WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.120 Hello and thank you for watching our presentation today 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:07.200 called "Beginning to badge: exploring digital credentials at Virginia Tech." 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.480 My name is Marc Zaldivar and I'm the director of curriculum and assessment 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:13.280 for the TLOS professional development network. 00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:16.720 I'll be presenting today with Amanda MacDonald, the undergraduate research 00:00:16.720 --> 00:00:20.080 services librarian in the University Libraries. 00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:23.279 The plan is for me to give you a quick overview of Virginia Tech's prior 00:00:23.279 --> 00:00:26.320 interest in badging as well as a high level picture of what 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:30.080 we've been doing for the past year, then Amanda, one of our early 00:00:30.080 --> 00:00:32.880 adopters, will give you details of her program 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:35.840 which focuses on undergraduate student learning. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.200 Each of us will then wrap it up by looking forward to the coming next 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:43.680 developments with badging over the next year or so. 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:48.079 If you are unfamiliar with us, Virginia Tech is located in southwestern Virginia 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:51.760 in the midst of the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. As you can see from the 00:00:51.760 --> 00:00:55.440 statistics on the screen, Virginia Tech is a diverse place with a 00:00:55.440 --> 00:01:00.000 wide outreach of impact. Its history is as an agricultural and 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.039 engineering school, and we still have nationally ranked 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:07.280 programs in those areas as well as in business, biotechnology, and 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:10.400 many other programs such as the relatively new School of 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:15.200 Medicine based in Roanoke, Virginia. Our college-based distributed nature at 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.320 Virginia Tech allows for very different cultures and 00:01:18.320 --> 00:01:21.840 traditions of learning in the different departments, regions, and 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:27.600 campuses that represent Virginia Tech. That diversity makes us strong but also 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:29.840 poses interesting challenges for learning 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:35.119 and professional development. The unit that primarily sponsors badging, 00:01:35.119 --> 00:01:38.159 what we call the service owner at Virginia Tech, is 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:41.840 TLOS professional development network. Our group 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:46.079 is within the division of IT but provides a primary crossover point 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:48.320 between IT and the teaching and research 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:53.360 mission of the university. Within IT, TLOS is focused on the 00:01:53.360 --> 00:01:57.280 intersection of technology, learning, and pedagogy. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:01.200 Within TLOS, PDN focuses on preparing faculty 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:05.680 and encouraging innovative strategies for improving teaching and learning. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:10.160 For the purposes of today's discussion, I want to focus on two things that we do 00:02:10.160 --> 00:02:15.200 in order to achieve these goals. First, we partner with units across 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:19.360 campus to encourage collaborative, innovative, and appropriate integration 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.319 of technology into teaching learning, daily 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:27.200 productivity, and research. Second, we also encourage faculty 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:30.480 participation in continuous professional development 00:02:30.480 --> 00:02:34.959 through our computer refresh program whereby faculty receive a new computer 00:02:34.959 --> 00:02:38.160 every four years through regular participation in 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:42.239 professional development events. This gives us an inherent audience of 00:02:42.239 --> 00:02:45.360 faculty and staff ready for quality professional 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:51.440 development experiences such as trying out a new badge program. 00:02:51.440 --> 00:02:54.959 TLOS has been working towards badging for several years now. 00:02:54.959 --> 00:02:58.640 This has given me the advantage of having a high level view of the badging 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:04.319 attempts and technologies. 2019-2020 was our third first year 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:07.440 of piloting a badging approach over the past year 00:03:07.440 --> 00:03:11.599 five years or so. The first two pilots were not failures. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:15.599 Though they didn't stick, they taught us valuable lessons that carry with us 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:20.720 into this iteration. First, they taught us that broad-based collaboration of 00:03:20.720 --> 00:03:25.519 various stakeholders is a necessity. Understanding the roles, benefits, 00:03:25.519 --> 00:03:29.519 limitations, needs, ROI, and other elements of the partners 00:03:29.519 --> 00:03:32.879 within the network can be difficult but is critically 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:36.000 important. The community and values behind the 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.200 badges are one of the most significant components 00:03:39.200 --> 00:03:43.519 of having a worthwhile successful badging project. 