Which One's the Cart and Which One's the Horse? Digital Badges as Credentials

• In Event: Democratizing Learning Through Digital Badges: Theoretical and Analytical Frameworks to Advance Design and Research

Abstract

There are a number of education reformers that suggest that digital badges can provide a way to correct some of the current challenges facing 21st-century education (Finkelstein, Knight, & Manning, 2013). One challenge that badges are suggested to solve is the need for more structured learning pathways for specific goals or skills. Badges are noted as potentially offering a method for creating micro-credentials (Frederiksen, 2013), allowing for an accumulation of credentials for smaller skills into a more macro credential of a larger skill. The path of micro to macro credentials is suggested as a way to provide additional value to learning that could be potentially unrecognized.

However, there are also critics who suggest that digital badges are simply a type of gamification that is touted to offer more than it can possibly fulfill (Bogost, 2015). A common refrain among these critics is summarized with the question, "Why would a learner want to earn a badge?" A common response from badge advocates is the promise of future benefit such as an employers or college that will hire or admit a student based on the digital badges earned by the student. However, this response does not address the challenge that employers or higher education institutions might not consider badges as a robust credentialing tool without first seeing a large number of badge earners. Suggesting that badges are primarily a credentialing mechanism might do little to convince skeptics or motivate learners to earn a badge, leading to a lack of acceptance of badges as credentials from the organizations that could benefit from the increased amount of credentials possible with badges. Consequently it is important for researchers of digital badge systems to consider if a focus on badges as credentials is an example of putting the proverbial cart before the horse.

Primarily considering digital badges as credentialing systems also risks ignoring other potential answers to why a learner would want to earn a digital badge. In my poster, I will present research from several badge studies whose findings suggest alternative answers to questions posed by skeptics of badge systems.

For example, a lack of quality assessments is particularly notable in informal learning settings. Libraries, museums, and afterschool clubs can lead to unique and impactful learning for participants who might not receive equitable learning opportunities from formal learning organizations. However, while formal learning has made assessment a cornerstone of practice (e.g., tests, grades, diplomas), informal learning opportunities often have little to no assessment (Malcolm, Hodkinson, & Colley, 2003).

My research suggests that participants were motivated to earn a badge in order to be recognized for learning that they valued but had not been previously recognized by any type of assessment process. This recognition is different than a credential in that the participants in the badge system were not expecting to share their badge with potential employers or earn school credit. One possible answer to badge skeptics could be, "People want to earn badges because they want recognition for learning they value."

Author

• Samuel Abramovich, University at Buffalo - SUNY