We’ve released some exciting new features:

• New Rubric Standards Report
  (automatically created with the standards that appear in the rubric)
• Rearrange columns and rows
• Assign ratings with decimal values
• Standards alignment with the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence
• Simplified Custom Standards Report
• Simplified badge editing with basic/advanced mode

Documentation for the trickier features are provided below.  Please keep the feedback coming!

Rubric Standard Report

1.  Choose a rubric that is aligned with standards.

2.  Go to the Rubric Standards Report.

3.  Report is automatically generated for the standards that appear in the rubric.

Rearrange columns and rows

Assign ratings with decimal values

We are very excited to announce that teachers can now use ForAllRubrics to work with rubrics aligned with the Australian Curriculum in addition to the existing support for the Common Core State Standards.

Standards Based Reporting With the Standards Report, you can easily view the individual levels of achievement for all the students in your class.

Alignment of Rubrics. In advanced editing mode, you can align your whole rubric to one or more standards.

Alignment of Rubrics. You can also align individual items within your rubric to one or more standards.

Alignment of Rubrics. You can customize the level of achievement for the ratings in your rubric (red, yellow or green).

A big thank you to all the Australian teachers using ForAllRubrics! We really appreciate your enthusiasm and support. We hope these new features are helpful to you in your classroom.

Since that discussion, we’ve been thinking about what openness means for us and ForAllBadges.  We came up with some ideals about what openness would mean to us:

• affordable:  Preferably free.
• open source:  With a current version of source code available on a public site.
• accessible:  All users can access and use the software on their own.
• private: By default no access is available to a user’s personal information and the user controls any access to their personal information.
• transferable: Users own their own badge designs and award data and have the ability to easily download all their data in a reasonable format.

Once an organization chooses a badge platform, what issues lock the organization into their current badge platform and make it difficult to switch to another badge platform?

1. Badge system designs.  At the current time there isn’t a standard way to export your badge system designs from one badge platform and  import the badge system design for use on another Badge Platform.  If you want to move your badge system from the badge platform you’re currently using, you would need to re-enter it by hand.
2. Badge award data.  As you issue badges, the badge award information is stored by the Badge Platform in their database.  Right now there isn’t a standard way to export the award information and migrate the data to a new Badge Platform.  It can be very difficult to retrieve information about who you have issued badge awards too and which badges have been earned.
3. The Open Backpack.  As I understand how the Open Backpack works (please let me know if I’m wrong), once you issue an award to a badge earner, you don’t have anyway to change the url for the badge assertion.  If you’re using a badge platform, it seems this means you’re permanently committed to the badge platform that you used to issue the badge.

We still have a lot more thoughts about Openness and Open Badges, but think I’ll put those thoughts in future posts since we’re eager to hear what openness for Open Badge Platforms means to others.

• a significant part of the work necessary for designing the badge system has already been done in developing the rubric,
• teachers can continue to assess students with a proven rubric and
• the badge system integrates well with the existing learning activities.

Approach 1:  Recognize Skills and Achievements

A primary motivation for Mozilla’s development of Open Badges was in order to recognize skills and achievements that aren’t traditionally recognized.

Teachers in areas such as Physical Education, Technology, Special Education and Art are already seeing the value of badges for recognizing their students’ achievements.  This approach is to creating a badge system is demonstrated by Warren Grieve in his ICT Ladders for Badges.  Below is an example rubric he previously developed for evaluating skills with MIT’s Scratch programming language.

Below are the complementary badges that he designed for ICT Ladders for Badges that correspond to each of the levels of achievement in the rubric.  The criteria for earning a badge is the same as the criteria specified in the original rubric.

Like with girl scout badges, this type of badge system provides students a way to:

• set goals by identifying badges to work towards,
• reflect on the goals they’ve already reached and
• share their accomplishments with others.

Approach 2:  Scaffold Learning

A common use for rubrics in the classroom is for supporting student learning and development.  This kind of instructional rubric is typically written in student-friendly language to help students evaluate their own work and improve overtime.  This use of rubrics is well demonstrated by the set of rubrics provided by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to support student learning for effectively solving math word problems.  This set of rubrics includes a scoring rubric for use by the teacher and three age appropriate versions of the rubric for use by students.

The  rubric below is the scoring rubric for use by elementary school teachers to inform instruction.  (click on the rubric for a larger image)

The  rubric below is the instructional rubric for use by 3rd and 4th grade students to support learning.  (click on the rubric for a larger image)

The process of learning how to solve math word problems is an ongoing learning activity and requires a significant amount of practice and feedback.  The student friendly rubric is effective at making it clear to students what the expectations are for this learning activity.

In our design for a set of badges that correspond to ISBE’s student friendly rubric, the first change we made was to convert the “Items for Evaluation”  in the original rubric to “Roles to Achieve” in the badge system as follows:

• Mathematical Knowledge (Do you know it?) —> Math Wizard
• Strategic Knowledge (How do you plan?) —> Master Detective
• Explanation (Can you explain it?) —> Expert Explainer

The second change we made was to eliminate the score of zero.  By its nature, badge criteria is positive.  Although it makes sense to award a score of zero if the student doesn’t attempt an answer.  It doesn’t make as much sense to award a badge for doing nothing.

Below is what our initial badges look like.

The last change we made was to convert the scoring guidelines to badge criteria by removing negative scoring guidelines, since the negative guidelines are implicitly included in the leveled badges.  Below is the the criteria for Math Wizard badges including the struck out text from the original Grade 3-4 Student Rubric for Mathematical Knowledge.

Level 4 Badge Criteria (the same as for scoring rubric)

• I get the right answer.
• I label my answer correctly.
• I use the right math words to show I understand how math works. (Example: I know when to add or subtract.)
• I work it out with no mistakes.

Level 3 Badge Criteria (almost the same as for scoring rubric)

• I do the problem, but I and only make small mistakes.

Level 2 Badge Criteria 

• I understand a little, but I make a lot of big mistakes.
• I only give part of the answer.

Level 1 Badge Criteria

• I try to do the problem, but I don’t understand it.

Level 0 – Badge Criteria (no such badge)

• I don’t try to answer the problem.
  

With the development of our badge system, we now have three different views of the assessment that all work well together:

• the teacher scoring rubric for assessing the student’s progress,
• the student instructional rubric for understanding the expectations and
• the student badge system for visualizing the learning path.

ForAllRubrics + Badges

We’re in the process of developing a new version of ForAllRubrics that supports both Rubrics and Badges.  This new version will support a badge design process like what has been described in this post.  It will let teachers complete scoring rubrics and the system will automatically generate the appropriate badges for the students.  The students (and their parents) will be able to view the student friendly rubric to understand the scoring on a particular assignment.  The teacher, the student and their parents can view the student’s awarded badges to reflect on the student’s accomplishments to date and view potential badges for setting goals for the future.

If you’re interested helping us test out our new “ForAllRubrics + Badges” and giving us feedback, please send us an email to info@forallsystems.com and we’ll get you set up.  We greatly appreciate comments and suggestions.

Last May we released the first version of ForAllBadges for iOS with support for the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad.  We learned a lot from the initial pilot of the software at a Mozilla Hack Jam in Bloomington, Indiana organized by Dan Hickey and Rebecca Itow from the Center for Research on Learning and Technology at Indiana University.

Based on the very useful feedback from our pilot users, we have made a bunch of changes to the application:

Selecting a Student 

We updated the select student screen so that now more students fit on the screen at a time and you now get an indicator for students who do not have any badges issued to them.  You can now create student accounts directly from the mobile application!

Student Detail Page

Based on feedback from our pilot we added this page which gives you the ability to view all badges issued to the student.  You can tap on any of the badges to view details.  You can also edit the student’s information and issue a new badge.