00:03:43.519 --> 00:03:47.840 Second, managing the technology and user experience 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:52.000 is also important. In some of our early projects, the giving, 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.439 receiving, managing, and publicizing of badges 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:59.920 was difficult and time-consuming. Evolving standards such as the open 00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:03.360 badge standard and the comprehensive learner record 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:07.200 have improved transparency and ease of use greatly over the past 00:04:07.200 --> 00:04:11.040 few years. Third, our first few iterations seemed at 00:04:11.040 --> 00:04:14.959 least to me like kids with new toys. People were getting badges at 00:04:14.959 --> 00:04:19.680 conferences or other places and wanted to play with them here at Virginia Tech, 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:23.759 but limitations and technology and deployment strategies left the toy less 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:29.840 shiny after a few passes and less people picked it up for round two. 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.440 Though we are only about a year into our third year one, 00:04:33.440 --> 00:04:37.360 we seem to have resolved some of these issues of the past and are finding much 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:42.000 new success with this latest iteration of badging at Virginia Tech. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:46.080 We have found the integration of Canvas and Badger to be very useful to moving forward. 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:48.720 We are able to work with faculty and 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:53.199 students in the same platform where they most commonly do other work. 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:56.720 We also have a much broader sense of community and participation in the 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.680 badging effort, with professional development partners 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:03.840 across the university considering professional development 00:05:03.840 --> 00:05:08.160 through the lens of digital credentials focusing on adoption strategies for 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:13.199 faculty through their own development. In addition, Professional Development 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:16.479 Network has formed a partnership with the University Libraries 00:05:16.479 --> 00:05:20.479 to explore badge use specifically in student populations. 00:05:20.479 --> 00:05:26.479 In extra-, co-, and also curricular contexts, these new partnerships have provided a 00:05:26.479 --> 00:05:29.199 focus in thinking about campus-wide needs 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:34.160 and best use cases for badging as we ramp up our usage. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:38.080 In this first year, we have several really promising results. 00:05:38.080 --> 00:05:41.600 First, we have almost 15 different official issuers, 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:46.800 and as a collective we have issued more than 1200 badges in the past year. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:51.280 There are badges everywhere. The most popular areas of badging 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:55.600 were those that demonstrate completion or certification, 00:05:55.600 --> 00:06:00.400 those that demonstrated steps of learning on a pathway towards completion, 00:06:00.400 --> 00:06:04.479 and those that recognized award or honorific winners. 00:06:04.479 --> 00:06:08.479 So let me now turn it over to my co-presenter to give some details on her program. 00:06:08.479 --> 00:06:13.199 I have been incredibly fortunate to find such good collaborators to join 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:15.840 in our exploration of this complex process. I'll turn it over now. 00:06:15.840 --> 00:06:20.960 Hi, my name is Amanda MacDonald and I'm the 00:06:20.960 --> 00:06:23.919 undergraduate research services librarian at Virginia Tech. 00:06:23.919 --> 00:06:27.600 I'm here today to talk to you about two badging programs that I coordinate at 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:30.319 the university. One is the undergraduate research 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:34.000 excellence program, and the second is the advanced research skills program. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.560 The first program is called the undergraduate research excellence 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.120 program, UREP for short, which is a 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:43.440 university-wide discipline-agnostic undergraduate research program. 00:06:43.440 --> 00:06:46.960 UREP was designed as an umbrella to connect undergraduate research programs 00:06:46.960 --> 00:06:50.560 and training experiences across the university, while rewarding 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:54.720 and celebrating students. The second university-wide program is 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:56.639 called the advanced research skills program, 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:00.960 or ARS for short, which is an undergraduate co-curricular program 00:07:00.960 --> 00:07:04.560 designed to provide students an introduction to research theory concepts 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.000 utilized in formal undergraduate research experiences. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.280 We cover concepts such as data ethics, data management, 00:07:11.280 --> 00:07:17.520 and file versioning, just to name a few. These two programs go hand in hand. 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:21.360 ARS was developed and launched four years before UREP. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:25.759 In librarianship there was always the question, what is the carrot for students?, 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:29.440 meaning how we motivate and reward students who attend library workshops. 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:34.400 How do we show their value? So UREP was created as one way to do this. 00:07:34.400 --> 00:07:38.479 Students who complete ARS also earn the UREP training badge as part of the UREP 00:07:38.479 --> 00:07:41.520 program, and students who complete all of UREP not 00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:45.680 only earn all of the related badges but also a graduation cord. