Getting Started with Open Badges and Open Microcredentials

This article is intended as a practical resource to help interested organizations design and implement an open badging system. Open badges are a type of open credential designed to recognize a variety of skills, knowledge, and experiences, both inside and outside of traditional educational settings. While growing in popularity, common questions asked by those interested in using open badges include: How do I get started? What technologies exist to produce open badges? And what do I need to know? This article seeks to address questions such as these. First, we introduce the reader to key terms in the badging world and explore open badge design precedents, responding to who, what, how, where, and why open badges have been used in the past. Drawing on this research as well as our own personal experience, we then present a possible framework for getting started with open badges and a step-by-step guide for implementing that framework within your organization.

156 when the badge might expire, what standards it is aligned to, and tags for organizing the badge classes (Mozilla Open Badges, 2014b).
• Competency-Based Education. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2019), competency-based education is learning that "allows students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of academic content, regardless of time, place, or pace of learning" (para. 1). Nodine (2016) described the history of competency-based learning as following centuries of traditional instruction that focused on mastery learning, such as through apprenticeships, craft guilds, and technical training programs. An early focus on learning outcomes also provided support for an emerging conceptualization of CBE as focused on what students learn, not how or where they learned it. This perspective contrasts with time-based perspectives on learning rooted in the Carnegie Unit, or credit hour, which since its introduction in 1906 has developed into a common standard for measuring time spent on learning and student readiness for higher education (Silva, White, & Toch, 2015). However, many in higher education believe the Carnegie Unit is less useful in an information economy (Levine, 2015).
• Consumers/Interpreters. The ultimate audience of a badge-the individuals, employers, peers, and institutions, who use a badge to evaluate an individual's qualifications.
• Digital Badge. Badges that do not conform to the OBI standard. Often used in video games or to motivate student behavior but not portable between platforms.
• Earner. An individual who satisfactorily meets badge completion criteria and is awarded the badge by the issuer. "Badge earners can combine multiple OBs from different issuers, display them on the Web, and share them for employment, and/or further education" (Jovanović & Devedžić, 2014, p. 116).
• Endorsements. A recent addition to the OBI that enables third parties to endorse an issuer's badge or an individual's earned badges. Endorsements are designed to bring greater value to badges as the recognition and value they receive from others is recorded in a badge's metadata.
• Evidence. Information embedded within the badge or linked out to separate web pages demonstrating what the recipient did to earn the achievement (IMS Global Learning Consortium, 2018).
• Issuer. The organization that designs and publishes a badge, reviews badge submissions, issues the badge to an earner, and provides digital verification of the badge's authenticity. "OBI defines the badge issuer as a learning provider or an employer awarding an OB for completing a certain task (tasks) and/or attaining a certain goal (goals). The issuer creates the criteria that the badge earner needs to fulfill in order to win the badge" (Jovanović & Devedžić, 2014, p. 116).
• Issuing Platform. A platform enables individuals and institutions to issue badges to their learners. In other words, if you want to give badges to your students, you create and upload your badges to an issuing platform, along with the criteria for earning the badge and a description of the facilitates the portability and interoperability of the badging system; "OBI comes with a set of open application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow developers to integrate OB services with existing applications, Websites, and social networks." (Jovanović & Devedžić, 2014, p. 116).
• Verification. A process by which the validity of a badge can be confirmed. Most OB issuing tools provide instructions for verifying badges issued by their system.
Institutions seeking to set up their own badging system may benefit from reviewing the cited resources for organizations similar to their own. These articles cited are examples only, as there are too many cases to list for each one.

What Badges are They Issuing?
Badges can be issued for learning or achievement within any subject domain. They can also follow any classification or leveling system that meets the needs of the issuer and earners. Some general ideas for badges within a system include color coding the badges; using levels (e.g., bronze/silver/gold or Level 1/2/3); attaching categories or tags; and using meaningful icons (Santos et al., 2013). In considering how

Creating a Badging Program
The remainder of this article provides a framework for approaching the design of a badging program. We have divided this process into four phases: (1) Design the system, (2) Design the badges, (3) Publish, and (4) Emphasize change management. Figure 1 provides a visualization of these stages and subcomponents.
Although we represent these stages linearly, the context of a given program may lead to dependencies between stages and their subcomponents. Flexibility should be allowed in the design process by anyone seeking to follow these guidelines.

