The Appeal of Digital Badges

As prospective future instructional designers and creators of E-Learning courses, an important consideration for us is how we can keep our learners motivated enough to complete the content we create. This week, we continued our exploration of blended and online courses by examining the topic of Digital Badges. Digital Badges are one potential method of maintaining students’ engagement with the material.

A Digital Badge is, essentially, a virtual representation of an achievement by a learner. A tutor could award students a badge for many possible tasks, be it completing an assignment, contributing to class discussions, engaging with the course content consistently, completion of the course, etc. Badges are persistent signifiers of the learners’ work, containing metadata outlining who the learner is, why the badge was awarded, who issued the award, etc. A recipient can then decide to share this badge on their website, social media or portfolio to demonstrate their skills.

Initially, I was sceptical about the Digital Badge concept. I considered these to be little more than the equivalent of gold stickers awarded to primary school children – a nice reward in the moment, but ultimately valueless. However, upon reflection, I now realise how beneficial these badges can be. 

The fact that these items are persistent and verifiable increases their value substantially. Having an avenue to show a potential employer evidence of online professional development (which, in the past, was difficult to authenticate) is a distinct advantage. Being able to have a central repository of these badges, which one can easily share across multiple locations, is convenient and useful for creating a consistent online presence.

But perhaps the most positive aspect of a Digital Badge is the motivation that it provides to the pupil. A tangible reward for completing a task is undoubtedly a significant incentive which may be the deciding factor in whether one remains determined to finish the material or drop out.

My own experience with online courses reinforces this idea. I have signed up to multiple MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in the past, including programmes on game development, music production, artificial intelligence and more. Each time, I found myself losing the motivation required to complete my studies in these areas. Trying to fit additional learning around my other commitments did not seem worth it given that, in the end, I would have nothing to verify that I had attained the skills on offer.

On the other hand, I recently registered for and completed an online course on the SAGE accounting software. One of the driving factors behind me completing this particular course was that the SAGE organisation provides a certificate upon completion. Knowing that I would have something to prove that I now possess the knowledge required to use this software made the endeavour seem more worthwhile.

I believe more courses should look to integrate Digital Badges. One of the significant disadvantages at present is that not all employers accept the value of badges. In my view, the best way of overcoming this attitude is to increase the prevalence of their use. If Digital Badges become more ubiquitous, they could achieve a reputation for quality and importance. Should I go on to be involved in the development of E-Learning courses, I will strongly advocate the inclusion of a badge component where appropriate.

Thinking About Ethics

When I applied to study this MA programme, I think one of the last things I would have expected to be doing on an afternoon following a day of lectures is sitting and contemplating my moral code. And yet, on the back of the class discussion surrounding ethics in the technical communication profession this week, that is precisely what I have been doing.

Specifically, we looked at six theories of ethics in our TW5212 lecture. Each approach sets out different philosophical arguments as to how one might judge ethical issues. As I sat and absorbed the information, I was quietly hoping that one particular theory would leap ahead of the others and present itself as the sole view to which I subscribe. Alas, this did not occur.

I found myself recognising my beliefs manifested across several of the philosophies we were examining. I combine aspects of:

• Subjectivism: There is no “universal norm” when it comes to ethics. People will have different opinions, and neither may be wrong.
• Cultural relativism: It is not always fair to criticise the ideals of different cultures when they conflict with one’s own.
• Kantianism: Treat others as you would want them to treat you.
• Egoism: Be trustworthy because it will benefit you personally in the long run.
• Consequentialism: Try to do the most good possible for the highest amount of people.
• Social Contract: where we consider something morally sound if the community is accepting of it.

Giving names to these theories, and seriously considering the different aspects of each, has caused me to realise that ethics truly is even more of a grey area than I would initially have thought. For me, there isn’t even a single set of guidelines which stands ahead of the others.

Our Tutorial activity for the week concerning this topic is to find examples of interesting cases concerning ethics and technology. The case which sprang to mind for me was an incident in the video games’ press which occurred in 2018.

IGN, one of the largest video game media outlets, became embroiled in a scandal when one of their editors was found to have plagiarised a review from a relatively little-known YouTuber. It was later discovered that this editor had also copied content from a whole range of other sources for his personal YouTube channel before he was hired at IGN. As a result, the editor lost his job, the review was pulled from the website and needed to be re-done by another editor, and IGN received severe criticism for hiring a journalist who displayed such questionable morality.

So, what can we potentially learn from that particular incident?

To me, it serves as a stark reminder of the importance of being incredibly aware of ethical issues when creating products. I believe IGN as a company should not have been subjected to the level of the backlash they were. After all, I would consider it an unreasonable demand for IGN to thoroughly cross-reference each potential employees’ previous work against every other similar piece of content that exists. The fact remains that their reputation as a trustworthy source was damaged. The uproar highlights how easy it is to fall afoul of an ethical scandal.

This exploration of ethics was one of the more intriguing subjects discussed as part of the programme thus far. I would hope that this topic has instilled in me just how vital ethical considerations are as I go forward to a career in technical communication. I think I will be more cautious about taking other peoples’ outlooks on ethical matters into account.