Exploring the potential of open badges in blog-based university courses

Abstract

Recent developments with personal learning environments and open online courses have led educators to experiment with opening up their formal higher education courses. In these courses, the online learning activities take place in open learning environments based on various Web 2.0 tools such as blogs. Although this type of courses have a number of pedagogical benefits, they also raise issues related to private grading of students’ works and recognizing the learning of informal participants. This paper presents our exploratory study on addressing these issues by introducing open badges to master’s level course that takes place in a blog-based learning environment. Students’ perspectives on using open badges were evaluated through focus group interviews. The results of the study indicate, that badges could have a potential in formal higher education, if they are used more widely and provide an explicit choice of personal learning paths for learners.