Stage 1: Design the System
The complexity of a badging program grows as the number of badges and earners increases. For this reason, planning the broader system in which individual badges and earners will take part in is essential. This includes, considering the number of topics a program will include, the amount of badges aligned with each topic, and the resources available to implement the design.
Program scope. One challenge every badging initiative faces is determining what competencies will be represented. A common pitfall many badging initiatives fall into is the temptation to badge everything. Our recommendation, despite planning the broader system for eventual growth, is that badging programs start small by focusing on a few core skills.
Workflow. The process by which participants in the program find and earn badges will have implications for how badges will be formatted and which badging platform should be used. Does the evaluation process need to be integrated into an existing workflow? How will earners know what badges are available? What will the interaction between earners and evaluators be like? Answering questions such as these can help guide the decision-making process later on. It may be helpful to consider broadly what type of system metaphor you are seeking. Do you want a system where learners browse badges and apply for them, one where issuers award badges based on evidence acquired outside of the system (perhaps as part of a course management system), one where badges can be earned as part of gamification, or something else?
Identify participants. Badging initiatives often begin with a specific population of earners in mind. Those designing the program should consider how this population may change over time and how those changes may impact the structure of the program. For example, it may be useful to design the badges Getting Started with Open Badges and Open Microcredentials Clements, West, and Hunsaker 162 to allow for future levels, as badge earners may want to continue their professional learning. Equally important is considering how those playing an administrative role in the badging program may change over time, and how the administration of the badging system can be continued during this transition.

Resources.
Beyond personnel, what resources are available to implement the badging program?
One example may be funds required for updating the badges if they get outdated or paying for someone to review and award the badges. Will these resources be available on an ongoing basis? Will those evaluating badge criteria require training of any kind? How will badge evidence be hosted online? Each of these decisions will have implications for the amount of resources required to sustain the badging program. For example, requiring expert human grading of evidence can provide higher rigor, but also a higher cost.
Perhaps it is useful to explore peer evaluation and other methods of crowdsourcing the "expense" of badge reviewing.

Badge images. Although metadata often explains the significance of a given badge, the badge
image is what gives the first impression. One study found the credibility of an entire program can be lowered by less aesthetically pleasing badge images (Dyjur & Lindstrom, 2017).
The images themselves can be created using any tool and then uploaded to the issuing platform. Some platforms even allow the user to generate potential images while creating the badge. Alternatively, tools such as Makebadges (http://www.makebadg.es/badge#) allow users to create badge images and download them.
Learning resources. Open badges are often connected to broader competency-based learning programs (Hickey, Willis, & Quick, 2015). Badges are usually designed to include in the metadata an explanation of the criteria or competencies earners are required to complete, but they do not include instructions on how to achieve that competency (i.e., they display the task you need to do, but lack the training on how to do it). For this reason, we recommend that a badging program provide guides or references outside the badge metadata to guide potential earners in obtaining the necessary skills. This can be a website or a learning management system that accompanies and supports the badges.
Managing a team. Many badging systems rely on a team to create and manage the badges.
Scaffolding team members with clear templates can help keep all badges uniform. In one study, Randall, West, & Farmer, in press) found that by emphasizing effective training of undergraduate badge designers enabled these newer designers to create badge rubrics and designs that were as high quality as those created by more experienced professionals. The key, it seems, is in the training, templates, documentation, and opportunities for peer review (see Figures 4-5 for examples of some scaffolding documents we used in developing our educational technology badges).

Getting Started with Open Badges and Open Microcredentials Clements, West, and Hunsaker
164 Figure 4. One of many internal Google documents used to scaffold new badge designers. Badge designers were typically teaching assistants in the courses, who had strong content area experience but limited badge design experience, and who were rotated frequently (see Randall,Farmer, & West, 2019). making certain all new badges were reviewed and approved. We found it to be much more efficient to do the bulk of the badge design work in Google Docs and Sheets before transitioning to the badging platform.

