Saturday, March 4, 2017

Weekly Sporto bookmarks (weekly)

  • tags: openbadges credentials badges transcripts CBE credentialing

  • tags: openbadges credentials badges transcripts CBE credentialing

  • tags: openbadges credentials badges

  • tags: badges openbadges

    • Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, this study  aimed at examining learners’ interaction and their perceptions of teaching  presence, social presence, and cognitive presence in an open online course  offered for professional development in three Swedish universities.
    • Results also yielded  significant relationships between teaching presence and cognitive presence, as  well as social presence and cognitive presence.
    • The findings suggest that  deploying a set of online tools combined with appropriate pedagogical  approaches in designing open online courses could foster learner interaction  especially learner-content interaction and cognitive presence.
    • Alongside massive open online courses (MOOCs) small-scaled  open online courses are becoming more widespread in many disciplines in higher  education and continuing institutions around the world.
  • tags: MOOC MOOCs dropout predictions

  • tags: learning style learning-styles MOOC MOOCs

    • we adduce a framework for automated identification of learning styles in MOOC.
    • Blockcerts is a MIT Media Lab project utilizing the Bitcoin blockchain for digital notarization. Developers said the platform also allows a decentralized credentialing system. The open source application can be used for “academic, professional, and workforce credentialing.” Blockcerts maintains its foundations as an open software application that allows any individual to take control of their credentials with an immutable method.
    • This certification process shows the importance of a distributed ledger with immutable permanence. Blockchain certification using Blockcerts is tamper-proof and cannot be updated or edited. However, certification issuers can revoke certain records “by spending the revocation address that they generated for a particular recipient.”
  • tags: open-badges badges blockchain

    • The Open Badges working group will be guided by strategies developed by the Open Badges executive board comprised of IMS members who are key stakeholders in the ecosystem: badge issuing and display platform suppliers, educational institutions from K-20, and non-traditional educational opportunity-providers. Public community contributions, an important part of Open Badges development, will continue to have a voice through the Open Badges community counci
    • the IMS eT project which makes use of the Open Badges standard as key component of its technical underpinning to represent a CBE-capable academic transcript; and the  Badge Extensions for Education which augments the existing Open Badges metadata with important accreditation and assessment information, to help employers and others better understand what was required to earn a badge
    • advancing understanding and adoption of Open Badges in the education sector through demonstration projects and pilots. 
    • The charter of the task force is to identify, define, and develop the framework, common language, and supporting interoperability specifications necessary to clearly transmit the meaning and value of post-secondary digital credentials to the employment community.
    • how the addition of “Issuer Accreditation” and “Assessment” extensions to the Open Badges specification might help communicate the rigor with which badge earners’ activities were scrutinized before a decision was made by the badge issuer to award the badge
    • reference to a single or multiple accreditation bodies that certifies the badge issuer.
    • While work is underway with Credly and Badgr to implement a prototype of these recommended badge extensions, in parallel the task force is working on a research project, to work with employers on understanding more about the potential value of badges to communicate badge earners’ skills as well as identifying where there are gaps that IMS extensions might fill.
    • with its Competency-Based Education working group. Together with members of the Competency-Based Education Network (CBEN), we are designing a CBE-aware ecosystem that leverages the technical groundwork of Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI).
    • The IMS Competency-Based Education LTI standards will provide integration services that support the unique characteristics of CBE, enhancing the capabilities of the existing education enterprises designed around courses and credit hours.
    • The goal of the project is to quickly identify essential data attributes that are shared among the diversity of programs and to develop requirements for expanding on LTI.
    • Manage Competencies
    • CBE eTranscript Publishing - develop a prototype for a comprehensive student record, and pilot eT, a digitally signed, web-based CBE transcript which can be viewed and securely shared by the learner with employers and others.
  • tags: badges open-badges

    • A new group has been set up manage these opportunities and risks called the IMS Global Badges Group.

      This group meets for the first time in Orlando this week. We’ll be agreeing the change process and charter and reviewing proposals for v2.0 of the standard . It’s part of a initiative including a community engagement group which is open to any organisation to join.