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:49.440 For us, the digital credentialing and the graduation cord motivates students 00:07:49.440 --> 00:07:52.800 and celebrate their hard work. It also helps with documentation 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:55.919 and outcome assessment. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:00.400 To describe UREP a bit further, it is a program for undergraduate students in 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:02.879 any major to connect with resources and support 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:06.000 and ultimately receive recognition for their engagement in undergraduate research. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.039 Programmatic goals include providing 00:08:09.039 --> 00:08:12.400 students a chance to track their undergraduate research journey including 00:08:12.400 --> 00:08:14.879 trainings, validate their experience through 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:17.599 recognition of their research efforts and achievements, 00:08:17.599 --> 00:08:20.800 and showcase their experience for potential employers and professional or 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:23.599 graduate schools. 00:08:25.280 --> 00:08:28.560 While we designed the model of the program, we really wanted the student to 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:31.840 have a chance to consider all of the work they've done at the university 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:35.279 and how those undergraduate research experiences inside and outside of the 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.240 classroom informs their choices post graduation 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:42.000 and has made them workforce ready. Because undergraduate research is 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.760 experiential learning, it's not terribly surprising that we see this program 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:49.120 aligning with the full cycle of experiential learning. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:52.480 As you can see in this model, there are three stages for students: 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:57.040 explore, engage, and scholar. Reflection should take place throughout 00:08:57.040 --> 00:09:01.200 the program in the students career so it is crucial part of the program all 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:05.279 three parts. Explore is the introduction in early 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:09.120 education in a student's career. This is where exposure happens. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:13.279 This could be workshops, it could be intro classes. So this is where the advanced 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:17.440 research skills program or ARS would fall. Students might also decide to 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.080 take a class such as the intro to research practices 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:23.680 course, so something like that would fit here as well. 00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:26.959 Engage is where the student is actually conducting research. 00:09:26.959 --> 00:09:30.320 This could be independent study courses, it could be working in a lab, 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:34.880 it could be a summer experience something like an REU. 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:38.640 Scholar is where the student is ready to disseminate research. 00:09:38.640 --> 00:09:42.160 They're thinking where they want to present and publish. They may practice 00:09:42.160 --> 00:09:47.040 placing artifacts in an e-portfolio or even in a university digital repository. 00:09:47.040 --> 00:09:50.240 They may present at a conference here, at NCUR, 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:55.519 or even at a discipline-specific conference, maybe with a faculty member. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.720 The three-tier design was created because we want every student to have a 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:01.519 well-rounded experience, yet we understand that what 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:05.519 undergraduate research looks like across majors can be very different. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:08.640 Ideally this program is designed so that any undergraduate student 00:10:08.640 --> 00:10:11.920 of any major could enter at any point in the undergraduate career 00:10:11.920 --> 00:10:15.600 and begin tracking for success, but the earlier the student starts, the more 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:20.000 likely they'll be to earn the badges and the cord. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:24.800 As I mentioned, ARS is a co-curricular series designed to introduce students to 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:27.680 research theory concepts that will prepare them for the formal 00:10:27.680 --> 00:10:32.240 research experiences. After completing ARS, students will be 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.399 able to explore the role of ethics, organization, and best practices in 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:39.360 working with research data and information, 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:42.959 identify potential faculty members and practice drafting emails to find a 00:10:42.959 --> 00:10:46.560 research position, and design an effective poster highlighting 00:10:46.560 --> 00:10:50.399 newly developed skills from the series. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:54.160 So how did we deploy the program? For both programs, 00:10:54.160 --> 00:10:57.680 students self-enroll into them using a Google form. 00:10:57.680 --> 00:11:00.800 ARS is a campus course. There are six modules, 00:11:00.800 --> 00:11:05.040 each with assessments. Students can earn one micro badge per workshop, or six total, 00:11:05.040 --> 00:11:07.120 and the final badge for completing the program. 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:13.519 UREP is also a Canvas course: five modules, but no assessments. