Creativity, communication and collaboration: Grading with open badges

Abstract

An important and relatively new technology for teaching and assessing soft skills is the use of digital badges, and more specifically — open badges (OBs). Such badge is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that can be earned in various learning environments. The paper describes the use of open badges to grade soft skills in higher education. The process starts with survey that is conducted in order to define the skills that are most important for the future employment of students. It continues with the development of pedagogical approach and badging environment. The paper also gives the critical overview of the results of the survey conducted with students that were involved into the badging process. Based on the reported experiences, it is to be concluded that that the concept and technology of OBs, coupled with appropriate pedagogical approaches, could be a viable solution for teaching, assessing, grading and recognizing soft skills.