Selecting a Badge

The badge selection screen has been optimized to fit more content on the screen, so it’s even easier to find the badge you want to issue!

Issuing a Badge

Just like the previous version, you can take a picture and attach it as evidence for the badge.  You can also select a photo that has been saved in the device’s photo library.

Support for Android Devices

We are excited to announce that ForAllBadges now supports Android smartphones and tablets!  The app can be downloaded directly from the Google Play Store.

ForAllBadges Website Updates

In addition to all of the updates to the mobile versions of ForAllBadges, we have also made improvements to the website version of ForAllBadges:

• Support for claim codes:  Teachers can now print stickers of claim codes for badges and award badges to students in the classroom by handing out claim codes that the students can then redeem on the website.
  
• Bulk badge issuing:  Teachers can now select multiple students and issue a badge to all of them with just one click.
• Email notifications:  When badges are issued the student can now automatically receive an email with information on how to access the badge.

We’re happy to have been invited to host a community call on K-12 Badge Implementation on January 14th from noon – 1 pm EST.  We’re enthusiastic about the potential for badges in K-12 schools and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to chat with like minded folks.  For information on how to join in on the call, go to the etherpad here:  https://openbadges.etherpad.mozilla.org/k12-community-conversation

Between now and January 14th, we would like to get feedback on what people would be interested in discussing at the community call.  What are the topics that would make the hour interesting and productive to you?  Here are some potential topics to start out the discussion:

• Examples of how badges are currently being implemented for K-12
• Feedback on your ideas about how badges could be used for K-12
• Successes and challenges faced in implementing badges for K-12
• Badges and student motivation
• The relationship of badges to other assessment methods (rubrics, authentic assessment…)

Let us know your opinions and suggestions in the comment section of this blog post or on the etherpad.  Also, let us know if you would be willing to share your badge implementation experiences or ideas.

We are now members of 1871 in the Merchandise Mart here in Chicago.  It is fantastic to have this entrepreneurial community here in Chicago and also to have such a great workspace.

We had a great experience at the SLC Camp in Chicago last weekend.  There were quite a few familiar friends from around Chicago and a really nice mix of people interested in education and innovation.  We mostly participated in the developer sessions and learned a lot from the SLC development team.  Our next step is to get more actively involved in the SLC community by adding support for the SLC into ForAllSchools.  We’re especially excited about the potential of the SLC technology in conjunction with Mozilla Open Badges.

As a pilot test of ForAllBadges we’ve implemented support for issuing Hackasaurus badges. For folks not already familiar with Hackasaurus, it is a fantastic open source project developed by Mozilla that is part of their effort to build a generation of webmakers. A central component of their project are events called Hack jams that “make hacking and digital literacy accessible, social and fun.” It is a really nice first pilot for us, since it has a small and well-defined badge system included as part of their Hacktivity kit (much thanks to Daniel Hickey for directing me to Hackasaurus as a great resource for experimenting with badges).

As part of a Hack jam participants are able to collect paper badges. As described in the Hacktivity Kit:

At the end of a module, participants will “pledge” or apply for badges to gain specific super powers. They must successfully complete the pledged task in front of a peer mentor or facilitator who will award them the badge to show they’ve earned their superpower.

Our goal is to implement digital badges in a way that enhances the Hack jam experience and also integrates with Mozilla’s Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI). Integrating technology into a live interactive experience so that it doesn’t interfere with the fun, is a lot harder than you might think at first. So we’re hoping to get feedback on our design and improve the implementation over time.

Our implementation of ForAllBadges for Hackasaurus has two components:

• A mobile app for use by facilitators and peer mentors at the Hack jam while wandering around and interacting with participants. We’re thinking that a BYOT (“Bring-your-own-technology”) approach will be most practical. Currently we support iOS devices (iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads) but we are planning to add support for more platforms.
• A browser based application for use by participants, facilitators, peer mentors and organizers for managing badges and participants, including publishing badges to the OBI Backpack.

