Mozilla Open Badges Community CallWednesday, November 19, 2014http://etherpad.badgealliance.org/CCNov19
• What are the three most important things you would share with another organization just getting started?
• What are the three main challenges to widespread adoption of your badge system for your organization?
• What are three things have you learned about badge system design?• What would you do differently if you were to start over?
Building the team
• Average core team size was roughly 5 to 6 people.
• Teams were as large as 10 people, especially for those with content and multimedia experts, and for those who built custom-designed badge systems.
• Choose your team wisely.
Who are my stakeholders?
• Stakeholders will define the boundaries of your system.
• Every stakeholder group represents a boundary that must be navigated and crossed.
• Don’t skip the process of identifying stakeholders, no matter how tempting it may be to do so.
Teachers are stakeholders
• Engage teachers and faculty as co-creators in the design of the system.
• Train teachers first, and well, and make this training an ongoing process.
• Think carefully how teachers will be involved in the badge-issuing process.
Find a common language
• Identify terminology specific to badges.
• Make sure everyone working on the system can understand the language of badges.
• Communicating design ideas from content experts to design experts to programming experts is hard.
• Have early conversations with the web development team.
Explain badges early
• Give all of your stakeholders time to become familiar with the concept of badges.
• Get started before the badge system design process begins.
• Create a shared understanding among anyone who will have a stake in the system.
• Develop strong stories about how badges work.
Design for relevance
• Map your badges to whatever your community finds valuable.
• Ask your learners what they value — avoid assumptions as much as possible.
• Same for other stakeholders, including faculty, administrators, and external stakeholders.
• Think early about data. What can your badge system tell you?
Build external partnerships
• Build value and relevance at the beginning of the design process.
• Define your trust network.
• Think hard about what gives your badges “weight” with external stakeholders.
Trust networks
• Answer the “so what?” question.
• Have meaningful answers that go beyond badges as an aspect of a learner’s identity.
• Foster the collective belief in the value of your badges.
Iterative design
• Fail fast.
• Put all aspects of the system in harm’s way and test with real users.
• Release smaller parts first instead of big chunks.
• Engage all users in the design process early.
Learning pathways
• Designing learning pathways is more complex than developing curricula and defining course requirements.
• Create shared assessment criteria so that badges can be connected between different programs.
• Align badges to standards where possible.
• Think about tagging badges so others can find them.
User experience
• Check your assumptions about navigation!
• The system will fail if you don’t get this right.
• A “clunky” platform will make understanding, earning, and sharing badges difficult.
• Without a seamless user experience, learners may not even share their badges.
Visual design
• Do not underestimate the design elements of the badges.
• Simpler designs are better.
• Think how badges will display on different screen sizes.
• Distinguish single-lesson achievements from more significant achievements.
Number and type of badges
• Experiment early. Start small.
• Keep things simple.
• Consider using other features to increase engagement and chart progress.
• Carefully consider learning outcomes and values.
Badge system technology
• Hire the most experienced programmers possible.
• Focus early and hard on the technical side of badge system design.
• Prepare for complex technical challenges if you are integrating with legacy systems.
Questions?