Open Badges in Finnish schools and universities Eric Rousselle Discendum Oy openbadgefactory.com

Finnish eLearning service developer and provider for businesses, higher education, associations and the public sector Developer of Open Badge Factory and Open Badge Passport cloud services openbadgefactorycom

A cloud-based issuing platform and management system for Open Badges Developed as an open innovation in a project founded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (9/2013 – 10/2015) 665 user organisations from 69 countries over badges issued openbadgefactory.com

Adoption of Open Badges in Finland 150 organisations 40% - Associations 50% - Schools and universities (most of them professional schools and universities of applied sciences) 10% - companies About badges issued openbadgefactory.com

Positive reception of the Open Badges concept in the education sector Long tradition of development of standards for recognition and validation of learning Strong interest especially from professional schools and universities of applied sciences The concept has been piloted first in CPD – projects for teachers. openbadgefactory.com

Oppiminen Online project ( ) openbadgefactory.com CPD project – recognition of teachers’ ICT skills

About Oppiminen Online’s concept 75 subjects and badges Skill sets aligns with ope.fi standard 3 levels (Novice – Expert – Developer) 3 locations Gamification elements (badges – leaderboard) Personalised learning: bootcamps, online sessions Flexibility and freedom of choice openbadgefactory.com

Oppiminen Online - a success story openbadgefactory.com

Badge Applications for assessment and recognition of skills and learning openbadgefactory.com

Milestone badges for learning pathways openbadgefactory.com

openbadgefactory.com Badge earners’ community

University of Oulu, Faculty of Pedagogy Case - ICT tools for pedagogy openbadgefactory.com

ICT tools for pedagogy (3cr) Goal: To equip future K-12 teachers with a digital toolbox for classroom use. Course: Online course (200 students) supported by a series of lectures and group sessions. Digital environments: Eliademy OpenBadgePassport Youtube channel Facebook group Instagram# OpenBadges: 35 badges with different tasks Three levels of badges: Gold (= 4 Silver) Silver (= 8 Bronze) Bronze To complete the course students need one golden badge. Students can choose which badges they want to earn. To earn a badge, students need to complete a task and apply the badge. Materials are available online and teacher guidance on a group meeting. Student feedback: + Badges boost motivation + Fun course design + Freefom of choice - Too many options - Technical difficulties For the future: Less badges More automated badges More teacher-led instruction Instructors: Jari Laru Markus Packalén (University of Oulu, Finland)

Common success factors Learner centric approach (applying for badges) Flexibility and freedom of choice (alternative pathways) Collaborative approach (community) Meaningful and valuable badges (CPD) Motivated learners – gaming approach openbadgefactory.com

Main issues At the beginning technical issues with reception of badges by earners Applying for a badge requires assessment – thousands of badge applications created a huge work load for evaluators openbadgefactory.com

Further steps and development? openbadgefactory.com

Organisation level strategies Read more!

From single badges to badge systems and ecosystems Badges designed and recognised by school and university networks Initiative for building national badge systems Openbadgefactory.com

Further development of OBF and OBP Collaborative development of badges and features supporting organisations’ badges sharing activities (OBF) Peer assessment of badge applications (OBF) Further development of the Open Badge Passport (open source Salava project – salava.org) openbadgefactory.com

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