Stage 3: Publish
The third stage of creating a badge program includes publishing the badges with your selected badge issuing tool and making them available to earners. A variety of platforms exist for this purpose; the complete list of

Choosing a platform.
Every open badge issuing platform is unique. We recommend reviewing multiple platforms before decided which one will be used to implement your program. Where possible, creating one or two badges within each platform can give you a sense of how your program would work using that tool. Consider the following issues as you make your selection.
Workflow. If possible, create a badge using the platform you are considering. Walk through the process of earning the badge to make sure the platform supports the types of interactions you envision for the program. Also consider whether or not the platform you are considering can integrate with tools already being used by your organization, such as learning management systems.
Permissions. Several badging platforms offer varying levels of permissions that enable members of the badging organization to fulfill different roles. For example, one account may be allowed to edit and add badges while another can only issue them.
Cost. Specific features may only be available for on a subscription basis. Other platforms provide their features for free up to a certain number of badges or users. Consider what the potential of your program is to grow and whether or not the potential of added costs may limit that growth.

Stage 4: Emphasize Change Management
Every organization will likely require a cultural shift of some kind when implementing a badging program.
The following recommendations may assist in ensuring a smooth transition to badging.
Find a Badge champion. As outlined here, implementing a successful badging program requires several steps. For this reason, we recommend designating someone within the organization to lead out on designing and implementing the program. This allows for the creation of badges, selection of an issuing tool, and other essential decisions to be coordinated and helps ensure none of these steps are forgotten.

Focus on earners.
A warm reception to the badging program by those who are expected to participate in earning badges greatly enhances the transition. We have found including earners in the badge design process, starting small and iterating based on earner feedback, and where applicable allowing earners to apply for badges based on their prior work and experience, can improve reception of a program.
In addition, clear training ahead of time about what badges are, and why they can be valuable, can quickly answer many of the common questions and encourage greater badge earning participation.

Focus on consumers.
Most badging programs hope to increase the acceptance of badges among badge consumers (those who will see the badges and value them). Several forms of microcredentials have begun to emerge, however employers have been slow to adopt these alternatives (Fong et al.,p. 15). The best thing a program can do to ensure a positive reception by badge consumers is work with badge consumers to design the program in the first place. While this may not be feasible for a widespread audience, incorporating a consumer's input early on will help them value the completed program. For An open badge's metadata provides another opportunity to improve consumer reception. When designing a badge, consider how well the description and criteria will be understood by an external audience.
Providing a brief description of the review process and anticipated amount of work required to earn the badge can go a long way towards helping someone else understand what the badge represents.

Conclusion
The people to know and be able to do, and how we think we will know when they have done it. These are important questions, which can lead to significant pedagogical reform, which has been our experience.
Because of this, one of the greatest benefits of alternative credentials, such as open badges, is they are the catalyst to force us to think about alternative educational practices and processes.
In addition, the emphasis that open badging gives to micro certification, rather than larger scale certificates such as degrees and diplomas, can open up possibilities for a re-organizing of learning systems, where learning can happen from one institution or many, at one time or over time, and in this way perhaps break free from the tyranny of the one semester, "X" credit hour system that artificially constrains many learning experiences. In this way, open badges and microcredentials may be the key to unlocking the potential of MOOCs, online modules, and open courseware by providing a credentialing option for these open resources.
In addition, open badges could provide the opportunity to break down barriers between informal and formal learning, and professional education and academic education.

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It is unknown what the future of open badging may be, or whether it may be supplanted by future technologies. However, these pedagogical and philosophical questions about what we feel the nature of education is and should be will remain. Whatever the future of education, we feel confident it will involve increased opportunities for some kind of skill-based, micro learning in addition to other educational practices. As open education evolves, we believe the field will need to build off of the success it has had in creating open content, and address how to provide learning that is more skills-based, distributed, flexible, and linked to 21 st century career needs. Open badges will not give us all the answers, but we do feel that open credentials can provide at least the technological opportunity to explore possibilities.