Designing a Digital Badge as a Reflection Tool for an
Instructional Design Workshop
Kei AMANO
keiamano@kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Doctoral student / Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Instructional Systems /Center for Policy Studies,
Kumamoto University
Kumamoto, JAPANKatsuaki SUZUKI
ksuzuki@kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Professor
Graduate School of Instructional Systems,
Kumamoto University
Kumamoto, JAPAN

Shigeki TSUZUKU
tsuzuku@kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Professor
Graduate School of Instructional Systems andCenter for Policy Studies,
Kumamoto University
Kumamoto, JAPANNaoshi HIRAOKA
naoshi@kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Instructional Systems,Kumamoto UniversityKumamoto, JAPAN

Abstract: This paper describes a design of a digital badge for supporting learners in a
blended Instructional Design (ID) workshop, which was held by Kumamoto University as
lifelong learning activity. The purpose of this workshop was to introduce a practical method
for improving education and to support participants to apply ID in their job. We designed adigital badge as a tool to support participants after the workshop. The aim of using a digitalbadge was not just used as a program certification, but rather as an index of learning
outcomes in a blended workshop such as online report assignment, or as an asynchronous
discussion record in forums. By introducing this tool, participants can reflect anddemonstrate learning outcomes after the workshop and make use of improving learner’s job
performance. The tool was constructed out of several default tools of Moodle to connect
digital badge icon with learning outcomes. In this paper, we report the design of the digitalbadge as a tool of reflection and discuss the future plan of this study.
Key words: Instructional Design, Digital badge, Reflection, Blended LeaningIntroduction
Kumamoto University has held instructional design (ID) workshops since 2011 as a part of lifelong

learning activities. The purpose of this workshop is: 1) to make participants learn a basic knowledge of ID

and to improve their education cases from the point of view of effectiveness, efficiency and attraction 2)

to enable participants to apply ID in education cases and present proposals for its improvement. So far, abroad variety of working people from a number of fields, such as university faculty, medical doctors,nurses, and Japanese teachers, to name a few, have attended the workshops.

Many expressed the need toimprove their job performance regarding education in the workplace. Satisfaction with the workshop washigh and we received a positive evaluation to the workshop to learn ID hands-on (Tsuzuku, Amano,Morita, Hiraoka, & Suzuki, 2014).

This workshop focused on supporting the participants in solving problems in the workplace throughusing ID. However, there has been a recurring problem of how to support the reflection and the use of

learning outcomes after the program. In previous workshops, we issued a certificate of participation to theparticipants. This certification was not associated with the achievement of learning, but distributed to allparticipants who attended the program. To encourage participants to apply learning outcomes to their job,
it was suggested that some mechanism to signify and recognize the accumulation of learning outcomesmight be useful. Therefore, we focused on introducing a digital badge, which is an online certificate ofcompletion, and introduced it as a mechanism that can siginify accomplishment and show theaccumulation of the artifacts of the workshop. In this paper, we describe the design of the digital badgethat was introduced.

A Digital Badge as a Reflection Tool
The use of a digital badge is becoming popular as a mechanism to authenticate the learning

outcomes of online learning, higher education and MOOCS. Peck (2015) pointed out a digital badge is

not a prize to create extrinsic motivation. And he defined a digital badge as “ ‘clickable’ graphics that
contain metadata that can reveal information about the individual or organization that issued the badge,the criteria met to earn the badge, the tool(s) used to assess the evidence, and the evidence of learning

itself”. Because it includes learning outcomes, assessment and processes, a digital badge can beconsidered to be a representation of mastery. By acquiring a badge icon displayed online, a learner candemonstrate evidence of acquiring the knowledge and skills of program. Taking advantage of the benefitsof the digital network, it is possible to link the digital badge with the learning process and artifacts. For
example, the learning process includes the peer and expert reviews of the artifacts of work. Learning
outcomes include report assignments and artifacts showing what someone knows and can do (Gibson,Ostashewski, Flintoff, Grant, & Knight, 2015). In contrast to a paper-based certificate, the digital badge isassociated with the achievement and linked to the learning process and outcomes. The digital badge is nota reward for finishing a learning task like paper-based certificate, but rather a representation ofachievement associated with the learning process and outcomes.

Taking advantage of the digital badge having such a link function, it is possible to use the digitalbadge as a learning support tool after completion of the education program. Hickey and Soylu (2012)
describe the badge as a valuable tool because it is attached to learning process and outcomes. Because thebadge can act like a portfolio, they suggest that the digital badge can be used as a reflection support tool.
After completion of the education program, the learner can use the digital badge as an index of learning
experiences to help learning reflection, not just as evidence of having completed the program.

A digital badge therefore not only a certificate of completion of an education program or a reward

to encourage the extrinsic motivation of the learner. It is also a representation of achievement associatedwith the learning process and outcomes. In this study, we designed a digital badge as a tool to support thereflection on the basis of this claim.

