Abstract
In 2015, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) recognized the need to capture knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired by students in both co-curricular and curricular endeavors not being captured in any identifiable way. The Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer desired to document competencies gained by students in the variety of contexts on campus and to track student, faculty, and staff achievements in a way that would both benefit each individual while also supporting the mission of the institution. This vision led to the adoption of a digital badging initiative resulting in a scalable process for implementing new badges throughout the university community. UMBC's digital badging program became the springboard for the institution's entrance into the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) realm whose objective is to capture all credentials earned by students, whether they be awarded before, during, or following their tenure at the institution.
TopBackground
In 2015, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), one of 12 institutions in the University System of Maryland (USM), recognized the need to capture knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired by students in both co-curricular and curricular endeavors that were not being captured in any identifiable way. The Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Jack Suess, originally referred to this effort as “Tracking Activities and Guiding Success (myTAGS).” Here’s how Mr. Suess described the effort,
The goal of this project is to broadly use digital credentials, sometimes referred to as badges, as a mechanism for tracking student, staff, and faculty activities and achievements… We are referring to these digital credentials as TAGS – short for tracking achievements & guiding success. By following the emerging standards and best practices for digital credentials, we will have metadata associated with these tags that will be utilized in a variety of different ways to support UMBC’s mission.
Some of the expected benefits from this initiative were as follows:
- •
Building a badging infrastructure that is tied into LinkedIn, UMBC could follow how students progress after graduation. In particular, a specific goal is creating the ability to identify learning experiences that make a difference in future career success;
- •
Determining how many students are engaging in extracurricular activities and what impact these activities have on graduation rate, time-to-degree, and post-graduation success;
- •
Providing a guide for students to the best thinking in co-curricular skills that will highlight how to build their career skills or position themselves to succeed in graduate school;
- •
Identifying interests and expertise that can be pulled into a variety of interdisciplinary research projects; and
- •
Supporting skill acquisition amongst staff (e.g., project management, leadership, business skills, analytical skills, organization skills).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Greater Washington Partnership: A civic alliance of the region’s largest employers in the Capital region from Baltimore to Richmond.
Digital Badge: A validated indicator of knowledge, skill, ability, or level of competency that can be earned as part of a learning experience.
B.E.S.T.: Badging Essential Skills for Transitions (B.E.S.T.) is a University System of Maryland (USM) initiative which consists of eight badges focused on career readiness competencies that align with those developed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Credly/Acclaim: An open badge platform where users can issue digital badges and view analytics associated with the badge(s).
AEFIS: Assessment, Evaluation, Feedback, and Intervention System (AEFIS) is a cloud-based assessment management system that facilitates the collection and application of learning assessment data and the implementation of a Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR).
Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR): A new generation of secure and verifiable learning and employment records supporting all nature of academic and workplace recognition and achievements including courses, competencies and skills and employer-based achievements and milestones ( IMS Global Learning Consortium, n.d. ).
Badging Ecosystem: The environment in which digital badges exist that includes badge issuers, recipients, displayers, consumers, and all of the functions and capabilities of each of those entities.
Quality Matters: The global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. It provides professional development, a set of rubrics, and a course peer review process that work together to support faculty in improving the quality of online and blended courses.
Credential: A qualification, achievement, personal quality, or aspect of a person's background, typically when used to indicate that they are suitable for something.
edX Edge: Learning management system used by the University System of Maryland to deliver small private online courses (SPOC) and used to deliver the Greater Washington Partnership (GWP) Digital Generalist competency modules.
Capital CoLAB: Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business (CoLAB) is an action-oriented partnership of business and academic institutions that develops the talent needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow.