Students’ Perception of Using Digital Badges in Blended Learning Classrooms

Qinman Fan,Liwen Chen,Li Zhou,Yueli Ji

doi:10.3390/su11072151

Qinman Fan, Liwen Chen + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11072151

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Abstract

A digital badge system with a leaderboard ranking was implemented in an 18-week course offered by a Chinese mainland university during the 2018 Spring Semester. Fifty-four junior college students participated in this study, and the learning activities were based on a combination of online and offline methods using the Moodle system. The purpose of the study was to explore these college students’ perception of digital badges in blended learning classrooms as well as their perception of digital badges in general. Q methodology was used in a single case study of the students’ subjective experience of digital badges, and thirty-six Q-statements were selected after a comprehensive reflection of their views of digital badges. The participants were asked to sort the statements to model their opinion in a modified rank-order procedure. Twenty-two valid sorts were entered for the analysis, and three factors were identified to represent groups of participants with similar views. The results are discussed based on the views of students at a local university in mainland China and the way their demographic characteristics related to their perception of digital badges.

Highlights

With the large-scale open curriculum development of Massive Open Online Courses
The students were divided into groups of Neutral learners, Extreme learners, and Skeptical learners and the results indicated that they all identified the mutual evaluation of the group as an effective instructional strategy in blended learning, even though some students had a negative perception of it
Digital badges encourage Extreme learners to actively participate in blended learning, but these learners did not all feel that digital badges were less satisfying than physical prizes, as Skeptical learners did, which supports the opinion of Abramovich and Wardrip [20] that badges are a positive tool to motivate students

Summary

Introduction

With the large-scale open curriculum development of Massive Open Online Courses In view of the convenience of online resources, it is becoming increasingly important to evaluate students’ online learning outside of class and to measure their academic performance based on formal and informal learning. Many instructors believe that learning cannot be recognized without monitoring the learning process and worry that the effectiveness of learning cannot be guaranteed outside class. This has become a barrier to the promotion of blended learning

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