  • tags: blockchain certification badges open-badges

    • Learning Machine is a 10-year-old software company serving post-secondary education providers, students and employers with solutions for enrollment management, portfolio review and applicant tracking.
    • Learning Machine's commercial offering will be available in both enterprise form, which can be used within employer CRM or HR systems; or, in the form of essentially non-customizable software-as-a-service (SaaS) form. Its open standard toolkit includes the Open Badges specification for creation and digital display of symbolic devices that include descriptions of skills attained or other achievements, with links to the organization awarding each badge.
    • Jagers believes the impact will reach beyond education: "I believe credentialing is going to be a 'killer app' [that leverages blockchain] because it perfectly matches what the blockchain does," and can be applied to serve a wide range of services within and beyond edtech.
    • New York City-based Credly describes its company as a digital badges and credentials service provider. In June, Credly announced that Toronto-based Destiny Solutions, which supports non-traditional post-secondary institutions' recruitment and engagement with students, would integrate the Credly offering.
    • Both Ellucian and the Clearinghouse are headquartered in Northern Virginia.
    • IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world leader in EdTech interoperability and innovation, the Mozilla Foundation, and Collective Shift/LRNG announced today an agreement for IMS Global to become the organization responsible for advancing the development, transferability, and market adoption of the Open Badges specification beginning January 1, 2017.
    • “IMS is the smart choice for the next step in the evolution of the Open Badges initiative,” said Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, who serves on the Badge Alliance Steering Committee along with Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of IMS Global, and Connie Yowell, CEO of Collective Shift/LRNG.
    • “The IMS community is a very good fit for this effort because of our leadership in the education technology market, our collaborative K-20 and EdTech supplier member network, and our existing investments in enabling better digital credentialing, specifically our focus on Open Badges extensions for education, the extended transcript, and competency-based education,”
    • the Open Badges community is actively working towards the release of Open Badges 2.0, the most significant upgrade to the specification since its release, which will make it possible to address dozens of high priority use cases identified by key stakeholders.
    • Comments from Leading Open Badges Ecosystem Organizations
    • Credly

       

      "In the marketplace for knowledge and skills, digital credentials are emerging as the currency of choice. A crucial input to the development of any currency is the adoption of standards across industries and applications," said Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and CEO of Credly. "As early advocates of credential and badge standards, Credly is pleased to see the Open Badges specification find a new home, and to build on contributions to the ecosystem with partners like IMS Global, LRNG, and Mozilla."

    • Certificates are open badges compliant, which is important, because there is an entire community of open badges issuers that we want to support, and because open badges is becoming an IMS standard.
    • upcoming Mozilla announcement in this regard.
  • tags: google apps nonprofit

  • tags: google apps nonprofit

  • tags: google apps nonprofit

    • The Blockchain Certificates standard does not cover the end-to-end workflow of the issuance cycle, which provides the Issuer flexibility in their deployments
    • in which the learner simply sends their Bitcoin address through some already trusted form of communication, such as email.
  • tags: MOOC high-school

  • tags: MOOC high-school college learning

    • Developing Your Research Project
    • How to Succeed at: Writing Applications
    • Innovation: the World's Greatest
    • Learning Online: Learning and Collaborating
    • Understand what innovation means and consider the history and developments of innovations that are important in our daily lives.
    • Become an effective online learner and develop your online communication skills when working with others.
  • tags: MOOC high-school college learning

  • tags: MOOC high-school

  • tags: MOOC high-school models placement

  • tags: MOOC GIT high-school

    • Reference implementations
      • I don't see any reference to Open badges standards
    • They will add them to a certificate store
    • This allows anyone with the certificate URL to view and verify the certificate.
    • The cert-verify component is separate from the viewer – this allows any party to serve as a certificate verifier without needing to store the data
    • The issuer should notify the recipients to let them know a certificate is available. This allows the recipients to import their certificate into their cert-wallet mobile app
  • tags: blockchain opensource open source bitcoin openbadges

    • Please note that this standard is not attempting to solve identity. In other words, this solution does not certify the mapping of public keys to individuals or organizations
  • tags: landscape tech technology technologies

