Open badges
Open Learn Courses from the Open University, has quite a few courses which are awarded by a badge once completed. The course I looked at was ‘Taking your teaching online’ which aims to help teachers with the transition to online teaching.
The article by Ahn et al. (2014) looks at badges and their relation to openness in systems by exploring three different perspectives of both badges and openness first. They then bring these together in a framework to examine the crossroads between the different perspectives. For the badge I am looking at here, the perspective of the badge as a motivational tool, is probably the least applicable perspective. The other perspectives of badges as pedagogical tools and as credentials (Ahn et al. 2014) are more obviously present in my example. The other side of the framework is that of the perspectives of open systems, which in the article are broken down into ‘open production’, ‘open access and ‘open appropriation’. (Ahn et al. 2014) The most applicable perspective for the badge I choose is that of open access.
If we look at the crossroad of these perspectives according to the table in the article, the themes that come up are access to support and feedback (Ahn et al. 2014), but really what comes to mind here is access to a teacher, I think. If education is open, which often means a lot students, then where is the support, the teachers? In this particular course, the assessments take place through multiple choice quizzes, so the feedback comes in the form of a ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ on your screen, which is a workable way to test basic knowledge, but not the most motivating way to receive feedback. There is no tutor on the course to ask for help and although some courses provide the opportunity to interact with other students, this is not an option on the free courses, like this one. Support in this particular course is therefore almost non-existent; there are ways to ask for help with the technical aspects. In this particular case I think we can conclude that ‘openness’ most definitely leads to ‘closures’ (Bayne et al. 2015); the course is open, because anyone can join it, especially since it is free, but that means a lack of support for the students.
The other crossroad that the perspectives applicable to this badge come across in the table is that of effectiveness of the badge as a credential and how visibility and transparency can influence this. (Ahn et al. 2014) The course that I have chosen is a course available from the Open University, which is a well-known, established institution. I think if a badge has been issued by an institution like this, it improves the credibility because others will recognize it. Similarly to diploma’s in traditional institutions, where a degree from a well-known and respected institution carries more weight than one from a little known one.
In conclusion, I think the badge that can be earned by completing this course can be used as a credential, but I am unsure if the course itself is a very valuable learning experience due the lack of support and feedback offered.
Ahn, J., Pellicone, A., and Butler, B.S. (2014), Open badges for education: what are the implications at the intersection of open systems and badging? Research in Learning Technology, 22(1)
Bayne, S., Knox, J., & Ross, J. (2015). Open education: the need for a critical approach. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(3), pp. 247-250.
A good use of the framework to analyse the Open Learning badges. The point about teacherly presence is an important one – and oddly missed by many in discussions of badges. I wonder to what extent the OU badge provides credibility mainly within the OU – as indicative of prior learning that can gain access to a more mainstream course (with fees attached of course). Your points about motivation are helpful as well in the identified paradox between the motivating role of the badges and the demotivating effect of the lack of teacherly presence and the use of automated MCQs.