DIGITAL BADGES AT NATO SCHOOL OBERAMMERGAU

Abstract

As NATO School Oberammergau (NSO) is continuously looking into implementing new tools and methods in training and education, student's skills recognition, competencies and achievements through digital badges has been adopted for resident courses from NATO School Oberammergau Academic Departments. In 2017 NATO School Oberammergau introduced digital badges to selected courses; however the idea to reward students' accomplishments is not new. When NATO School Oberammergau implemented the "Gender Sticker" earlier, in 2015, the first step towards a new way of recognizing students' efforts was made. While the "Gender Sticker", a special designed NATO School Oberammergau sticker any student can earn who is successfully completing the ADL 169 (Gender Awareness) course online, was simply added to the classic NSO course certificates, the digital badges are an online recognition system. In addition to the traditional "Certificate of Completion", the NSO offers a digital badge for selected courses to students who met all course requirements. Currently digital badges at NSO are used to help quantify the amount of formal time spent in training, or by participation in a program. However, digital badges have the potential to bridge both formal and informal learning in NATO. So far NATO School Oberammergau is currently the only NATO Education and Training Facility to provide their students digital badges. In this this paper the authors will demonstrate some initial findings following the implementation of the Digital Badging Project by NATO School Oberammergau and recommendations for other military organizations that may be looking to implement similar programs.