Toward a Digital Badge Program for Research Skills: Enhancing First-Year Students' Academic Competencies

• In Event: 68.062 - Poster Session 15
  In Poster Session: 68.062-7 - Expanding the Scope of Learning With Innovative Technologies

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study (N1 = 155, N2 = 717) was to examine first-year students’ self-reported academic competencies in order to propose an outline for a digital badge on an empirical basis. Digital badges symbolize learning achievements and competencies in educational contexts. Moreover, they show transparent academic requirements students need to better meet and adjust to universities’ demands. Not coping with academic requirements is one important factor for discontinuing higher education. Recently, we proposed a model that connects digital badges with generic skills and learning analytics to enhance student retention. This paper aims to provide a first empirical insight into this theoretical model and how a digital badge can be developed on the basis of our empirical findings.

Authors

• Dana-Kristin Mah, University of Potsdam

• Dirk Ifenthaler, University of Mannheim