Information Technology Services
Document Type
Article
Citation
Presented at Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium, University of Nebraska, May 8, 2018.
Abstract
Statement of the issue: There has been a trend in higher education to focus less on content coverage and to instead focus on student skill development. Digital badges represent one approach to focus on student demonstration of skill. Badges provide students with opportunities to learn, practice and ultimately be assessed on demonstration of a skill.
Description of the project: Social work faculty designed two social work courses to incorporate badging exercise. The course required students to complete badges in areas such as self-care, utilization of APA citations, uploading videos into Canvas, and other skills necessary for students to succeed. Rather than have class discussion or lecture on this content, students completed a series of exercises outlined in the badge requirements to receive credit in the course.
Description of the outcome:
Students who completed the requirements of a badge actually had to demonstrate the desired skill. As students practiced and demonstrated this skill, they left the course not just knowing about a specific content area such as self-care, but with an ability to actually practice self-care. Additionally, the social work department has considered utilizing badges to ensure student capacity around skills that are not specifically covered in any single course
Importance:
Attendees will be able to describe how they could develop badges to enhance their courses Attendees will be able to articulate how badges can shift the focus from content to be covered to skills to be demonstrated Attendees will be able to outline the benefits of badges to assist students in acquiring necessary skills in a given discipline and document actual mastery of a given skill
Suggested Audience: Faculty
Presentation Needs:
None
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Higher Education Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons
Comments
Copyright © 2018 by the authors.