#BadgeChat was founded in December, 2014 by a group of educators who are passionate about credentialing learning and achieving. While there are thousands of us around the globe issuing badges to learners, there was not yet a regular twitter chat for those of us in the K-12 space to gather for learning and sharing about badging. After reaching out to leaders in the field (like the good folks at Mozilla and The Badge Alliance) for their thoughts, #BadgeChat was born.
I'm Noah in Denver. I'm a passionate advocate of telling great stories and see micro-credentials as one way of communicating a deep, rich narrative of who we are as learners and achievers #badgechat
Lesley Voigt - Madison, WI from the Digital Credentials Institute. Passionate about moving digital credentials/badges forward! Sorry for my late arrival. #badgechat
OOOO, I like this Dodie. Haven't really thought about stakeholder buy-in as an actual piece of the value proposition puzzle. Mind expanding on your thinking with this one? #badgechat
A1 Without buy-in from badge consumers, badges have little meaning other than pats on the head. This leads to lack of buy-in from badge earners. Heck, you even need buy-in from badge issuers - badges should be part of a meaningful learning/development experience #BadgeChat
Love all of these points around VALUE. Also, appreciate Don reminding us that there are various stakeholder constituencies...earners, issuers, consumers (the audience for a given badge like an employer) and others #badgechat
A1 Without buy-in from badge consumers, badges have little meaning other than pats on the head. This leads to lack of buy-in from badge earners. Heck, you even need buy-in from badge issuers - badges should be part of a meaningful learning/development experience #BadgeChat
assign value to a badge, but who determines if that value is worthy? Asked T's to get GCE, that didn't change anything. They pile up the badges in @RemindHQ & @SeeSaw b/c they see value in those. Once they earned those, GCE became valuable, changing the culture. #BadgeChat
A2: Sounds crazy, but honestly I've found that folks' unwillingness to create a new software login can be one of the biggest barriers to getting a new badge platform up and running. Ts are sometimes overwhelmed by new tech. #BadgeChat
I hadn't even thought about the risk factors surrounding misinformation. Designers beware: Having a Communication Plan is essential and it should be revisited often! #badgechat
Love this topic! A1: Buy-in is super important because otherwise your project will just not reach the critical mass needed for everyone to see the value of #digitalcredentials. Thanks for raising these questions! #BadgeChat
Ben brings up such an important factor: TIME. Our users are busy people and sometimes the biggest barriers to buy-in have less to do with merit of the initiative and more to do with simple bandwidth to take on anything new #badgechat
A2: Sounds crazy, but honestly I've found that folks' unwillingness to create a new software login can be one of the biggest barriers to getting a new badge platform up and running. Ts are sometimes overwhelmed by new tech. #BadgeChat
A2. Noise and innovation fatigue, for one thing. For another, maybe strategy - lack of focused goals that people can get behind. (What are the badges for?) Lack of engaged leaders/champions, maybe too much bottom up. Need good marketing, in the broadest sense. #BadgeChat
Very well said Noah. If we can't demonstrate that badges actually save time in the long run, things will not go well. In order to be successful, badges really need to create value for folks in the first 10 minutes of signing up. #badgechat
>>Innovation Fatigue<<
@donpresant makes a great observation here. Sometimes, we have to overcome prior disappointments and frustrations that have nothing to do with our efforts but with which we are nonetheless saddled #badgechat
A2. Noise and innovation fatigue, for one thing. For another, maybe strategy - lack of focused goals that people can get behind. (What are the badges for?) Lack of engaged leaders/champions, maybe too much bottom up. Need good marketing, in the broadest sense. #BadgeChat
True. If they ask, "Why should I care?" we are doomed if answer is "give it 2.5 months and 32 hours of time you don't have and you'll see how game changing it is!" #badgechat
Very well said Noah. If we can't demonstrate that badges actually save time in the long run, things will not go well. In order to be successful, badges really need to create value for folks in the first 10 minutes of signing up. #badgechat
A3: Opt-in initiatives need to be appealing because they are fun and engaging. #badges4bears is a great example of this. Mandated initiatives work better if the path to success is very clear and if there are other incentives involved. #badgechat
A3. For me, buy-in implies active engagement based on a 2-way dialogue, a negotiation even. Vs "do this because you have to". Although I will say that K12 badges would be more popular in Canada if teachers had to demonstrate PD.. so both can be good. #badgechat
A3: Mandates can lead to buy-in but a lot of it looks like dotted 'i's and crossed 't's. And it happens at large scale. Opt-in buy-in likely moves more slowly, relies on organic growth. Less buy-in overall but passionate buy-in from the "champions" (h/t @benjaroome) #badgechat
Glad you point this out, Don! Both can be good, just in their own ways. For me, the important thing is for decision makers to be intentional about which path to buy-in they want to take #badgechat
A3. Mandated initiatives get, at best, compliance buy-in - minimum effort - but it's easier to get. Opt-in will get more authentic buy-in, but is harder to accomplish - it takes more time. #BadgeChat
A2: Human Resources folks with whom I’ve chatted say their applicant tracking software doesn’t easily “ingest” open badges. In other words, it’s a challenge to get HR systems to recognize the value of open badges. #badgechat
(via @kyle_clements1) A4 I would definitely recommend including relevant stakeholders in the design process. As in giving them a voice to define criteria and even getting their approval for the badge images. #badgechat
A3. For me, buy-in implies active engagement based on a 2-way dialogue, a negotiation even. Vs "do this because you have to". Although I will say that K12 badges would be more popular in Canada if teachers had to demonstrate PD.. so both can be good. #badgechat
Great point. HR says we'll start caring when we many Digital Badge Credentials from applicants. Job seekers say they'll care when HR starts asking.
Chicken vs. Egg
Best we can do right now is advance both of them. I anticipate this particular issue being short term #badgechat
A4: Authentic buy-in benefits massively from #sociallearning in my experience. When learners are able to celebrate and share their learning achievements in ways that are inherently engaging, buy-in emerges naturally. #badgechat
A4. Show your target audience that you respect them and their needs. Demonstrate that. Incorporate their feedback. Maybe even find a way to recognize them meaningfully, usefully with badges. #BadgeChat
A4: In systems with user-centered design approaches, engaging users and seeking feedback often, then demonstrating iterative processes that operationalize user input can be powerful strategy. People like to buy-in to things that value THEM #badgechat
A4. Purposeful goal setting and tracking. Let the implementers set goals, then support them through implementation and tracking. One & Done will not get buy-in, a lot of time you have to stick to it to prove this isn't "just another wild idea" #BadgeChat
A4: Authentic buy-in benefits massively from #sociallearning in my experience. When learners are able to celebrate and share their learning achievements in ways that are inherently engaging, buy-in emerges naturally. #badgechat
Very true! A lot of the professional LMS systems to do not support micro-credentialing - and getting HR to change software....that's not fun! #BadgeChat
Unfortunately, I can't join tonight, but for A4 I would definitely recommend including relevant stakeholders in the design process. As in giving them a voice to define criteria and even getting their approval for the badge images. #badgechat
In reply to
@SenorG, @randysquier, @RandallSampson, @SussexChad, @JenWilliamsEdu, @markjotter, @ottonomy, @umpstead, @iluveducating, @amycooper100, @digitalcred
