Regenerating Learning and Recognition with Open Badges

10 years on, has the Open Badge standard delivered the paradigm shift it promised?

The promise of Open Badges

In 2011 an international competition encouraged organisations to enter ideas for revolutionising the delivery and recognition of learning. The Digital Media and Learning Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition, funded by the Mozilla and MacArthur Foundations, and delivered by HASTAC, invited entries:

“to create badges — digital tools that identify and validate the rich array of skills, knowledge, accomplishments, and competencies for 21st-Century learners.”

The competition was created on the back of discussions by a group of educators and technologists, summarised in a white paper Open Badges for Lifelong Learning (pdf) authored by the Mozilla and MacArthur Foundations and Peer 2 Peer University. Their call to action for reinventing 21st century learning set out how an open standard and infrastructure for recognising learning that happens everywhere could be founded on the idea of open digital badges.

I was fortunate enough to contribute as a community member from the early days of developments, collaborating with the open community and Mozilla architecting the Open Badge standard, sharing my experiences of exploring the concept and its implications for learning and assessment, and implementing early open badge skills programmes. A lot has happened since then. Over 43 million badges have been issued and the standard is now stewarded by IMS Global.

I helped oversee the transition of the Open Badge standard from Mozilla to IMS Global as an invited expert to the Digital Credentialing Initiative and over the course of the 10 years since the standard was created I have explored and furthered my thinking on the potential impact of Open Badges through my work in the field. My experience has ranged from: creating the concept and blueprints for Open Badge Pathways and contributing to authoring of the standard with the Open Badges team at Mozilla; setting up a nationwide group to consider the impact of Open Badges across education, industry and government; co-creating an assessment extension; creating an open badge platfrom with recipients of funding from the DML competition (the OBA); and influencing the Erasmus+ funded Open Badge Network’s work exploring digital credentials and policy in the European Union, as a steering group member.

Given my cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary involvment in this evolution of learning and skills recognition, I am always interested to see where developments will go next. Transformation takes time, especially when it relates to a mindset shift in how we view the underlying concept being affected.

In my experience helping sectors and disciplines to regenerate, I’ve found that it takes about 10 years for a new concept to become embedded. This timeline is mirrored in the Gartner Hype Cycle, which suggests new technologies will go through peaks and troughs of excitement and disillusionment during a ten year cycle, ending with the “plateau of productivity”. I wrote about where I felt the Open Badge standard was in its 10 year transformation journey, in 2019 and 2020 and reflected:

“I’m not sure we’ll reach the kind of mature adoption (20%–30% adoption by the potential audience) that the ‘plateau of productivity’ predicts but perhaps we are on course for that by the end of 2021.”

Where are we now?

At the end of 2021, the discussion around learning, skills and recognition has certainly shifted. There is more acceptance of the opportunities the online environment provides for supporting learning anytime, anywhere; with more nuanced conversations about equity and access, terminology, and user-control of learning, taking place.

Over the course of advancements to the Open Badge standard, related concepts have also surfaced and taken hold. Micro-credentailing is one such concept that has been gaining traction over the past few years, with the European Commission recently agreeing action to improve lifelong learning and employability through lifelong learning accounts and micro-credentials.

Interestingly, one of the stated intentions in the report, point 18(c), is:

support for the portability, stackability, interoperability, exchange and sharing of information on micro-credentials through a European open standard which specifies a common format for micro-credentials.

While progressing the work of the Open Badge Network, we explored the idea of a European version of the Open Badge standard, so I’m intrigued by this announcement by the European Commission. The proposed leaders for this European work is Europass, who were co-members of the Open Badge Network steering committee, and who have a deep understanding of the Open Badge standard. One of the founding aims of the Open Badge standard was to remove silos and open up access to learning and skills recognition for all. I hope that in the European Union’s desire for digital sovereignty, they will continue to leverage the goals of interoperability, ensuring an EU open standard will interoperate with the Open Badge standard and other badge or micro-credentialing standards that might emerge.

Universities are also furthering the concept of micro-credentials. Given that some of these offices are / will be run by supporters of the open philosophy inherent in Open Badges, I’m confident many of these developments will progress the evolution of learning and skills in an open way. If the opportunities for innovation are not acted upon, however, there is a chance the same issue I called out in a recent talk at the UN Climate Conference — COP26 will occur - that we merely move the same system online, rather than using the opportunity of an innovation to re-evaluate and change the system.

What is the trajectory for learning and recognition?

I think it’s important to continue to embed openness at the heart of developments in learning and skills. Open recognition makes it possible to take recognition to the person, rather than the individual having to engage in pre-determined learning. Asking stakeholders to determine the skills that are undervalued or hidden in their local context, enables new skills-based value systems to be created. These might be increasingly sought after employability skills such as empathy, collaboration, empowering psychological safety etc, or skills that are needed for an emerging place-based context.

Recognising such skills with an open badge / micro-credential, gives them an explicit value. This can positively impact an individual’s confidence by developing skills awareness, which in turn can affect their life and career aspirations and provide a currency to unlock further opportunities. Research shows that socio-economic factors can significantly affect learning and life trajectories and lead to some people thinking they don’t have skills — an area of focus for much of my research and work on the blueprints for Open Badge Pathways and Cities of Learning UK.

Taking a systems thinking view, an open approach to learning and recognition can increase self- and skills-awareness and enhance self-determination amongst those who lack confidence in their skills. It has the potential to produce a ripple effect, positively impacting the desire for further education, improving life and career choices, enhancing status or standing in the community, and increasing a desire for positive contribution.

My hope for the future

I hope a new European open standard for micro-credentials will enable interoperability with other global open standards for learning and skills, including Open Badges. I hope opportunities for improving the system will be acted upon, rather than just moving more of the same online. Whether it’s open badges or micro-credentials, I hope the fundamental importance of openness will be embeded, to empower collaborative developments and an evolution of the system.