    • Unlike conventional credentials, digital badges can contain specific claims and detailed web-enabled evidence supporting those claims, and this information can circulate freely on the Internet.
    • One of the biggest issues — the credibility of these digital credentials — is about to take a big step forward
    • New features in the Open Badges Specification will soon make it possible for third parties to add verifiable endorsements to these e-credentials.
    • It has taken some time, but recruiters and employers can now readily locate individuals who (a) are widely endorsed for specific skills by (b) other individuals who are closely connected in LinkedIn and (c) who are widely endorsed for those same skills by their own close connections.
    • These features will allow individuals or organizations who issue badges to add endorsements by other parties to add to their credibility and trustworthiness across different communities
    • The companies and organizations investing in Open Badges can now begin building features that will help badge issuers, earners, and consumers understand and build more value, without having to start from scratch
    • The Open Badges Specification is the most widely adopted standard for digital badges
    • Badge Alliance in 2014
    • open badge systems extensible
    • Back in October 2016, the Badge Alliance board announced that all of the Open Badges Specification work and some community support would move to a new home within the IMS Global Learning Consortium, starting January 1, 2017.
    • IMS Global is a membership organization whose primary function is establishing standards for Internet-based educational technologies, such as learning tools interoperability (LTI) standards. The LTI standards make adding functionality (including digital badges) to learning management systems easier
    • Among the most important capabilities defined in the 2.0 specification are those that support endorsements.
    • These specifications permit interoperable and extensible features that allow "third parties" to endorse badges issued by the "first" party to learners, the "second" party.
    • accreditation is a comprehensive endorsement of everything that ends up on a transcript.
    • In key respects, Open Badges were intended to disrupt the existing accreditation model. In addition, allowing the recognition of more granular and less formal competencies, a consumer of these new credentials (e.g., an employer, admissions officer, educator, peer) could examine the evidence in the badge and reach his or her own conclusion about whether that evidence supports the claims made by the badge.
    • However, accreditors do not typically endorse certifications for such a specific competency as knowledge of HIPAA; accreditors' focus is on the academic programs as a whole.
    • Our HIPAA example illustrates the opaque tangle that the new nonprofit Credential Engine (formerly known as the Credential Transparency Initiative), is attempting to straighten out. With support from the Lumina Foundation, the Credential Engine is working with a diverse group of stakeholders to bring more coherence to the credentialing marketplace.
    • Certificates are typically issued by continuing and professional education programs. They typically require less coursework than an associate's degree, but lead to gainful employment in the certified field, while paving the way for further education and career advancement. Certifications are typically issued by an industry to the individual based on competency and skills.
    • Continuing and professional education certificate programs are usually housed in community colleges. However, this sector of higher education is undergoing massive transformation via online learning, the globalization of education and employment, accreditation-related closures, MOOCs, boot camps, etc.3 This is disrupting the traditional relationships between educators and employers in particular regions and sectors. The demise of these informal "learning recognition networks" is simultaneously undermining educators' responsiveness, students' confidence, and employers' trust. Fortunately, the pending introduction of endorsements and other features in Open Badges and increased use of Open Badges by certificate and certification programs has the potential to reverse these worrisome trends, while also making it easier to track progress towards these important national goals.
    • In 2014 the Endorsement Working Group at the Badge Alliance set out to extend the Open Badge Specification to allow badges to be endorsed more explicitly
    • Endorsement is a game changer for how badges are used, understood, and trusted, because it allows third-party organizations to publicly indicate which badges are aligned with their values — those that are the most meaningful and useful to them. It adds a new metadata component to the Open Badges standard and defines the structure for rich, well-defined endorsement information and criteria such as alignment with standards, uses for the badge in the context of the endorsing organization, description of evidence of learning and assessment techniques the organization values, etc.
    • The intentionally open structure of badge endorsement provides opportunities for a variety of different types of endorsers, including community organizations, employers, standards bodies, and groups that are re-envisioning how the value of learning is defined.
      • This allows (and encourages) all platforms that issue or display Open Badges to support three types of explicit endorsement: 

         
           
        • One or more third parties can endorse a specific badge before it is issued (the so-called BadgeClass).
        •  
        • One or more third parties can endorse earned badges after they are issued to the earner (the so-called Assertions of each BadgeClass).
        •  
        • One or more third parties can endorse an issuer profile so that the endorsement passes through to all of their badges (that is, their BadgeClasses and therefore the Assertions that follow).
    • Credly
    • their platforms to embrace the 2.0 Open Badges Specifications
    • This would mean that Credly and other badges systems that are compliant with the 2.0 specifications could present a logo and a statement of endorsement from the EFF.
    • The endorsement would be automatically verifiable (to prevent scammers from faking it) using the same mechanisms that make Open Badges Assertions verifiable.
    • This would add value to the endorsement above and beyond other potential endorsers who might demand such compensation (and therefore possibly compromise its integrity). It is worth noting that the distinction between uncompensated/compensated endorser is not currently included in the forthcoming 2.0 Open Badges Specification.
    • Endorsement 2.0 features would allow him to seek external endorsement of all of his firm's badges. He presumably has the option of going with a more conventional professional and continuing education accreditor such as ACCET and IACET or a more specialized medical education accreditor such as AACME.
    • This is just one example of the many ways that "open recognition" afforded by Endorsement 2.0 could transform e-credentialing.
    • The transparency associated with "open recognition" more generally might allow such practices to emerge and flourish in productive ways, while avoiding the breakdowns that have recently disrupted the accreditation industry.
    • illustrates how (1) badge issuers can insert evidence and links to more evidence to support the claims made by a BadgeClass when it is issued, (2) this evidence can be unique for each assertion of the BadgeClass when it is issued, and (3) Endorsement 2.0 will allow one or more third parties to endorse specific Assertions of a BadgeClass.
    • Together, these features will permit previously unimaginable models of endorsement for e-credentials
    • Because Open Badges put all of this information in a standardized Linked Data format, both machines and humans can easily read and interpret it.
    • While they took two decades to emerge, "Value Recognition Networks" are now taken for granted by most e-commerce stakeholders
    • soon take digital "Learning Recognition Networks" for granted in just a few years
    • widespread use of Linked Data will make it much easier to search for and quantify the information about education, competencies, endorsements, and employment that make up a network
    • Open Badges, the open standard for the recognition of learning achievements, has proved the power of a simple, affordable, resilient and trustworthy technology to create an open recognition ecosystem working across countries, educational sectors, work, social environments and technologies. Open Badges have demonstrated that we have the means and the opportunity to put an end to the disparities of the recognition landscape. Connecting and informing competency frameworks, they become the building blocks of an open architecture for the recognition of lifelong and life-wide learning achievements. They create the conditions for individuals to be in control of their own recognition, to establish their identity and agency, whether formally (within institutions) or informally (across communities).
    • open recognition of learning
    • While it will take some time for the newer digital e-credentialing systems and networks to become established, it appears quite certain that they will.
  • tags: ecosystem educause technical credentials

