Managing and issuing Open Badges within Open edX is now possible using the Badgr Xblock
Cape Town, South Africa – June 25, 2018 – Construct has released the new Badgr Xblock for Open edX, making it possible for users to integrate Open Badges into any of hundreds of thousands of existing courses that run on the Open edX system. Until now, it has only been possible to award badges to learners at the end of a course. This new Xblock allows badges to be awarded to any of Open edX’s 10 million+ learners for passing an assessment within a course, recognizing their achievement instantly.
How it works
- Users embed the Xblock in their course directly after an assessment
- The Xblock will read the grade that the learner gets
- If the learner passes the assessment, they’re awarded the badge
Learners find out there and then if they’ve earned the badge, giving them instant recognition for their achievement and progression. Statistics show that keeping a learner engaged and motivated helps increase both course satisfaction and completion rates which is especially pertinent for those studying digitally or online.
“We use badging to engage and motivate learners by making targets and competition part of the learning experience.” said Dr. Philippa Hardman, Chief Learning Officer at Construct. “Being able to badge learners on a modular basis helps drive progress and course completion, in part because it’s less of a delayed reward compared with traditional end-of-course badges.”
The badges use the Open Badges standard, which means that learners can easily export their achievements onto other platforms such as Mozilla Backpack and LinkedIn, showcasing and sharing a verifiable record of their skills and experience in real time.
The Xblock has been developed to work in conjunction with the open source Badgr Server application or the hosted version at Badgr.io both developed by Concentric Sky. The badges themselves can either be created from scratch or sourced from public issuers such as Badgr.io, BadgeRank and Badgr Pathways.
“Concentric Sky are known for creating exceptional learning experiences and their work in gamification continues to drive the industry forward. Having built the Badgr platform and partnered with international organizations like Instructure long before the rise of micro-credentials, Concentric Sky has directly contributed to the advancement of emerging technology in education. There can be no doubt that they will continue to do so, as they pioneer the Open Pathways standard and deliver projects like the Digital Promise Marketplace through a strategy designed not only to impress but to exemplify their dedication to global learning.” Rene Sorel – Chief Technology Officer, Construct.
“We’re excited to partner with [Construct] on such a valuable initiative which extends the reach of Open Badges to millions of new learners around the world,” said Wayne Skipper, Founder and CEO of Concentric Sky. “The future of education will be built on open standards and thought leaders like Construct are helping to pave the way.”
Setup is easy – all that’s required is access to the Badgr server either via the open source version or through the hosted version at Badgr.io, and an instance of Open edX. We’ve made it easy to connect the Xblock to your Open edX instance, simply follow our step-by-step install guide below.
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Get the Xblock today at https://github.com/proversity-org/badgr-xblock or visit www.constructeducation.com for more information about Construct’s Learning Strategy, Instructional Design, Content Production and Platform Development Services.
Construct is the global digital learning partner for Higher Education, Government and Enterprise. By providing complete services in learning strategy, instructional design, content production and platform development, we enable transformation through world-class digital learning.
