June
15
Digital Badging as an Information Literacy Incentive in a College Composition Course
- Facilitating an environment that fosters learning with mobile technologies requires significant effort in developing appropriate scaffolding not only for content delivery but for goal setting and user agency. While personalization of the learning environment may hold tremendous appeal, without identifiable relevance to genuine learning goals it could become marginalized into the realm of novelty. Mobile learning “…is not about formal learning in classrooms, but about augmenting one’s learning and performance, which means to bridge the gaps that exist by learning activities using mobile devices” (Martin et al., 2012).
- Digital badging shows particular potential for providing learning opportunities wherein skills development meshes with learners’ personal goals to yield observable, publishable micro-credentials representing successful accomplishment of prescribed learning outcomes. Open digital badging (ODB), according to Cheng et al. (2018), “can manage the connection between goals and learning performance to optimize the effects of goal setting on learning” as well as “… strengthen learning experiences, improve learner autonomy, and facilitate the achievement of learners’ intrinsic learning motivation” (p. 190).
- Performance-, incentive-, and participation-driven outcomes can be enhanced by the implementation of digital badging into the learning environment; by extending formal instruction into informal situated learning environments accessible through mobile devices, the learner’s pursuit of digital badges becomes an authentic endeavor in skills development rather than simply a means through which to be assessed (Cheng et al., 2018). In citing earlier studies, Cheng et al. (2018) also address “… three main roles that ODB play in education – as motivators of behavior, as pedagogical tools, and as credentials” as well as “[t]hree typical functions: capturing (validating prior learning and tracing learning progress), signaling (reviewing progress and reflection), and motivating (awarding achievement)” (p. 191).
- “In higher education, ODB could also be implemented in a way that disrupts how we traditionally teach and learn. This does not mean that applying ODB as valuable supplements to traditional courses is not disruptive” (Cheng et al., 2018). Echoing the more recent study by Cheng et al., data from an Open University (OU) study on digital badging suggest “…that learners are seeking acknowledgement for their informal learning activities, it also demonstrates a positive impact on the learning journey to formal study” (Law, 2015). Given these findings, Law’s (2015) argument in favor of digital badging extends to include the identification of risks – specifically reputational and financial – that may manifest should OU fail to become competitive in micro-credentialing (p. 233).
- The Penn State University Libraries have innovated a digital badging initiative focused on information literacy (IL). This program, designed for World Campus undergraduates, offers learners the opportunity to earn both digital badges and digital meta-badges for IL skills development. While it began as a small pilot program, this amazing initiative is now being developed to include all PSU World Campus students enrolled in the English:015 course.
- This PSU initiative in digital badging directly relates to the mobile technology integration I wish to pursue in my own learning environment: A set of information literacy digital badges that support the existing curriculum within the online and mobile application LMS (learning management system) of a hybrid-modeled advanced English composition course (ENG:102) at a community college satellite location.
- My context is a small community-based college extension situated approximately 70 miles southwest of the institution’s main campus. My target audience is students enrolled in the ENG:102 Advanced Composition: Contemporary Issues course. This is a required course for a number of academic majors (including but not limited to Criminal Justice, Early Childhood Education, Business, and Nursing) and focuses on academic rhetoric and research writing; its prerequisite course, English Composition (ENG:101), must be completed successfully prior to enrollment in this research-based, writing-intensive course.
- Within my learning environment, digital badging has the potential to create transformative, transferable learning experiences that students may employ within other courses as well as in professional settings! An unfortunate disconnect occurs between my English students’ completion of ENG:101 English Composition and their commencement of ENG:102 Advanced Composition: the acquisition of information literacy. While the prescribed ENG:101 curriculum focuses on writing modalities, basic composition, and writing process, it fails to introduce an adequate IL component through which learners can be tasked with activities supporting the academic research process. Conversely, the prescribed ENG:102 curriculum focuses solely on academic research writing, argumentative modalities, and logical rhetoric wherein students are expected to conduct and utilize literature searches to support written theses. As many students arrive into ENG:102 inadequately prepared for this critical academic task, self-paced modules of instruction to complete prior to the onset of research writing within the ENG:102 course should be incorporated to support the students’ academic writing program. The promotion of digital badges within the existing course LMS to incentivize, promote, and enhance a vigorous agenda of scaffolding learners’ development of the academic literacies could not only increase the completion of course objectives but also (and perhaps even more importantly) serve to improve learners’ overall conception of their academic identities.
