Open Badges in 2020
What’s next, based on distance travelled in 2019?
In my last post I took a look back at developments in the field of Open Badges over the course of 2019. Overall, it felt like a signficant shift had taken place, with increased usage, awareness and engagement from a wide variety of actors. Developments seemed to accelerate in 2019, which made me wonder where things might go in 2020.
A note: I use the name Open Badges in the title as a catch-all term but in this post it can be exchanged for other names and related developments, such as badges, digital badges, digital credentials, credentials, micro-credentials, alternative digital credentials, e-certificates, block-certs, badges on the blockchain, etc. Most, if not all of the developments mentioned, will be underpinned by the Open Badges standard.
Open Badges trends in 2019
Overall I spotted 7 trends that I thought were signficant in 2019:
- The number of badges issued increased signficantly
- Industry engagement with badges increased
- Changing learner demographics provided opportunities for badges
- Alternatives and additions to traditional degrees continued to gain traction
- Frameworks, platforms and backpacks evolved
- People experimented with blockchains
- Discussions about ‘quality’ and terminology continued
These developments in 2019 made me wonder if we had moved onto a new stage, as defined by the Gartner Hype Cycle. The Gartner Hype Cycle suggests new technologies will go through peaks and troughs of excitement and disillusionment during a ten year cycle, ending with the “slope of enlightenment” leading to the “plateau of productivity”. Since the Open Badges standard was first proposed in 2011, I have seen the movement go through the initial stages the Gartner Hype Cycle suggests, with the period between 2015–2018 in particular appearing to fall into the ‘trough of disillusionment’. However, during 2019 it felt like we moved on, prompting the question: would we reach the “plateau of productivity” with Open Badges in 2021?
Open Badges in 2020
Based on developments in the Open Badges field in 2019, I think a prediction of mature (if not mainstream) adoption in 2021 seems possible. In 2019, we saw major players solidify their place in the field, with significant partnerships between educational institutions and employers developing, and increased commitment to significant credentialing programmes by large companies, such as IBM, Amazon, and Google. This suggests that in 2020, we could see more sophisticated processes, frameworks and uses for badges, with wider awareness and deeper understanding about how to develop and use them effectively in a range of contexts.
As well as building on the trends of 2019, overall, I think there are four things we might particularly see with Open Badges in 2020:
- The range of possible use cases will become clearer and more widely accepted
- More nuanced use of terminology will develop
- Industry will continue to push Open Badge developments
- Learners will continue to take more control of their learning pathways
The range of possible use cases will become clearer and more widely accepted
In a post reflecting on one of the questions that has been asked since the start of the Open Badges movement, David Leaser of IBM, discussed Badges Need Rigor! (Or do they really?). IBM had issued nearly two million badges by mid 2019, and have become leaders in the field in terms of industry adoption. In terms of how we contextualise badges, and the parameters we apply to them, he argues that…
“The debate about Open Badges has shifted from their use as a signal of achievement to a dialog about rigor and the qualifications to earn a badge. In the process, the value of Open Badges may be lost if we prescribe a fixed set of expectations and present assumptions to constrain their enormous potential.”
He goes on to say:
“Open Badges are simply a digital representation of an existing activity or information. They are not mini-certifications, and their immense value to society cannot be defined by a single, sometimes arbitrary criterion, like rigor.
By limiting Open Badges to a single use case (the representation of an assessed learning activity), we miss the tremendous value they can bring in improving the lives of the disenfranchised and disadvantaged. And we miss the opportunity to connect people to great careers and opportunities.”
Others have said similar things, commenting that the power of Open Badges lies in the breadth of how they can be used, and that a thriving community is a key enabler for seeing the wider possibilities (e.g. as Kerrie Lemoie discussed, while asking us to keep badges weird back in 2016). As a result, badges represent a paradigm shift in not only in how we think about ‘assessment’ and the recognition of people’s skills and attributes but how we help individuals to articulate their strengths, build confidence and connect them to networks and opportunities, amongst other possibilities.
More nuanced use of terminology will develop
Discussions about terminology have been going on since the Open Badges movement commenced, with various attempts at defining a taxonomy for the wide range of processes, activities and outputs that the Open Badges standard might touch. Although the interchangeable use of certain terms might make sense to someone with a good understanding of the field, it could cause confusion for those entering it. My note at the top of this post testifies to the proliferation of variations on the theme and I suppose the question is, as the landscape evolves, do we need better ways of describing the landscape to help everyone navigate it?
Industry will continue to push Open Badge developments
The good thing about questions like the one above, is the fact they are being discussed shows that the landscape in evolving. From the heady days of 2012 — 15, where developments bounded forward, with the excitment of exploration and inquistive tinkering, we then fell into the trough, with questions and doubts arising around quality, over-proliferation, and who should do what. People asked if employers would actually accept Open Badges in the hiring process, how they would know the level the badge represented, if they would accept the name ‘badge’, and so on.
2019 seems to have demonstrated that instead of merely sitting on the sidelines as consumers of badges, some of the world’s largest employers are entering the fray themselves. Not content with leaving it to traditional education providers to create and issue credentials that capture the granular competencies and attributes that they are looking for, employers are creating these themselves. They are building learning pathways, some of which include credit-bearing partnerships with universities. In future, however, companies could potentially just do it themselves:
“We’re in a stage right now where most of these companies have decided to play nice with higher education,” said Kemi Jona, a computer scientist and associate dean for digital innovation and enterprise learning at Northeastern.
But that could change, Jona said, particularly if big employers like Amazon start offering their postsecondary credentials to the general public, a scenario he said isn’t much of a stretch. “It is cause for worry.”
Reflecting on whether or not digital badges really provide value to businesses, IBM’s David Leaser commented:
“An internal IBM survey of badge issuers found digital badges impacted every area they measure, from ensuring our employees are continuously reskilling to increasing product sales.”
The developments in 2019, show that employers are not content to wait for traditional education providers to provide the recognition of skills in the fast and granular kind of way that they need. As a result they are increasingly becoming educators themselves, providing the learning activities, assessments, recognition and learning pathways to get the right people and skills into their companies.
Learners will continue to take more control of their learning pathways
It also seems apparent that learners are taking more control of their learning pathways and that more work is needed to provide the solutions learners want. Learners want to be able to upskill quickly, be job-ready and gain recognition for a range of skills, in a way and at a time that suits them.
Solutions underpinned by the Open Badges standard are increasingly being explored as a way to do this and with the kind of actors and investment channeled into these in 2019, it feels like the momentum will continue into 2020.
Will we reach the ‘plateau of productivity’ in 2021?
Developments in 2019 certainly seemed to gain momentum, and 2020 started with a siginficant development — the first post for a Director of Digital Badges, that I have seen. The role is to work with:
“a partnership between educators, employers, foundations, unions and The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment to train, credential and prepare talented young New Yorkers for careers in media while addressing systemic barriers to inclusion and equity in the industry.”
This kind of role, seems to align well with the original aim of the Open Badges standard, which was to help address gaps in recognition, and to develop a system that was inclusive and allowed opportunities for all.
This and other developments over the last year, seem to bode well for more sophisticated and ubiquitous use of Open Badges in 2020. I’m not sure we’ll reach the kind of mature adoption (20%–30% adoption by the potential audience) that the ‘plateau of productivity’ predicts but perhaps we are on course for that by the end of 2021.
Watch this space…
It looks like 2020 could be an exciting year for Open Badges, and that they will become further embedded and understood. Watch this space!