Screenshots of Mobile App

View Participants	Add Participant with Photo
Choose Badge to Award	Add Evidence and Comments
Issue a Custom Badge with Custom Badge Details

Screenshots of Website

For now we have defined three roles for the website:

Participants can view the “Badge Board” with the badges that have been issued to all the participants. They can view the details of badges and send their own badges to their Mozilla Badge Backpack.

Facilitators can view and issue participants’ badges. They can also administer participant information.

Administrators can do every thing a facilitator can do and also can manage information about events, facilitators and participants.

Our Implementation
Both the website and the mobile app are written using HTML5. The mobile app uses the open source PhoneGap platform. The website uses Python/Django/Javascript. For now the mobile app only works online and you need internet access. With our ForAllSchools platform we can provide offline access too, but for a Hack jam it seems better to keep all the information synchronized and internet access has to be available for the Hack jam anyhow.

Feedback

We’re posting this information because we’re interested in getting feedback. Please let us know your thoughts! Also if you’re organizing a Hackasaurus event and want to try out our software, just let us know and we’ll get you set up.

In the current version of the Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI), the badge issuer is given full responsibility for hosting and managing: (1) the description of the badge and criteria for earning the badge and (2) the evidence with information about how the specific user earned the badge. I am concerned that this approach is going to weaken the usefulness of badges for the following reasons:

• Ownership. Depending on the technology the issuer chooses to display the requirements and evidence, learners will not be able to save their assessment information for themselves. Learners should have the ability to retrieve and use their awarded badges along with the supporting information.
• Privacy. At present, the evidence for an awarded badge is referenced by a URL and by default not secured. The release of learner assessment information should be under the control of the learner.
• Persistence. If badges are going to be useful for supporting lifelong learning, then badge information needs to be available for a lifetime. Websites, companies and funding come and go. It is essential that all the information for awarded badges be managed by the learner and not by the issuer.
• Validity. Over time, badge definitions will be updated and requirements could change. The URL in an awarded badge may not point to the same information that it did when the badge was issued. Similarly the evidence link might not always point to correct information.
• Expiration. Once an awarded badge expires, how long is an issuer expected to keep badge information available? That video of the 14 year old presenting their science fair project is useful, even if the awarded badge has expired.
• Open Display. Depending on how the requirements and evidence are displayed by the issuer, it may not be retrievable by displayers. The criteria and evidence for an awarded badge are important for display tools such as ePortfolios. The badge ecosystem should allow the software for displaying learner’s badges to be creative and invent new ways of sharing badge information that haven’t even been previously imagined.
• Obsolete Data Formats. Supported data formats for digital media such as images and videos change over time and most all data formats will eventually become obsolete. The learner should be able to convert the requirements and evidence to well supported data formats.

Here are a some possible approaches to address these problems that I would like to offer to the discussion about the implementation of Open Badges:

• In addition to issuers, learners and displayers, add a new role of “hosts”. Badge hosting services can play an important role in allowing Learners to choose where they want to host their badges. They shouldn’t be required to host with the issuer of the award. It also makes it less burdensome for issuers to award badges.
• Define a standard export/import format for badges so that users can download and transfer their badges information between issuers and other badge hosting services. It seems like the technical issues are closely related to the issue of transferring blogs between blog hosting services.
• Require or strongly suggest that badge requirements and evidence be tagged with Schema.org or LRMI metadata so that they can be accessed by displayers for creating ePortfolios and other reports.
• Let the badge issuers be responsible for the authentication of the credentials awarded to a learner. The badge itself should just contain the URL where the credentials can be authenticated. With this approach, if for example it is discovered that the learner cheated or didn’t properly fulfill the requirements for the badge, then the issuer has the power to revoke the award.

The purpose of badges should be to support learners. As much as is reasonable, the technology infrastructure should assist in realizing that goal.