academic engagement Archives

Dear ADDIE,

There’s been a lot of talk at my college about using digital badges in our online courses. I’m not sure I understand why or how our faculty would use them. We don’t have an institution-wide infrastructure that supports badging. What advice can I give my faculty who are interested in trying them?

Signed,

We don’t Need no Stink’n Badges

Dear Stink’n,

I’m happy to hear there is interest in digital badges at your institution. Digital badges are a great way to incorporate student engagement into an online course. They are also a graphical way to support an achievement. Unfortunately, many lack the background information about badges to understand or justify their use. To that end, let’s address the ‘what’ before we get to the ‘why’ or ‘how’.

A digital badge is a visual symbol of accomplishment, interest, or competency. First introduced in 2011 with the launch of the Open Badges Project, digital badges have been used to note accomplishments in a video game, recognize a presenter or participant at a conference, or acknowledge the completion of professional development or training. Digital badges have also become popular for professional development and teacher training.

Also known as micro-credentials, digital badges have the most value to the recipient when they validate and provide evidence of an acquired skills or competencies. In higher education, badges typically represent proficiency not shown on a transcript, “such as skills gained from internships, volunteer work, and other co-curricular activities.” An excellent example is UCF’s MELTS program: Micro-credentialing of English Learner Teaching Skills. Public school teachers learn and then demonstrate teaching skills needed to work with English learners. There are 10 individual key instructional skills for which participants can earn a digital badge. Earning all 10 badges awards the participant a “Master” badge. Once a badge has been earned, the teacher can attach their earned badge to their LinkedIn profile, add it to their badge portfolio, and share it with their administrator.

Digital badges are a form of micro-credentialing, which provides a way to recognize and evidence accomplishments acquired through learning experiences.

Issuing digital badges so that the recipient can accept them requires a platform. There are a number of options, including Badgr, Credly Acclaim, and Accredible. Some platforms, like Badgr, also integrate with learning management systems (LMS), like Canvas. Check with your LMS Admins to see if they enabled digital badges in your school’s learning management system. If your institution doesn’t offer a digital badging solution, your faculty can create their own account to issue badges. Most are easy to use and many are free.

Digital badges are more than just pretty images. A good digital badge platform will also collect metadata about the badge. This information includes the badge name, a description, criteria for earning the badge, an issuer, and the date issued. An optional element is the “Evidence of the Achievement” for the digital badge and often it is a link to a page that provides more detail about the badge. Let’s not forget, digital badges are meant to be shared. As you create your badge, keep in mind the different stakeholders who will see it – issuer, recipient, employer — and the value they will derive from it.

When discussing digital badging with your faculty, first try to determine the purpose of the badge. What is its value proposition? Is it simply a fun way to engage students with the course content? Is it to recognize the completion of a task, assignment, or module? Or is the goal to validate specific skills learned? These questions address the potential complexity of digital badging and thoughtful preparation that should be done before issuing that first badge.

The following are three examples of how faculty can incorporate digital badges into their course.

Create Easter eggs. Placing Easter eggs throughout online course content encourages active exploration and discovery. Faculty can place one in their syllabus, in a lengthy reading, or at the end of the unit. The Easter egg itself can be a digital badge or set up so that students would collect some number of eggs to earn a digital badge.
Completing a module. The easiest option is to issue a digital badge at the conclusion of a module or unit of study. Many LMSs, like Canvas, allow you to integrate (or add) a digital badging platform, like Badgr, into your course. Badgr Support provides directions for automatically issuing badges in Canvas, including a document preview provided by the Instructure Community. When creating the badge for the unit, use the badge description to provide details about what students have learned and use the criteria field for requirements needed to issue the badge, e.g., scored 80% or higher on the module assessment.
Learning a specific skill or mastering a specific topic. Over the span of a semester, courses can cover a great deal of material and students’ final grades do not necessarily reflect the content they have mastered. When you can, identify specific skill sets and recognize those learning achievements with a digital badge. For example, suppose your faculty requires their students to do a presentation, but doing so means students have to learn a software package. You might give students a digital badge for demonstrating competency with that program.

Digital badges can provide students with an engaging, motivating, and encouraging experience with online course content. There are many ways to use digital badges; I suggest you think big, start small. Encourage your faculty to do something simple to get started. I hope you feel better equipped to discuss digital badging with your faculty in your efforts to find fun and engaging ways to enhance student engagement in their courses.

What other ideas or plans for the use of badges have you applied or are exploring at your higher education institution? Please share your thoughts with our TOPkit community on Discord!