Design of the Digital Badge

Workshop Learning Process and Outcome

The ID workshop consisted of prior learning phase of one month (online), a face-to-face, one day

program and one month post-learning (online) phase. The syllabus of the instructional design workshop isshown in table 1.

Table 1. The syllabus of the instructional design workshop

ItemDescription

This workshop is intended for those who have mastered the basic

Program overview

knowledge and skills of ID, and can thoroughly carry out the practice ofID applications. It is organized around the work requirements ofparticipants, and aims to consider proposals for improvement ofeducation cases that the participant is actually engaged in.

Learning objectives

Participants can apply ID theory to their education and present
proposals for improvement (intellectual skills).

Evaluation of acceptance is the final report. The final report must

include the following criteria in order to pass. Acceptance of evaluationand individual feedback for the final report is conducted using thedigital badge.
Criteria forpassing1) Things participants want to modify in their education cases in
response to feedback from other participants.

2) Things participants want to modify in their education cases and thereasons for it.

3) Ideas for improvement in their education and the reasons for it.
4) Three things learned in the program.
5) A future action plan.

6) Submit an attachment in the form of a worksheet that reflects theEvaluation

prior learning phasemethodThe prerequisites for evaluation of prior and post learning phases are asfollows:1) Prior learning phase
Prerequisitesof theevaluation

To post a worksheet about the current state of participants’education cases in the online discussion board

To write one or more comments to other participants’ posts in theonline discussion board

To answer a questionnaire

2) Post learning phase

To post a final report in the online discussion board

To write at least one comment in response to other participants’posts in the online discussion board

We designed the digital badge based on this syllabus. The blueprint of the workshop and digitalbadge is shown in figure 1. The flow of learning was as follows: 1) During the prior learning (online)

phase, participants were required to submit a worksheet about a education they engaged in and write atleast one comment in response to the other participants’ posts and attach a worksheet to the online

discussion board in order to clarify the problems they face. 2) In the face-to-face one day workshop,
participants discussed the idea of improvement of their education through pair and group work. If they

had a question, it was possible to approach the lecturer. 3) During the post-learning (online) phase,participants were required to submit a final report, including a proposal for solving problems of theireducation, and write at least one comment in response to the other participants’ posts in the online

discussion forum. The digital badge was linked to these learning processes in both the prior- and postonline learning and learning outcome phases, which comprised the final report. Using the digital badge,

participants could get individual feedback for the final report. The individual feedback included
information about whether or not they fulfilled the criteria, good points of the reports and positive

suggestions for improvement of their proposals. This feedback served to acknowledge their achievement
and encourage its further application and use after the program.

Figure 1. The positioning of the digital badge in the ID workshop

Design of the Digital Badge
The digital badge was developed by combining the standard features of Moodle, an open source

LMS (Figures 2 and 3). Specifically, it was issued to participants who met the acceptance of criteria
individually using the "course badge" function of Moodle. Furthermore, learning processes and outcomes

were linked with the digital badge by pasting a link to a "detailed report" page that listed the learning
process and outcomes of the participants in the description of the badge. In addition, individual feedbackon the final report from the lecturer was displayed on the detailed information page of badge.

Figure 2. Digital badge icon

Figure 3. Function of the digital badge using default tools of MoodleConclusion
A digital badge is the representation of the accomplishments of learning and a supporting tool forreflection. On the basis of this idea, we reported an overview of the design of a digital badge that wasintroduced for an ID workshop. A method of designing the digital badge associated with the educational
program was presented as a case study. The digital badge was developed using the standard features ofMoodle, an open source LMS, which provides the advantage that this technique can be introduced at lowcost.

The workshops that introduced the use of a digital badge were held in Tokyo and Osaka during

January 2015, with 34 out of 56 participants (61%) acquiring a digital badge. Verifying the effects of theintervention of the digital badge was not conducted however. In future, it would be necessary to evaluate
the application and usefulness of the digital badge as a reflection tool. In addition, it seems that it would

also be necessary to clarify the reasons why about 40 percent of the participants did not acquire the digitalbadge. Further investigation at this point is therefore aimed at improving the design of the digital badgeand clarifying the reasons for increasing its acquisition by learners.

References
Tsuzuku, S., Amano, K., Morita, A., Hiraoka, N., & Suzuki, K. (2015). Introductory class of instructional
design : implementation report. Kumamoto University Policy Research, 6, 23-30. [In Japanese]
Peck, K. L. (2015). The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades. TechTrends, 59 (1), 24-30.
Gibson, D., Ostashewski, N., Flintoff, K., Grant, S., & Knight, E. (2013). Digital badges in education.
Education and Information Technologies, 20 (2), 403–410.
Hickey, D., T., & Soylu, F. (2012). Wikifolios, reflections, and exams for online engagement,understanding, and achievement. Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, 1 (1), 64–71.