructed the site in Sakai using: • Tests & Quizzes tool for “Quests” • Assignments tool for “Boss Challenges” • Lessons tool for content to organize badge “Levels” and “Missions” • Selective release to show user progress through each Mission and restrict Boss Challenges until the end • Gradebook tool for “Score” • All points feed into Gradebook for calculating completion • Export scores to Excel for additional calculations and upload to Credly to award badges
12. LET’S TAKE A SHORT TOUR…
23. HOW CAN YOU SIGN UP TO EARN A BADGE? Go to http://www.longsight.com/sakai-badging to register!
24. QUESTIONS? wilma@longsight.com