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Elevator pitch on Open Badges for SQA Expert Assessment Group

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Update: Martin Hamilton from Jisc kindly recorded my elevator pitch. You can watch it here.

Tomorrow, I’m in London to take part in the Scottish Qualifications Authority‘s Expert Assessment Group. The SQA have been forward-thinking about Open Badges over the last few years, so I’m delighted to have been asked to attend.

There’s five people been asked to give input in the morning from a ‘future of assessment’ point of view, and five in the afternoon on ways technology might be able to help enable that future. I’ve got a very short amount of time, so I’ve boiled it down to the slides below.

(Note: go fullscreen by clicking the arrows in the black bar at the bottom)

Backup locations: Slideshare / Internet Archive

The flow for my pitch starts with a tweet I saw earlier today from the influential Paul Graham. He links to an article in The New York Times which talks about skills-based hiring, but which completely disregards digital credentialing. From there, I discuss Michael Feldstein’s recent post about badging gaining huge traction in very specific areas. And then I launch into a pretty familiar flow using Bryan Mathers‘ excellent visuals.

There’s loads more I want to say about how version 2.0 of the Open Badges specification allows for really interesting dynamic badges that ‘grow’ over time. Kerri Lemoie and Lucas Blair recently wrote about this from a technical point of view, and I presented my thoughts last week at the University of Dundee, including this slide:

Dynamic badging

Perhaps I’ll get a chance to discuss these new developments if my pitch is selected to be discussed further. I’d bring up blockchain technologies and their potential uses in credentialing, but I’ve got to catch a train back home in the evening…

Photo by John-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash

Open Badges: 3D printing for credentials?

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

I haven’t written about Open Badges for a while, but something struck me on my daily walk this morning.

A lot of what’s holding people and organizations back when it comes to new forms of credentialing is outdated mental models and assumptions. No metaphor will be perfect, but they do allow us to look at things in new ways.

Take 3D printing as a metaphor for Open Badges, for example.

3D printing allows anyone to create things that would previously have been niche, hard to get, or just plain impossible to obtain. It allows for:

  • Reduction in costs (you only print what you need)
  • Bespoke solutions (you can tailor the 3D printed shape to solve a problem)
  • Creativity (you’re not limited to what other people have created)

I think the same is true of Open Badges. You’re not forced to purchase an off-the-shelf credentialing system. You can create something that is tailored to your learners and your context. And you can try things that are truly different when it comes to credentialing.

What do you think? Does 3D printing work as a metaphor for Open Badges and alternative credentialing? I’d be interested in your thoughts!

Image CC BY-NC-SA Craig Kaplan

‘Badges’ for Lifelong Learning: Reframing the Debate (#openbadges, #dmlbadges)

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Patience is a Virtue

I’ve written my third post for DML Central. Entitled ‘Badges’ for Lifelong Learning: Reframing the Debate it’s an attempt to look afresh at Mozilla’s Open Badges infrastructure and the DML Badges competition.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking to people from Mozilla, HASTAC and DML Central about badges for learning and, I have to say, I’m rather excited at the potential. Imagine a system where informal and peer-to-peer accredited in an open way. Amazing.

Image CC BY Anderson Mancini

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