References: (Course Content)
Cheng, Z., Watson, S. L., & Newby, T. J. (2018). Goal setting and open digital badges in higher education. TechTrends, 62(2), 190–196.
Law, P. (2015). Digital badging at The Open University: Recognition for informal learning. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 30(3), 221–234.
Martin, F., Pastore, R., & Snider, J. (2012). Developing mobile based instruction. TechTrends, 56(5), 46–51.
Additional Resources: (Project-Specific Content)
Chou, C.C. and He, S. (2017). The effectiveness of digital badges on student online contributions. Journal of Educational Computing Research 54(8), 1092-1116.
Diaz, V. (2016). Digital badges and academic transformation. EDUCAUSE: Transforming Higher Ed, Fall 2016.
Case Study Links:
Information Literacy Badges at Penn State – https://sites.psu.edu/informationliteracybadges/
Penn State Digital Badges – https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/c.php?g=516093&p=3540444
How do we go from this…
… to this?
Hi Crystal,
I enjoyed reading your post about digital badges. I too would like to incorporate digital badges into my final design project. I believe there is much potential for badging and micro-credentialing in many contexts. Would you integrate the modules into the current curriculum as a mandatory component or have the badges completed as needed. Sort of like extra help or guidance? Sonya Brown
Crystal, I absolutely love your idea for your final project! Digital badges are a wonderful way to add motivation and gamification to a course. I’ve wondered about how badges could be implemented without taking away from other parts of a course and this quote stood out to me:
“While personalization of the learning environment may hold tremendous appeal, without identifiable relevance to genuine learning goals it could become marginalized into the realm of novelty.”
You’ve solved this beautifully by implementing ODBs through more informal, self-directed learning. If the course is the main part of a game, pursuing badges acts more like a side quest that helps learners gain confidence and feel more ownership over their own learning. I’m a huge fan of incorporating more mobile learning into English classrooms and will be interested to see how your design gets fleshed out in the coming weeks!
Hi Crystal,
This part of your post struck me the most : “While personalization of the learning environment may hold tremendous appeal, without identifiable relevance to genuine learning goals it could become marginalized into the realm of novelty.”
Why ?
This is because Filipinos as learners are very person oriented. In fact, for Filipino students they seem to first “buy into” who the teacher is before buying into the specific lesson. I believe that the “personalization’ component of a program or a module should be aligned with learning goals for it to be able to address the issue of “relevance” of any tool to the teaching and learning process. As you quoted from a study “Open digital badging (ODB), according to Cheng et al. (2018), “can manage the connection between goals and learning performance to optimize the effects of goal setting on learning” as well as “… strengthen learning experiences, improve learner autonomy, and facilitate the achievement of learners’ intrinsic learning motivation” (p. 190).”
I enjoyed reading your integration of your personal assessment and view of your students’ potentials and how what you plan to do can potentially motivate them to learn some more. Great post indeed !
Hi Crystal, I too will pursue digital badging for the final project, and I am grateful for your post and summary of readings. I am definitely going to read the research articles you include which I have not yet looked at. When I was an editor at McGraw Hill Higher Education, I worked on the English Composition course team for many years. I think your idea for badges that signal achievement in specific sub-areas of Comp 1 is worth pursuing, and it made me think of the Writing Program Administrators (WPA) Outcomes Statement. In the readings I have done related to badges, there’s always the question of their credibility. And I know that across a college community, the two composition courses are always under the microscope–you are going to teach the students how to write and if they can’t write it is your fault. This is one of the reasons the WPA created the Outcomes Statement–to establish a standard for the discipline and to demonstrate the standards and expectations for comp 1 and comp 2 across the disciplines. In case you would find it interesting in your design of the badges for information literacy, here is a link to the WPA Outcome Statement. Perhaps it would be interesting to incorporate these into the metadata of your badges to signify an alignment to national standards. http://wpacouncil.org/positions/outcomes.html
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