Resources

Dyjur, P., & Lindstrom, G. (2017, March 10). Perceptions and uses of digital badges for professional learning development in higher education. AECT Tech Trends

Markowitz, Troy (2018, September 16). The seven deadly sins of digital badging in education. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/troymarkowitz/2018/09/16/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-digital-badging-in-education-making-badges-student-centered/?sh=1690e10170b8

Raths, D. (2013, June 20). How badges really work in higher education. Campus Technology, IT Trends. https://campustechnology.com/Articles/2013/06/20/How-Badges-Really-Work-in-Higher-Education.aspx

Author(s): Dr. Jenny Sumner

Editor: Dr. Denise Lowe

Dear ADDIE,

Looking across the higher education landscape, I see a strong and growing focus on student success as a holistic approach by faculty and staff from across the campus. At my large, metropolitan university, there are many student services and support resources designed to support students’ retention, progression, academic success, and completion, both inside and outside of the classroom. In fact, when the global pandemic hit in spring, it was impressive to see how these services mobilized to ensure that students had the resources and supports that they needed to successfully continue their academic journey.

As a newer, online faculty member, I wonder how I may be able to engage more, both with and for my students, and to support them even beyond my classroom. Do you have any tips or suggestions as to how online faculty can become more involved in serving students in online programs?

Signed,

Eager to Engage

Dear Eager,

Great question! While, historically, the lines between faculty/academic affairs and student affairs were delineated, in recent decades there has been a shift toward partnering together to impact student success.

First, to be clear, faculty are already involved in student success! In fact, while “all institution constituents share the responsibility of enhancing retention and student success…faculty members play the single most important role in student learning and may have the greatest impact on student persistence.” (McCormick & Lucas, 2014). Faculty are the core of any institution’s mission, and faculty are on the front lines of student success by providing outstanding instruction and learning.

However, growing research also indicates that informal engagements by faculty inside and outside of the classroom can make meaningful and impactful impressions on students (These engagements can also be impactful on you, as well!). There are many opportunities for you, as a new, online faculty member to engage with and serve students in your online programs. In fact, I would argue that your involvement with students, especially online students, is a critical component to their success!

Here are some of my recommendations of how to engage differently with and for your online students:

#1: Demonstrate Approachability. This is the first step when engaging with your online student. While you may be an approachable person, students, especially online students, may be hesitant to approach you, or even know how to approach you. I would suggest that you experiment with innovative technologies and/or to work with an instructional designer to create fun and exciting ways to connect with your online students. Online students, who feel that they have a connection with their online faculty and that their online faculty cares about their success, are more apt to complete your class successfully, and reach out to you when other issues arise.

Growing research indicates that informal engagements by faculty can make meaningful and impactful impressions on students.

#2: Connect with Your Students Through Your Discipline. Survey research indicates that students, especially online students, value an understanding of how their course content/major content applies to their future goals. As the expert in your field, you have the unique opportunity to connect with your students through your discipline, engaging in activities ranging from low-time commitments to long-term relationships. As a faculty member, you could:

Establish High Impact Practices (HIP) as curricular or co-curricular activities
Serve on welcoming or orientation committees, and help to welcome new students to your campus and to your discipline/major
Judge students’ presentations at symposiums/conferences
Review students’ research proposal/thesis/dissertation
Establish a “mentoring meeting” schedule where you meet with students informally to discuss varying topics of interest outside of the classroom
Invite students to participate in your research activities
Co-author a paper with your student(s)
Serve as a faculty advisor to a student association, club, or organization
Serve on a thesis/dissertation committee
Serve as a formal faculty-mentor

#3: Partner with Key Resources on Your Campus. Institutions have many student affairs and student resource offices designed to support students in different ways at every point in their education journey; offices such as financial aid, accessibility, tutoring, counseling, wellness, career, experiential learning, and many more, offer wide-ranging and specialized services to students.

A great way to increase your involvement in support of your online students is to partner with these offices, and, together, create synergies for student success. Student affairs personnel need the knowledge of faculty, and their understanding of what students are experiencing in the classroom; conversely, faculty need the knowledge of student affairs professionals about what students are experiencing peripheral to their academics. Through cross-collaboration, we create holistic student supports.

#4: Get Engaged in the Conversations. Many departments support student success, and I would bet that your institution has many ongoing initiatives as well. Various committees, strategic teams, and work-groups develop to explore opportunities to enhance student success, and frequently lacking in these conversations is the voice of online faculty. I would encourage you—for professional development, networking, and outcome-focused reasons—to serve on and engage with these types of groups, and to share your insights from an online faculty perspective. I assure you that you would be a welcomed member to the conversation!

There are many ways to get involved with your online students and with others who are working across your campus to impact online student success. My hope is that you do, and that you have fun with it! This is certainly an exciting time to be in the online education space, and to creatively engaging on behalf of our online students!

I’m sure there are many more tips that others in the community have found useful. What strategies or recommendation do you have for how online faculty can get involved in supporting online students? Please share your thoughts with our TOPkit Community on Discord!

Tag: academic engagement

Getting Started with Digital Badges (Issue 23)

Getting Engaged: Marrying Together Faculty and Online Student Success (Issue 21)