Webinar: Demonstrating Student Mastery with Digital Badges and Portfolios

One of the trends that is beginning to creep into higher education is the use of badges as a way to measure competency, as opposed to the use of discrete grades.  Badges represent that a learner has demonstrated mastery of specific, granular skills and competencies that are expected to improve future performance. The demonstration of mastery can be measured in a variety of ways, for example, through scenario-based assessment items that represent real-world experiences. Badges can represent incremental learning and progress, and they can also represent larger, more comprehensive capstone achievements. As such, badges are becoming an increasingly popular way for higher education to more fully document the breadth and depth of a learner’s achievements.  And Canvas has its own internal badge feature already built into the system.

If you are interested in general overview of how badges can be used to measure student competency, there is a webinar (see information below) in early February that may be of interest to you.

In case you’d like to explore the use of badges in professional education more, this article may be an interesting read:

• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11528-017-0168-2

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Jim or myself.

Michael K. Barbour
Fellow

Overview

Summary

Demonstrating Student Mastery with Digital Badges and Portfolios

Educators are being pulled in two different directions: We want every student to achieve high standards; at the same time, we also want all students to be prepared for their own individual paths. How can we possibly do both? Digital badges offer an exciting strategy for bringing these initiatives together so that your school can work toward mastery-based teaching and personalize each student’s learning. Badges offer an opportunity for students to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that fulfill state requirements and also to pursue their personal pathways and interests. In this webinar, David Niguidula will discuss the essential questions from his new book Demonstrating Student Mastery with Digital Badges and Portfolios, including

• Setting the Vision: What do we want our students to know and be able to do?
• Defining Badges: How do we define the badges that are required for all students? How can students create personal badges that reflect their interests?
• Portfolio-Worthy Tasks and Projects: How do students earn those badges?
• Culture: How do digital badges support initiatives that are already occurring at your school?

Niguidula will also take your questions and discuss how digital badges can fit best at your school.

Speakers

David Niguidula
Founder
Ideas Consulting

David Niguidula is founder of Ideas Consulting, based in Providence, Rhode Island. He is best known for his work on digital portfolios in K–12 schools; in the 1990s, Niguidula led the first research project on the topic while at Brown University’s Coalition of Essential Schools. Through his development of the Richer Picture platform, Niguidula has assisted schools and districts across the country and around the world as they create proficiency-based requirements and implement new assessment practices. He is the author of the new ASCD book, Demonstrating Student Mastery with Digital Badges and Portfolios.