    • Badge (terms:Badge)
       
      A recognition designed to be displayed as a marker of accomplishment, activity, achievement, skill, interest, association, or identity.
       
         
      Digital Badge (term:DigitalBadge)
       
      A badge offered in digital form.
       
         
      Open Badge (terms:OpenBadge)
       
      An Open Badge is a visual symbol containing verifiable claims in accordance with the Open Badges specification and delivered digitally.
    • Certification (terms:Certification)
       
      A time-limited, renewable non-degree credential awarded by an authoritative body to an individual or organization for demonstrating the designated knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform a specific job.
    • Micro-Credential (terms:terms)
       
      A credential that attests to achievement of a specific knowledge, skill, or competency.
  • tags: ecosystem educause

    • Unfortunately, the existing maze of credentials lacks the transparency to meet these needs.
    • The nonprofit organization Credential Engine (previously known as the Credential Transparency Initiative
      • Developing common terminology for describing the key features of all kinds of workforce credentials (degrees, certificates, certifications, licenses, badges, etc.)
      •  
      • Creating an open, voluntary, web-based Credential Registry for sharing the resulting comparable information
      •  
      • Developing and testing a practical software application that enables access to this information and serves the needs of institutions of higher education, employers, job-seekers, and others
    • Lumina Foundation
    • George Washington University's Institute of Public Policy; the American National Standards Institute's affiliate, Workcred; and Southern Illinois University's Center for Workforce Development
    • 800 in-person and online attendees of a major conference in Washington, DC
    • Such enthusiasm is one reason that in spring 2017 leadership will shift to the board and staff of Credential Engine, a new nonprofit created to sustain the system and grow it to scale, now funded by JP Morgan Chase as well as Lumina
    • the Credential Registry uses Web 3.0 technologies to capture, connect, archive, and share information about credentials, credentialing organizations, quality assurance organizations, competency frameworks, and more to support an open software applications marketplace
    • The Credential Registry is based on a common language known as the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) that was developed with broad input from hundreds of credentialing stakeholders in an iterative process
    • form of metadata schema and vocabulary that describe key features of credentials, credentialing organizations, quality assurance organizations, and competency frameworks critical for determining the quality and value of credentials.
    • The CTDL conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) specifications and builds on Schema.org.
    • earning or competency requirements, location of those requirements in selected competency frameworks, primary scope of the competency set's application (e.g., targeted industry, occupation, and geographic area), type of assessment and how it was developed, costs and time to attain the credential, labor market value, transfer value, location in education and career pathways, role in occupational regulation and licensing, third-party approval status, and credential holder verification
    • he first app created on the registry is an open-source prototype search app maintained by Credential Engine to demonstrate the power of the registry and promote the development of additional software app
    • At present, the prototype app is available to the organizations putting information about their credentials on the registry
    • And now that Credential Engine has been established as a 501(c) (3) nonprofit to take the system to scale, all credentialing organizations, including colleges, certification bodies, apprenticeship programs, and license and badge issuers, are encouraged to join.
    • So also are organizations that accredit, endorse, or otherwise approve credentials and credentialing organizations. There are no fees for participation, which requires little time and effort.
    • Participation allows schools or programs to gain visibility in a large market of students, employers, and others who increasingly use virtual search tools to find and compare credentials of interest. Participation also demonstrates a commitment to transparency and the confidence to display the quality of the credential involved.
    • Finally, participants receive a suite of services that are useful for short- and long-term technology planning, including information about Web 3.0 technologies and a customized roadmap for advancing their capacity to operate on the emerging web of linked data.
  • tags: costs online learning WCET tuition price

  • tags: credentials educause ecosystem

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