Open Badges: Portable Credentials for Learning

Disintermediationrolls on. The next target is diplomas, certifications, and other “official”records of learning, education, and skills and knowledge achievement. Learningtakes place everywhere, all the time, and not just in traditional venues(schools or training classes) at times set by traditional providers (educationalinstitutions or employers). The challenge is to credential this continuouslearning and to make the credentials available and portable.

Credentialinginitiatives

Inone development now underway, Mozilla and the MacArthur Foundation are workingtoward widespread recognition of a credentialing system that uses badges fromproviders, awarded directly to learners, and maintained and displayed by thoselearners, independent of employers, and publicly available. This is the OpenBadges initiative,and it is not the only such effort.

Sowhat are these Open Badges and similar credentials, how do they work, and arethey just another gimmick or do they have some serious purpose?

What are badge-based credentials?

It isimportant to understand right away how Open Badges and similar credentialsdiffer from digital badges. Digital badges are basically icons, such as thosedisplayed on your tablet by an app (for example, to show how many unreadmessages are in your Mail file) or when a game starts up on your computer. A digitalbadge is an image file: What you see is what you get, and not much else.

AnOpen Badge (or similar badged credential) on the other hand, includes metadatawith value beyond the image; for example, the metadata will usually include theidentity of the badge issuer, the date of issue, and the criteria the badgeholder met. In spite of the superficial resemblance, and the use of the word “badge,”Open Badges and credentials are not an example of gratuitous gamification.

How do these badges work?

Badgeissuers (which could be any organization ranging from an after-school program to atraditional institution of higher learning) award certified badges to learners.Learners manage their own badges; in the case of the Mozilla Open Badges (seeFigure 1), learners have a Badge Backpack. A badge holder can display any badgefrom the backpack in any online location, such as a website, social media, or arésumé or employment site. A prospective employer, client, or other interestedparty can view the metadata, which certifies the authenticity of the badge andwhich can provide additional details of the skills that the badge represents.

Figure1: The Mozilla Open Badges infrastructure (from https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/About CC BY-SA 2.0; used withpermission)

Otherbadge-providing credentials operate (or will operate) in a similar manner, withrefinements appropriate to the various issuers using the credentials.

Forexample, the ProExam Digital Micro-Credentials that Professional ExaminationService (PES) is launching this spring provides the assessment, verification, andsecurity features that employers who will use the system require. (Learning Solutions Magazine will publishtheir press release later today.) Individuals who have earned badges will beable to manage them and display them. The badges will be portable as anindividual moves from employer to employer, as long as that individualcontinues to meet the requirements of the badge. This is important when a badgecomes from a professional standards organization, such as the ProjectManagement Institute (PMI), the American Institute of Certified PublicAccountants (AICPA), or the HR Certification Institute (HRCI).

What organizations are interested in thesesystems?

Anumber of organizations are advancing or are interested in using Open Badges andsimilar credential systems. As already mentioned, Mozilla and the MacArthurFoundation have the Open Badges effort underway, and some educational institutions arealready using this methodology. Professional Examination Services is working incooperation with employers in four key industries and with professionalorganizations to launch ProExam Digital Micro-Credentials in the nextcouple of months.

Variousother groups are interested in providing credentials for a number of purposes.For example, there are projects underway to make badges available for militaryveterans in order to facilitate their transition to civilian life. By documenting thetransferable skills and competencies these men and women gained while in thearmed forces, it should be easier for hiring managers to make employmentdecisions. Universities, too, are realizing that a degree does not give an employerthe level of detail about skills that a hiring manager needs to know. Badgescan address these problems.

Thereis even interest at the level of public school systems. In Rhode Island, theProvidence After School Alliance (PASA), working with the Mozilla Foundation, providesbadges and academic credit for learning experiences outside the classroom.

Otherexamples of interest in badged credentials include:

• KhanAcademy, which provides badges for watching videos and for passing standardizedtests
• MIT, in cooperation with OpenStudy, which issues badges for participating in and contributingto discussion forums
• Microsoft,which uses in-house programs to track mastery of computer systems

What’s in it for users

Learningproviders who adopt badged credentials offer additional value to their clients,giving the learning providers a competitive advantage. In addition, since badgescarry their brand and are publicly visible, these credentials provide anadditional marketing opportunity.

Learners(which includes almost everyone) gain portability and therefore increase the visibilityof their skills portfolio to potential employers, clients, and interestedparties; skills portfolios are no longer hidden within corporate walls. Badgingprovides a skills-and-competency pathway and a record of certification. Badges areavailable quickly, without taking four years (or longer) to achieve, as degreesrequire.

Foremployers, badged credentials support better hiring through open certificationof skills. Metadata makes the badges more reliable than résumés and moregranular than degrees.

What are the challenges?

Thesesystems are still under development; there are some significantrequirements that they must meet and some questions that the systems must addressin order to achieve acceptance.

• Credibility—doesa badge credential actual skills or does it merely document superficial orirrelevant activities? Did someone just “buy” the badge?
• Reliability—doesa badge accurately represent the skills that it claims to represent?
• Verifiability—canan employer verify when a badge was earned, who granted it, and if thecredential is still valid?
• Security—isa badge “faked,” or otherwise fraudulent?
• Ownership—whoowns the badge? The issuer? The learner? The employer who paid for the trainingor experience that the badge credentials?
• Dobadges cheapen learning or mastery? How does a system deal with the problem of “badgecollectors” who never actually learn anything?

What’s the current status of badgeinitiatives?

These systems are still under development and they are not yetstandardized. You can view the Open Badges roadmap at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/roadmapto get a better idea of that initiative.

Summary

Are badges frivolous, superficial, orworthless? Will employers, job applicants, and providers use them or not? Timewill tell, but what is certain is that the way is open to anyone who wants tolearn almost anything and to do it at the time and location of their choosing.The means of certifying and documenting that learning are evolving now, andbadges are becoming a viable alternative.