Title:	GAMIFY AND RECOGNIZE PRIOR LEARNING: HOW TO SUCCEED IN EDUCATORS’ FURTHER PROFESSIONAL TRAINING WITH OPEN BADGES
Author(s):	Esko Lius
ISBN:	978-989-8533-51-7
Editors:	Miguel Baptista Nunes and Maggie McPherson
Year:	2016
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Further professional training; gamification; open badges; 21st century skills; MOOC; key competences
Type:	Short Paper
First Page:	191
Last Page:	194
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Traditional further professional training has been losing its position and importance in teacher upskilling. Traditional modes of training delivery do not work well in situations where much of the competences have been gained informally, or when teachers find it difficult to attend training days that fit poorly to their schedules or location. This paper is a case study on how a gamified and open badge-based MOOC, namely “Learning Online” improved and recognized educators’ skills related to new pedagogies and ICT in Finland. “Learning Online” consists of a 2-day boot camp, weekly online webinars and Facebook activities, and an open badge-based system for recognizing competencies. Teachers could participate in various areas of the entire system, which meant that they could visit the site oppiminenonline.com solely to apply for badges on the basis of their prior learning or also choose to join a team and participate in the game of earning the most badges. The results of using open badges in Learning Online have been very positive. This teacher professional development program exceeded the set goals. Instead of the initially targeted 800 badges, over 4,000 were applied for and over 3,600 granted. After the initial project the system has expanded, and there are talks to make it a nation-wide system. It has also contributed strongly to the development of wider educational thinking and practices of open badges in education. Badges make it easy to create and share an ePortfolio.
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