Using Open Badges in your organisation Robert Stewart Learning and Development Adviser badges.sssc.uk.com
Scottish Social Services Council a protected public, a professional workforce We: publish the national codes of practice for people working in social services and their employers register people working in social services and make sure they adhere to our codes of practice promote and regulate the learning and development of the social service workforce are the national lead for workforce development and planning for social services in Scotland. Find out more about us at http://www.sssc.uk.com
Open Badges recognition for your continuous learning Open Badges are digital recognition for otherwise unrecognised learning. You can collect, manage and share them online. You can earn Open Badges from over 3,000 organisations across the world who want to recognise learning in new ways. Search Google for Open Badges Evidence of your learning, usually a reflective account, is attached to your Open Badge and visible to anyone you show it to. Open Badges allow you to prove that you understand a subject. They help with Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL). You don t need to be registered with SSSC to earn most of our Open Badges.
How to earn an SSSC Open Badge Visit badges.sssc.uk.com and select a badge. Read the badge criteria, evidence requirements and prerequisites carefully. Do everything the criteria asks. Apply for the badge by providing the evidence required. Wait for your badge to be assessed. When awarded, share your badge online through your portfolio or download and print a certificate.
Send learners to badges.sssc.uk.com
Implementing Open Badges to assist learners badge To earn this badge you will need to: take part in an SSSC webinar or session about issuing Open Badges tell us about something you learned during the webinar or session (50 words minimum) tell us how you plan to share your learning and promote Open Badges (50 words minimum). Apply at http://badges.sssc.uk.com
Opportunities for Open Badges
Why issue Open Badges? Recognise non-certified learning Use games to encourage learning Recognising peer assessment Badges carry your brand and link back to your website In time, learners will expect them Incentivising learning Indicate progress towards career goals Identify an individual s expertise Gather evidence to help evaluate learning experience Allow people to show evidence of informal learning A consistent approach to recognition of informal or online learning Accrediting informal continuous professional development
Events, sessions and webinars Good opportunities to pilot badges. Provide recognition to participants. You might offer multiple badges for workshops, pre-event work, post-event work or reporting the event on social media. When people share their badges, they are promoting the messages from your event. Badges can be more than certificates of attendance.
Events evidence of learning
Incentivise employee learning Use badges to provide recognition for noncertified learning: induction speciality in-house learning sessions refresher learning. Borders College increase in attendance at sessions that were badged. http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2454 SSSC used evidence gathered from badge applications to demonstrate the difference the Carer Aware sessions made.
Employee reward Badges based on organisation values. Campaign medals. Recognise the skills and development of volunteers.
Recognition for online and app based learning Badges can provide recognition for self-directed online/app learning. Badges can allow learners to prove they understand the subject. Tom Kuhlmann - http://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/the-3-essential-questions-everylearner-wants-answered/ Evidence can be grounded in real world application. Evidence provided by badge applications can be used to evaluate the impact of the learning resource not just counting hits and downloads. SSSC tablet apps are now badged.
Assessment attributes Traditional Selecting a response Contrived Recall/Recognition Instructor structured Indirect evidence Authentic Performing a task Real life Construction/Application Learner structured Direct evidence We can badge this
Encourage behaviour Badges, not just Open Badges, are known to steer and encourage behaviour. Cornell University paper has some useful lessons on using badges. https://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/www13-badges.pdf Open Badges used by University of Sussex to encourage academic staff to use Twitter. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/tel/help/10dottel/badges
Websites and software to issue Open Badges It s easier than you might think!
Badge systems A website or piece of software that is used to create and award badges. Most badge systems allow you to: create badges display the badges you have on offer allow people to apply for your badges issue badges to people view the badges you have issued and basic statistics. You can use one of the existing badge systems (remotely hosted) or create your own (self hosted).
Remotely-hosted options Quick to setup and require little technical knowledge. Free and low-cost options are available. Some options allow badges to be issued via smartphones and tablets. The perfect option for pilots or testing.
Remotely-hosted options Credly https://www.credly.com Open Badge Factory https://openbadgefactory.com Open Badge Academy https://www.openbadgeacademy.com Badge List http://www.badgelist.com Badgr https://info.badgr.io SSSC Open Badges https://badges.sssc.uk.com
Self-hosted options Will require some technical knowledge to setup and manage. Give you complete control. Requires long-term commitment if your badges are to be useful to learners. The SSSC Open Badges system is self-hosted.
Self-hosted options BadgeOS for Wordpress http://badgeos.org Moodle http://moodle.org Also look at Snook s plugin for Moodle http://snookprojects.com/badgemaker Totara https://www.totaralms.com Mozilla BadgeKit http://badgekit.openbadges.org
Other resources and websites to help you DigitalME s Open Badge Canvas can guide you through the creation of your badges. http://www.digitalme.co.uk/badgecanvas Open Badge designer can help you quickly create an image for your badge. https://www.openbadges.me Find Open Badges that recognize learning, achievements, competencies, or credentials to earn with Credmos. https://credmos.com
Get involved We need your help to make this work
Send your learners to badges.sssc.uk.com Tell them about it. Ask them about badges in supervision. Make sure they can access it and receive emails from sssclearningtech@sssc.uk.com. Make sure they undertake the work in the badge criteria. Give them time. Check their evidence before they submit their badge applications. Encourage them to attend our webinars for learners.
Become a badge assessor Rolls out in December 2017. You will be given a unique reference code. Your learners add this to their SSSC Open Badges profile. You will then be able to assess your learner s applications for SSSC Open Badges. Assessors will need to complete an online tutorial and earn an Assessor badge. The SSSC will sample badges you approve and offer advice. It won t cost you anything.
Become a badge issuer Available now email me. You will be given access to our platform. You create your badge criteria and evidence requirements. You assess all applications for your Open Badges. You can have private badges but you need to make at least one Open Badge available to all social service workers. Administrators must attend a webinar. The SSSC will sample your badges and offer advice. It won t cost you anything now, but it might cost you a small amount in the future. If you are looking at a small pilot with a few badges, don t worry about cost.
Make sure every badge includes evidence Evidence moves badges from novelty to utility. Encourages learners to record and store evidence of learning that might be useful to them in the future CPD, RPL etc. Essential to evaluation of the learning experience.
Reflection Experience Knowledge Skills Reflections Application
Involve learners, supervisors and people who use services Get them involved at the start of the design phase. Invite them to submit ideas for new badges. Involve them in the evaluating the success of your badges.
Evaluate Always look for feedback from your learners about: your Open Badge system the process/experience of receiving a badge how they are using the badges. Are some badges more popular than others? Why? Is the evidence being gathered useful to learners and your organisation? Don t be afraid to change the criteria or evidence requirements for a badge if feedback calls for it.
Questions You can also email me at robert.stewart@sssc.uk.com
Implementing Open Badges to assist learners badge To earn this badge you will need to: take part in an SSSC webinar or session about issuing Open Badges tell us about something you learned during the webinar or session (50 words minimum) tell us how you plan to share your learning and promote Open Badges (50 words minimum). Apply at http://badges.sssc.uk.com
Thank you! Visit badges.sssc.uk.com Follow us on Twitter @LearnTechSSSC Email robert.stewart@sssc.uk.com