Soft Certification of Participant Engagement and Task Completion in COIL-enhanced courses through Open Badges Mirjam Hauck, SUNY/COIL Teresa MacKinnon, University of Warwick/UK ● Challenges of Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) well documented (e.g. Guth, Helm & O’Dowd, 2012; MacKinnon, 2013) ● Complexity of shared accreditation explained (Aguirre & Quemada, 2012) ● Added value of participation in OIE accepted ● Potential of OIE to serve goal of virtual mobility in HE acknowledged How do we support motivation that leads to sustained participation and interaction? → Learning from MOOCs and NOOCs! ● network-, task-, content-based approaches (Lane, 2012) ● task-based MOOCs similar to Online Intercultural Exchange → Badging as a way of ● recognising achievement ● driving engagement Cross and Galley (2012) Typology of badges 5 O’Dowd and Ware (2009) Taxonomy of Tasks: ● Information Exchange Tasks where participants provide their partners with information for example about their personal backgrounds and their home cultures. ● Comparison and Analysis Tasks requiring learners to exchange information but also to go a step further and carry out comparisons or critical analyses of cultural products (e.g. books, surveys, films and newspaper articles). ● Collaborative Tasks requiring participants not only to exchange and compare information but also to work together to produce a joint artefact or reach a joint conclusion. #Clavier project: ● large scale virtual exchange Warwick/Clermont Ferrand, France ● professional development for staff ● connected educators extending to Poland, Sweden, Japan, US, Finland...#clavedu G+ community “...the future belongs to those who learn to work together with other groups without regard to location, heritage, and national and cultural difference” (Grandin & Hedderich, 2009) Benefit of the badge Role of Badge Creator (awarder) 1. As a motivator / A solution to the 'motivation issue' for open courses that have no formal assessment (or at least teacher 2. To promote engagement / marked qualification-related assessment). The drop-out rate for such courses is much higher than for traditional courses (even up to 90-95% of registrations). 4. As a meaning maker / Badges can help describe what is important and can be constructively aligned with learning outcomes. 5. Signifier of learning objectives Achievement of a badge may be seen as evidence that an outcome has also been achieved 8. As a valuer Both the existence of a badge and uptake of it by learners, can help confer value to something that is clearly import to the awarder (otherwise why create the badge) 9. As a symbol of identity / Helps tie the learner to the awarder and in so doing deepens the association between them and others holding 10. As a means of association the badge. For social or political groups for whom the goal of a qualification/award is not the primary purpose, badges can provide shared goals (or other foci) around which badge-seekers and badge-achievers can associate. Towards a framework: ● based on an incentive-centered approach ● starts with task categories (O’Dowd & Ware, 2009) ● suggests positioning for badge types in order to optimise engagement ● emphasises meaningful activity ● most badges are types 1 and 2 A proposed framework for open badges in OIE Picture by Astris1 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3 Badges to address pitfalls in OIE: Challenges: How badges can help: Task design often complex Positioning of badges can make learning design choices and intended learning outcomes explicit Multiple factors impact upon success of OIE Badge award can reflect facets of success Gaps in tutors’ OIE-related competences Badge pathways help tutors identify professional development needs Insights gained from implementation: ● Contextual ● Learning design ● Technical Contextual Awareness of badges not widespread in Europe. Importance of communicating badge schema. Example Learning design Importance of establishing the purpose of the OIE and embedding in curriculum Align task sequences with learning outcomes in order to position badges appropriately Allow time for support, guidance and dissemination Technical Badge schema needs central place on platform Award notifications should be immediate, establishing a clear link between activity and award Robust technology to provide reliable, sustainable award Always pilot in your context Preliminary conclusions: Badges provide a route to the acquisition of complex skills, confidence builds competence. Badge collection should not become the means and the end, but remain the means to an end, namely enhanced learner motivation. Badges can help to balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Badge selection and positioning must be informed by learning design and not the other way round. Badges can gamify learning but should be chosen and placed with care to support learner ownership of learning progress. Thank you! Hauck, M. & MacKinnon, T. (in press). A new approach to assessing Online Intercultural Exchange: soft certification of participant engagement and task execution. In: R. O’Dowd and T. Lewis (Eds.) Online Intercultural Exchange. Routledge. @sunycoilcenter @warwicklanguage
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