Who cares about open badges? An examination of principals’ perceptions of the usefulness of teacher open badges in the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, we examined school leaders’ perceptions of open badges for teacher candidates. We emailed one of two forms of a survey to principals and assistant principals in five school districts in the United States. Form A used wording about digital badges while form B used the term microcredentials. Both forms included open-ended questions. We compared the results of the surveys and examined the results of the open-ended questions. We found that using the term microcredential instead of the term digital badge did not have a significant effect on employers’ perceptions on open badges. However, providing a small amount of instruction regarding the affordances of open badges did produce a statistically significant difference in the perceived value of open badges. Employers saw the most value in achievement and capability badges. The evidence link and endorsements from established professional organisations were identified as important tools to employers. Most employers believed badges would be useful in the hiring process, but many worried about the challenge of having too much data.