Maurer School of Law: Indiana University Digital Repository @ Maurer Law Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty Faculty Scholarship 2015 Using Digital Badges to Enhance Research Instruction in Academic Libraries Susan David deMaine Indiana University Maurer School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks Part of the Law Commons, and the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation deMaine, Susan David, "Using Digital Badges to Enhance Research Instruction in Academic Libraries" (2015). Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty. 217. https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/217 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty by an authorized administrator of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Chapter Five Using Digital Badges to Enhance Research Instruction in Academic Libraries Susan David deMaine, Catherine A. Lemmer, Benjamin J. Keele, and Hannah Alcasid INTRODUCTION Digital badges are an electronic means of communicating credentials or achi evements. They have a visual element, similar to an icon or a scouting badge, whi ch creates an initial indication of the credential. With a cli ck, badges th en convey metadata about the learning path required to earn th e credential and can provide access to more information or work product. They are " in stantly accessible portals to evidence of a person 's accomplishment, li ke intern ships and portfolios of work" (Carey, 20 12, ov. 2). At their best, badges can create a sort of interactive e-resume. Thus fa r, they have proven particularly popular in computer-oriented fie ld s such as programming, web design, and game design, but th ey are making headway in other academi c areas as well. Librarians-whether in academic librari es, public librari es, or specia li zed librari es-do extensive amounts of education, but rarely do they have mech­ an isms to acknowledge student achi evement or be acknowledged themselves for the teaching they provide. Digital badges offer new opportunities fo r librari ans to add value to existing educational systems and be acknowledged as educators. Take the following example: a librari an may partner w ith a hum aniti es professor whose students must write a research paper by the end of the semester. Typicall y, the librarian may be in vited into the classroom, or the students may be sent to the Iibrar y for a sin gle research lesson on data- 59 60 David deMaine, Lemmer, Keele, and A/casid bases and search tem1s- not enough fo r trul y hi gh-quali ty research. A better alternative may be that the professor req uire th e students to co mpl ete a se ri es of badges- designed, implemented, and managed by the librarian- that build thorough research sk il ls and ul tim ately produce a better paper (for example, Un iversity of Central Flori da [UCF] [20 14]). The badge program adds value to the humanities course with out much addi tional cost to the university, better research is co nducted, student achi evement is recogn ized, and teaching by li bra ri ans in thei r area of experti se is acknowledged and va lidated. In addition, not onl y would the badges enable students to co mmu­ nicate their research competencies di gitall y, but th ey would also act as an incentive for fu rther tra ini ng. Thi s chapter expl ores the natu re and poten ti al of badges, their technica l aspects, and the institutional issues in vo lved in estab li shing di gita l badge programs in academic libraries. THE NATURE AND APPLICATION OF DIGITAL BADGES Badges come in many fo m1 s and have been used fo r centuries as indi cators of credenti als, achi evements, and rank. As Halavais (2 0 12) points out, badges have also been used to mark people as belonging to a group (for good or ill ), to indicate authori ty (military ranks), or to simply communicate a viewpoint (bumper stickers an d politi ca l buttons). Badges hea rken back at least as fa r as the Middle Ages, where pil grims wore badges to communicate which holy sites they had visited (BBC, n.d.), and servants, retainers, and fo ll owers wore badges indi cating their loyalty to a parti cul ar nobleman (Fox-Davies, 1907, p. 14). The United States military has been issuing badges since the Revo lutionary Wa r (Washington, 1782), though the system of mili ta ry badges ex panded considerably in the twentieth century to indi ca te skill s, identity, and rank (Navy Personnel Command, 20 11 ). Of course, scouting orga ni zati ons have long used badges as signs of ac hi evements. Sir Robert Baden-Powell included identification and profi ­ ciency badges in Scouting for Boys, th e 1908 publica ti on that gave ri se to modern scouting orga ni za ti ons (Baden-Powell , 1908/2007, p. 37). Other ex­ ampl es include police badges and marti al arts belts (Halavais, 20 12). More recentl y, badges have been populari zed by the video and online gaming communities. Badges and similar indi cators are used to reward and communicate progress or ac hi evement in a game. Research indi cates th at incenti ves, progress, and rewards-even when th ey are onl y ephemeral- are vita l characteri sti cs of successful game (Z ichennann & Cunningham, 20 II ). A good example of thi s is SuperB etter (n.d.), a website that encourages pl ayers to improve th eir hea lth and increase th eir personal res ili ence by map­ ping their own goa ls, incen ti ves, and rewards in a ga melike environment. U ing Digital Badges to Enhance Re earch Instruction in Academic Libraries 61 Likewise, skil l-based incentives in a learning process have been identified as a means to motivate beginners and even those with intennediate skills when other fonns of promotion are not available or not relevant. As Ha lavais explains, Badges of achievement do more than just celebrate a particular victory or ability. From ery early on, it became clear that they encouraged excellence and the development of particular skills, or even just participation in a collec­ tive action. While a trophy or medal is one way of inducing competition among a group to see who might become the most skilled, this does little to motivate the neophyte. As a resul t, indications of more di crete sk ills, and of levels of skill , have frequen tl y been adopted as a way to shape behavior. (Halavais, 20 12) Because of thi s potenti al to motivate all kinds of lea rning, educators are in terested in di gital badges. They are being impl emented by K-12 teachers (Ferdig & Pytash, 20 14), the Smi thsoni an In stitution (Waters, 20 13), and in stitutions of hi gher learning in cluding Purdue Uni versity, Carnegie Me ll on Uni versity, and the Uni versity of Ca li fo rni a, Davis (Carey, ovember 2, 20 12). According to Brent Herbert-Copl ey of Ca nada's Social Sciences and Hu­ mani ties Research Coun cil , the idea l co llege graduate is now "T-shaped," combining a broad set of skill s such as in fonnati on literacy, writing, commu­ ni cation, and teamwork (the hori zontal stroke) with in-depth knowledge in a particul ar area (th e verti ca l stroke) (Herbert-Copl ey, 20 13). Badges provide students seeking th ese hori zontal skill s with structure for th eir learnin g, rec­ ogn ition of th eir ac hi evement, and th e means to communicate their skills to poten ti al employers. Enthusiasts point to several aspects of digital badges that make them fl ex ibl e and in fo rmati ve. Perh aps the bi ggest adva ntage is that badges have th e capacity to convey far more in fo rm ation about the leaming path than traditional grades or transcripts. Someone seeing an "A" on a ty pi ca l tran- cript ca nnot readil y know what ea rning th at "A" actuall y enta il ed. A li st of classes taken or a degree granted ca n give some impression of a body of kn owledge, but the impression is built on nothing more than co urse titles or th e degree major. In contrast, badges are "talkati ve" (Rughini s, 20 13). They ca n ca rry with them all th e in fom1 ation about the requirements invo lved in earning the badge, who issued the badge and what their level of ex pertise is, what the student accompli shed, when the badge ex pi res (if applica bl e), and how the accomplishm ent relates to other lea rning experi ences and other badges. Badges can also prov id e a portal to a work product created in pursuit of th e badge. In short, they provid e ev id ence-based docum entati on of an ac hi evement (Casi IIi , 20 12). 62 David deMaine, Lemmer, Keele, and Alcasid A second advantage of badges is that, thanks to projects such as Mozilla 's Open Badge Initiative, badges can easily be designed and issued by anyone. Although this may seem threatening to traditional educational institutions that have long dominated the credentialing market (Carey, 2012, March 13), a more open system of credentialing through badges may well benefit society at large.