#mozilla badgekit

Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials

Session Session 8: Introducing Mozilla BadgeKit

#openbadgesMOOC

Session Recording: http://bit.ly/OBMOOC8

This week on the #openbadgesMOOC, New Currency for Professional Credentials, Sunny Lee walked through Mozilla BadgeKit, the new set of open, foundational tools to support the entire badging process currently available in private beta for select partners developing badges for their communities. You can view Sunny's slides here.

As many of our community members have already read, seen or listened to many different presentations introducing BadgeKit, we will take this opportunity to address some more frequently asked questions that we didn't get to in our BadgeKit announcement.

What is BadgeKit?

BadgeKit is a set of open, foundational tools to make the badging process easy. It includes tools to support the entire process, including badge design, creation, assessment and issuing, remixable badge templates, milestone badges to support leveling up, and much more. The tools are open source and have common interfaces to make  it easy to build additional tools or customizations on top of the  standard core, or to plug in other tools or systems.

BadgeKit  builds on existing technologies that have evolved out of several years of work and user testing, including Chicago Summer of Learning. In fact, specific tools within BadgeKit are currently being used for key partners within the badges ecosystem (i.e. Connected Educators.)

Mozilla BadgeKit is now available in private beta for select partner  organizations that  meet specific technical requirements. And anyone can  download the code  from GitHub and implement it on their own servers. 

BadgeKit:

Improves the badging experience for issuers, learners and consumers, by making badging easy to do.

Closes the current gaps in the ecosystem by providing free, open badging tools to support the needs of issuers. 

Provides foundational tools needed to help grow and develop the open badges ecosystem.

Builds our values of openness, interoperability, agency, choice, and connectedness into the way we recognize learning and skills, and helps shape emerging badge systems.

BadgeKit is open source, so improvements made by community members benefit everyone, from bug fixes to new features and more. It is also easily extendable, working seamlessly with other open tools and systems as they emerge.

Why BadgeKit?

While open badges technology has been gaining momentum - with more than 2,000 organizations issuing badges that align with the Open Badges system - there are still ways we can make it easier for organizations to join the ecosystem.

Today, there are too many gaps in the badging experience and many of the existing options are too closed, too expensive or too big. In fact, given the current options for organizations interested in issuing badges, it can be harder to make an open badge than a closed badge!

What tools does BadgeKit include?

BadgeKit  provides modular and open options (standards) for the community of badge makers to use and build upon within their existing sites or systems. Currently, BadgeKit supports key points in the badging experience, including:

Design: A tool for defining all of the metadata, including criteria pages, and finalizing visual design for each badge.

Templates: Visual and metadata designs that can be remixed by anyone creating a badge.

Milestones: The ability to have a group of badges level up to a larger, more significant badge.

Assess: A tool for mentor or peer assessment that includes issuer defining rubrics and criteria for a  badge, the ability for learners to apply for a  badge by adding information and evidence, as well as access for  assessors to manage applications and enable review and scoring.

Issue: A tool for awarding badges to learners and hosting assertions to enable badges to be pushed to Backpacks.

Collect: A “Backpack” for collecting badges across various experiences or organizations. 

Throughout 2014, we will be adding additional tools to BadgeKit, including: 

Discover: A directory of available badges with features for searching, filtering, wish listing and endorsing badges.

Share: A tool to enable easy sharing of badge on various sites across the web (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.).

Collect: Backpacks will become “federated", meaning that different instances still plug into the broader ecosystem and can share data across.

How can I use BadgeKit?

Mozilla BadgeKit is now available in private beta for select partner  organizations that meet specific technical requirements. And anyone can  download the code from GitHub and implement it on their own servers. 

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE: At BadgeKit.org, you'll be able to access BadgeKit: a hosted version of the tools to build out badges, remix badge templates, create badge levels, issue badges, etc. APIs will make it easy to then pull the badges and end user  interfaces into your own website. All of the backend pieces are hosted, supported and updated by Mozilla, and you'll have complete control over the experience of your end users through your own sites.

DOWNLOAD: Easily download the code from https://github.com/mozilla/openbadges-badgekit  and install the tools on your own server. 

What's the difference between downloading the code from Github and using the private beta version of BadgeKit?

In downloading the BadgeKit code, you will be in charge of the backend and hosting of BadgeKit, and will be able to customize and extend the tools as much as needed.

For the private beta version of BadgeKit, all the backend pieces are hosted, supported and updated by  Mozilla, while you still have complete control over the experience of your end users on your own sites through our APIs.

Is BadgeKit available now?

Yes - Mozilla BadgeKit is available in private beta for select partner organizations that meet specific technical requirements. Visit www.badgekit.org to learn more and apply for private beta access.

And BadgeKit code is currently available on Github, with additional features set to be added in the coming months. To download the tools, visit Github: https://github.com/mozilla/openbadges-badgekit.

How can I sign up for BadgeKit?

Mozilla BadgeKit is available in private beta for select partner organizations that meet specific technical requirements. 

To apply for private beta access, visit www.badgekit.org. Given your organization meets the specific hosted version requirements, you will receive a follow-up email with full details on how to get started. 

What are the technical requirements for the hosted version of BadgeKit?

The technical requirements necessary for private beta access to the hosted version of BadgeKit are:

You have a front end website or have resources to develop one

You have technical resources on staff to integrate the BadgeKit APIs into your experience

You intend to build or roll out a badge system for your community and organization in 2014

How are you selecting partners for the private beta?

Right  now we're making that decision based on each organization's technical resources and capacity. But by the end of 2014, the hosted version will be available to any organization looking to implement a badging system! 

Who is BadgeKit for? 

BadgeKit is currently in private beta and can be used by any issuing organization that meets specific technical requirements. It is aimed at organizations that  are building full badge systems and want to leverage their own sites and  systems on the front end, as well as have access to technology  resources. Tool providers might also be interested in leveraging BadgeKit to extend their own tools, or build additional customizations on top of BadgeKit.

I am a middle school teacher looking to issue badges. Can I use BadgeKit?

Not yet. Today, BadgeKit is currently in private beta and meant for organizations that have access to technology resources and are looking to implement a full badge system. We are exploring ways to create a lighter weight version of BadgeKit that could be used by individuals, and hope to have it ready later this year. In the meantime check out the additional community driven issuing platforms at http://bit.ly/platform-chart to help you get started. 

I want to issue a badge to a large group of people at one time. Is that possible?

Not yet - but we're working on it! You can track progress in Github here: https://github.com/mozilla/openbadges-badgekit/issues/205.

I need help. Is there someone that can help me?

We have a variety of ways we can help. You can simply select the option that best meets your needs:

Post general questions in our Community Google Group and post specific technical questions in our Developer Google Group

Reach members of the Open Badges team directly on Mozilla IRC in the #badges room

Watch the BadgeKit video tutorial on YouTube

Access the BadgeKit written tutorial on Github

Email questions directly to [email protected] and a member of the team will follow-up directly

You can download a printable version of this FAQ to share with your communities, and Sunny's slides from the live session are available here.

#badgekit