The Learning Archive
In the state of Pennsylvania, homeschoolers have to keep a physical portfolio to represent all of the learning they do each year. These portfolios become an important record of their accomplishments and a treasured archive of their progress. If they want to show anyone else their cumulative “learner data” they have to haul a stack of giant binders around. Unfortunately, the current digital learner data systems are not much better than their analog equivalent. While the analog application at least empowers the learner to store and control their own data, digital applications sequester it into manifold silos across the internet that are not interoperable and usually do not let the learner extract information.
Open Badges and digital learning platforms suffer from a lack of interoperability and portability. Moreover, these platforms do not have a plan for the long-term storage and use of learner data. New technologies must be introduced that simultaneously empower learners and enable seamless connections between platforms. Current constraints make it difficult, if not impossible, to integrate content or move between learning environments. Because of this, digital learning platforms can only have limited impact and are unable to form crucial partnerships. If truly connected learning is to become possible, these foundational issues must be addressed.
New technologies like the xAPI project (formerly Tin Can API) are working to address some of the theoretical issues, but actual interoperability, portability, storage, and identity problems remain. To address these, we should develop an open-source technology and hosting resource that allows learners to create a Personal Archive, similar to the xAPI idea of the Learning Record Store (LRS). Rather than building LRSs that are scattered across learning platforms, we should build one framework that has instances owned by each learner.
This secure element would be learner-owned and provide a place to store lifelong learning archives. The data within the Learning Archive would be both private and then public, at the learner’s discretion. Rather than learner data in silos within each learning application, it could be held solely within each learner’s Archive and accessed by applications.
Example Case:
Penn State could host digital resources within the City of Learning platform. The learner could access those resources by going through to the Penn State application. Because the two platforms both accept the Learning Archive OpenAuth login identity, the learner does not have to create a new account or login again. They simply grant permissions to the Penn State application which can then access the necessary data required to continue.
The learner then digests the resources within the Penn State application, submits evidence for a “Library Researcher” badge, and earns an Open Badge for completing the work. The data concerning the resources accessed, evidence submitted, and badge earned is not held within the PSU application or the City of Learning application, but within the Learner’s Archive. In this case, the PSU application has write access to a specific API endpoint within the Learner Archive reserved for PSU data objects only. The badge is issued directly to the Learner Archive, but the PSU application can read out exactly what badges have been earned in order to provide the earner with relevant opportunities or to count prerequisites for meta-badges.
Upon completing this work, the learner goes back to the City of Learning platform to look for more opportunities. Since they have granted read and display access to the City of Learning platform, the user can already see their “Library Researcher” badge in their City as a Campus dashboard. The City of Learning platform then marks that opportunity as completed and recommends further opportunities to the learner. Four years later, the learner goes to setup their digital resume on their personal portfolio website “www.frankanderson.me", Frank uses open-source tools built for the Learning Archive to easily embed evidence and digital badges he earned in high school and college into his website. Also, now that Open Badges and learner data are truly portable, platforms like LinkedIn and Dribbble are starting to enable users to showcase their accomplishments in their profiles and allow learners to grab data to put into their Archive.
Here’s a crude sketch to help visualize the concept:
Functionality
- Learning applications could request as-needed permission to access all appropriate learner data from the Learner’s Archive. This is very similar to how smartphone applications request certain permissions on your device, or how ApplePay makes payment requests through the secure element on your phone.
- The Personal Archive includes an OpenAuth login account for the learner.
- The Archive offers persistent, long-term data storage for all learner data, storing them as JSON-LD objects and serves up API endpoints for external applications to access if granted permission.
Outcomes
- Learner’s would not be subject to the whims of learning applications and would hold their personal archive in a safe, private, long-term location. Learners would, essentially, have a personal server that can receive or serve up learning information across the internet.
- Learners could curate their personal archive and choose what is shared publicly or with select applications.
- Learning applications would not be burdened by the need for long-term data storage or the liability of hosting learner data.
- Learning applications could have seamless connections between content within a partner application by utilizing a common OpenAuth learner identity between applications.
- Learners could use and access their Learning Archive in any way they choose and the platform could evolve to provide powerful analytics and visualization tools to help learners understand their own learning trends and map their progress.
- Researchers could be granted access through a simple “Donate my data to research” checkbox.
How would this work get started?
- An international working group should be formed to pursue this project. Organizations with major interests in the future of Open Badges and connected learning technologies should participate by contributing funds and staff. Possible founding members include: Penn State University, the Smithsonian, the Oregon Badge Alliance, Mozilla, and the Sprout Fund. As a collective, the group could foster a community of developers, create a prototype and product roadmap, and pursue funding to support the work. All work would be done out in the open on Github and would leverage open-source contributions to support the work.