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:17.440 Students upload proof of undergraduate research participation for each section, 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:21.600 administrators verify. Micro credentials are awarded as students complete each 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.800 section. Final badge is awarded and student earns 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:28.079 a graduate cord for completing the program. 00:11:28.079 --> 00:11:31.920 UREP itself has no training or experiences for students. 00:11:31.920 --> 00:11:34.880 Rather, it's designed as a place for students to track and report their 00:11:34.880 --> 00:11:38.640 experiences via assignments. Because UREP offers no training for 00:11:38.640 --> 00:11:42.640 students, it easily serves as a connector for UREP training and experiences 00:11:42.640 --> 00:11:46.320 across campus. Once the experiences are verified, 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:50.639 students will receive a badge for each stage: explore, engage, and scholar. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:55.800 To earn their graduation cord, they must fully complete all three stages of the program. 00:11:57.920 --> 00:12:02.000 This year was a pilot for both programs, so only students in the spring cohorts 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:05.200 of ARS and UREP have earned badges to date. 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:11.839 In UREP we've given 65 badges, and ARS we've awarded 146. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:16.079 Badging has enhanced both programs in a variety of ways. 00:12:16.079 --> 00:12:20.399 For UREP for students badging helps them see where they are in the program: 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:23.839 what they've completed, and what they have yet to complete. For program 00:12:23.839 --> 00:12:26.880 administrators, it helps make overseeing the program 00:12:26.880 --> 00:12:29.920 much easier. It lightens our load in terms of manual counting and points. 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:35.519 For ARS, for students it provides an automatic 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:39.600 sign that they've completed requirements. Once we grade the assessment they earn 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:42.560 the badge. For students who enroll in UREP, they 00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:44.880 automatically see they've completed the training module 00:12:44.880 --> 00:12:50.000 which again makes it really easy for us in terms of scoring. 00:12:50.959 --> 00:12:55.600 I have several goals for badging as we move forward towards a new academic year. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:59.760 Evaluate UREP and consider streamlining the process by removing points. 00:12:59.760 --> 00:13:04.839 Two, expand ARS modules to include more workshops and corresponding microcredentials. 00:13:04.839 --> 00:13:08.720 And three, integrate badging and pathways into all 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.600 ARS and UREP offerings from this semester forward 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:16.639 to ease manual administrative work. ARS is embedded in courses, labs, and 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:19.200 summer undergraduate research programming, 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:22.399 and UREP is divided into graduation cohorts, which is why 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.680 integrating all of the badging and pathways will be essential to us moving forward. 00:13:25.680 --> 00:13:28.880 [Marc Zaldivar] One thing that I have found is that 00:13:28.880 --> 00:13:33.279 badging helps to bring some new focus to old problems. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:37.279 In the growing collaborative environment we want to find better ways to track 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:43.680 learners over a longer time, but also with greater detail. We want to provide 00:13:43.680 --> 00:13:47.360 unique learning experiences for each of our learners, yet provide 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:51.519 central access to important learning data for managers, advisors, employers, and 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:55.440 other interested parties. We want learners of all levels, both 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:58.480 faculty and students, to engage intentionally with their 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:01.920 learning choices, and we want to provide easy access to 00:14:01.920 --> 00:14:04.639 learning systems that promote that learning. 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:09.519 Finally, we want to make this as easy as possible for as many as possible. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:12.720 So these are the kind of questions that are guiding my personal thinking and 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:16.800 learning about badges currently. As I have seen Virginia Tech 00:14:16.800 --> 00:14:20.880 grow from a few interested parties to a consistent flow of interested 00:14:20.880 --> 00:14:25.440 groups and related departments, there is a clear and increasing need for 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:29.920 collaborative pathways for learning, for certification for professional 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:34.800 development, and for personal learning choices. 00:14:35.760 --> 00:14:38.480 So thank you very much for giving us a little bit of your time and attention 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:41.440 today, and and letting us tell you a little bit 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:44.399 about our projects. On the screen you should see our contact 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:48.000 information. I know all of us feel very new at this still, so 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:51.360 we encourage you to reach out to us with any comments or questions you have about 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:55.120 our project. We are hoping and anxious to join the 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:58.000 community and learn as much as we can over the coming few years. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:07.600 So thank you very much for your time today.