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Page 1: Digital badging at the OU

Recognising informal elearning with digital badging: evidence for a sustainable business model

Patrina Law, Head of Free Learning The Open [email protected]@HigherEdPatrinawww.slideshare.net/patrinalaw

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Why do we do free learning?

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What is ?

Comprehensive: Over 900 free courses 1-100 hrs in length.

Representative: From introductory to masters.

Inspiring: Enriched with inspiring topical videos, interactive games, quizzes, polls and articles.

Rewarding: Recognising progress and achievements through personal profiles, certification and digital badging.

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Our commitment to ‘open’

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Syndication of free assets

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Why is OpenLearn important?

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Enquirers: 13% of visitor enquire about qualifying with the OU.

39mTotal visitors worldwide inspired by free learning from the OU since launch.

4.9m New visitors every year.

Social Impact: OpenLearn helps ensures our campus remains truly open, with academic perspectives on important community issues.

0.5m

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Our research: who are our informal learners?

Research projects in 2013, 2014 and 2015:

• Demographic profiling of learners, students and teachers

• Understanding how the content serves learners’ needs

• Examining how free educational content is influences the progression to formal study

• Understanding learners’ challenges and successes

• Discovering what learners want and how this is changing

• Evaluating the impact of the ‘recognition’ for informal learning

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What do our surveys tell us?

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What we know about our OpenLearn learners“I can definitely say that I

wouldn’t have taken the risk of paying so much to do a

degree if I hadn’t been able to test the water through

OpenLearn.”

“ The free extracts of courses gave me

confidence to enroll in my first module…I

have also been using them to practice time

management. ”

“ It's free! I can't afford the costs of university

courses since it all went sky high. ”

“ I fell into OpenLearn because I was priced out of other studies. ”

“ Thank you for providing a resource for people that cannot get

to a facility due to physical and/or

financial difficulty. Being out of the workforce is hard; it is easy to feel

closed off from particular changes.

These courses make it possible to keep the

mind active, learn and try to stay current…with

the advancement of technology. ”

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What do informal learners want now?

58% declare improved confidence in their ability to study. 38% are students. 10% enrol: 29% of these are OU students.80+% want OU-branded recognition for informal learning.

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’ anonymous world to one of identified informal learning. Whilst learning is still taking place as a supplement to formal learning there is a growing demand and expectation that informal learners want recognition for their achievements and engagement that can be acknowledged beyond a closed forum of learners.

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Why award badges?

Image credits: Thornhill School http://thornhillschool.org.uk/current/latest-news/-/post/blue-peter-badges; and Patrina Law.

A means to recognise learning, to motivate learners, and to provide evidence of skills and achievements in a variety of formal and informal settings

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Digital badges in HE

Research tells us that they are used:

1. by educators in MOOCs to reward and motivate learners to participate in a group.

2. by learners to let others know of their mastery usually in closed, online, tutored environments.

3. by universities as a method of encouraging first year students to complete.

Awarding of a badge can often be a manual activity.

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Badged Open Courses (BOCs) on OpenLearn

Require learners to progress at their own pace and not in a cohort, in specially designed courses.

Badges are applied to support and motivate learners who, in the informal sector, are often from underserved groups.

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Engaging with learners – informal and formalLaunched in 2015, Badged Open Courses: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.

Created using repurposed module content or via current module production

Cheaper to produce than our MOOCs No tutoring overhead Badging infrastructure interoperable with open standards

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Badge displayMozilla Backpack

My OpenLearn Profile Social networks e.g. LinkedIn

Printable certificate

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BOC 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

Two successful assessments = 1 badge

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The business case for free learning

• A showcase for new students

• A taster of paid-for content

• Confidence building

• A taster for studying online and at a distance

• For OpenLearn, direct click-through to make an enquiry

• Re-using/repurposing course content reduces costs

• Improved grades and confidence in students

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BOC impact – supporting the business caseInitial findings (since March):o 1300 badges issuedo The BOCs are generating over 12,000

new visitors a month to OpenLearno They drive a very high proportion of

learners to click-through to make an enquiry to the OU (~28%)

o Completion rates of BOCs are higher than our MOOCs

o 250 formal module registrations have been made (mostly entry level)

o 2000 prospectus requestso Satisfaction rates are very high (~98%) o Surveys have also shown that up to 57%

say that they will be sharing their achievements with an employer or prospective employer

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BOC impact – qualitative data analysis 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, English skills for learning.

“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”

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BOC impact – qualitative data analysis BOCs supporting professional development

39-57% will show badge to employer

BOCs as preparedness and driver for study Promising demographic for undergraduate recruitment in terms of

age (younger than OpenLearn overall) and existing qualifications: 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

“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”

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BOC impact – qualitative data analysis Identified informal 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, Succeed with maths Part 1

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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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What employers want

e.g. resilience, negotiation, followership, commercial

awareness and communication,

working in culturally diverse

teams

Badge metadata enhanced

e.g. with level of participation, production of

artefact, assessment type,

by sector, by industry

HEAR / extended transcript

Education Design Lab, collaborating employers

+ collaborating badge providers

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Next steps1. Platform enables rapid feedback for interoperable

innovation with the VLE (Moodle)2. Continue to experiment in the open with digital

credentialising and ‘volunteer’ social support 3. Extending curriculum to new postgraduates, plus subject-

specific clusters, employability, workplace skills4. Delivery of BOCs to offender learners (UK and Australia)5. Working with Centre for Recording Achievement for the

UK to recognise Digital Badging in HE.6. OU BOCs on OU Student Record and HEAR.

@HigherEdPatrinawww.slideshare.net/patrinalaw