#competencyx

Open Badges have become the basis for a common language of learning. When teachers break down what they are teaching into specific competencies, its easier to guide students toward their learning goals. The language of specific competencies also helps connect students with job and internship opportunities. The Open Badges standard was first announced by the Mozilla Foundation in 2010, and since then the education community has learned how they can best be used to support effective learning. The earliest open badges were often issued just for simple recognition or participation. However, as the promise of digital credentials begins to unfold, educators and employers now see badges as meaningful signals of expertise coupled with robust learning evidence.

Seeing the potential for open badges as a powerful learning tool, Knowledgestreem, Inc. launched Badge List in 2014 with the goal of helping teachers and learners to effectively track learning evidence. With this goal at the forefront of our activities, the Badge List team set out to find partners who were interested in using badges to recognize project-based and competency-based learning.

After developing Badge List with various professional development and higher ed organizations, in 2016 we were discovered by Alec Barron of Del Lago Academy in Escondido, CA. Alec is heading up the new Competency X program, which is designed to help High School students on their path to careers in science. Competency X is a personalized assessment system for science and engineering education that is co-developed with industry and college partners. The program is designed to help guide students towards internships and mentorships with science industry companies. 

After learning more about CompetencyX we knew we had found a perfect partner to grow with. The Badge List feature set is closely aligned with CompetencyX’s vision for using badges to help guide student learning. Badge List helps students develop skills and competencies, build portfolios of learning evidence and ultimately connect with internships in the science and technology industry.

I recently interviewed Alec from Competency X to talk about the process of collaboratively developing a badge tool that serves the needs of a visionary educator. We share these insights with with the goal of guiding educators toward a greater understanding of how badges can be used as a learning tool.

Ben from Badge List: As you began to build and launch the Competency X program, what was your high level vision?

Alec from Competency X: Competency X came from a frustration that our students were not transferring what they learned in the classroom laboratory to the real world laboratory in our science-based internships.  We wanted students to be better practicing scientists, not just in industry and college laboratories, but also in their community. Our hypothesis was that if students were given the opportunity to reflect on the practice of being a scientist, they would have a greater capacity to transfer what they learn in the classroom to the performance task demands of the real world.  

We use a digital portfolio for students to curate and reflect on evidence of their competency as a practicing scientist. Digital badges that are co-developed by our industry and college partners are issued when students meet specific criteria for science and engineering practices in their digital portfolio.  These badges act as mile markers that map out a learning progression for how we see students developing the essential skills, knowledge, and dispositions required for workplace success. Students use their digital badges to earn internships and do more intentional skill development work within the internship. The vision for Competency X is that we are a working model for a larger workforce development pipeline in our region.

Ben from Badge List: When did you first realize that a badge software could help you structure the Competency X program the way you wanted?

Alec from Competency X: Initially, we imagined paper certificates that would map out learning progressions and help students earn internships. The problem with these certificates is that they are not easily linked to the evidence a student offers to earn them. Linking evidence with a digital badge is valuable in several ways. First, it allows prospective employers to assess the validity of the micro-credential. When educators or employers click on a badge, the evidence that shows how a learner earned the badge can be viewed.  Our industry partners loved the idea of being able to watch a quick video that shows the learner demonstrating a concrete skill. Second, it allows learners to reflect on what led to success with current and past practices. If a learner wants to re-learn a particular skill set, all they have to do is click on their badge to view the tips and strategies that helped them previously reach success. Finally, it creates opportunities for learners to engage in a larger community of practice. Mentors can provide feedback on formative artifacts that will become evidence used to earn a badge. This allows artifacts of skills, knowledge, and dispositions to be used across multiple digital badges. This practice helps illuminate the interconnections between digital badges and prevents the compartmentalization of skills and knowledge.

Ben from Badge List: What about the Badge List software vision signaled to you that it would be a good fit for Competency X?

Alec from Competency X: We like that Badge List is finding ways to unite digital portfolios and digital badging. These two assessment practices complement each other to support thriving communities of practice for learners. The portfolio framework for curating the evidence to earn a badge matched our vision for what Competency X should provide to students.

Ben from Badge List: How does Badge List help your students to achieve their academic goals?

Alec from Competency X: Traditionally, academic goals for students take the shape of: “I want to earn at least an A or B in this class.” These transcript goals have extrinsic value for students and parents, but don’t have much meaning beyond the title of the course or how it gets classified by a post-secondary institution. Yes, you can say you did well in a Chemistry course if you earned an A, but what does that mean? What does it say about what you can do in a health science laboratory or a pharmacy? Digital badges allow us to highlight skills, knowledge, and dispositions that are far too often underemphasized in schooling, but are significant indicators for successful performance in the workplace. Badges help us fill in the gaps for what gets assessed in school and they create more diverse opportunities for students to set meaningful academic goals. Students can start with a field of interest, identify relevant badges, and then set goals to earn digital badges that can be used for opportunities, such as internships. This allows us to shift from teacher-centered goals to a more student-centered approach. Students can select projects or workplace experiences as areas to set goals and use the digital badges as the identifiers of competency.

Ben from Badge List: How do you see badges fitting in with your goal of helping students connect with industry opportunities?

Alec from Competency X: Our digital badges were developed by industry and college partners that offer internships for students at our school. We view this as a more dynamic vision for how teachers implement standards within schools. Typically, teachers enact a curriculum that was developed and adopted to represent state approved standards. This creates several layers of distance between teachers and the industry advisers that developed the standards. In our summer workshop, we co-created badges with industry and college partners by engaging in dialogue about the qualities they wanted in new hires. We were able to hear important anecdotes about performance tasks that employees struggle with on the job. Many of the badges we created represent the skills and dispositions our industry partners saw lacking in new hires. Badges, such as Skeptic and Elevator Pitch, were created to fill in these skill gaps that are not often assessed in a traditional school curriculum. We feel that the creation of such badges with industry and college partners is a more direct and dynamic vision for standards-based education. 

In addition to our portfolio of badges, students are asked to co-create a digital badge with their internship mentor to represent the goals they have developed for their project. This allows the student and the internship mentor to have deep conversations around how to assess what is needed for success in that industry. The internship process begins when a student reaches out to schedule a meeting with their internship mentor to discuss possible internship projects. Next, the project is used to identify the necessary skills, knowledge, and dispositions that may be badgeable. The internship mentor and student collaboratively create the badges together and use them to define success on their goals for the project. The badges serve as a formative assessment tool on the progress towards internship goals. They also provide highly contextualized learning evidence for that specific work environment. Once the student curates the necessary evidence to satisfy the requirements for the badge, the industry mentor validates the evidence and the badge is issued.

Ben from Badge List: What features of Badge List do you see as being the most important to Competency X students?

Alec from Competency X: We appreciate the flexibility with which Badge List organizes evidence. We like that students can submit multiple artifacts as evidence to demonstrate their competency. Assessment is a conversation. The more flexibility around evidence and feedback, the better.

Ben from Badge List: What advice to do have for other educators looking to build a program that uses open badges?