Snook has been involved in the field of Open Badges for a long time and has seen the interest among educational stakeholders increase over the years. Several organisations have contacted us to get support, advice and information. Thanks to a grant from the UFI Charitable Trust, Snook has started a new phase of the BadgeMaker project.

To expand the support for Open Badges, Snook has launched a Quarterly Open Badge Networking Group.

The Networking Group will aim to create strong connections between the participants, further the development of Open Badges and better understand the use cases as well as the barriers. It will help us access learners, educators, decision-makers and policy-makers and research the end-to-end journeys, not only of learners but also of educational organisations.

Snook hosted the first Networking Group in our new Event space, The Interchange, on December 15th, 2015. Attendees came from a wide range of organisations: Glasgow Life, Glasgow Caledonian University, Creative Scotland, Education Scotland and Digital Me.

Click here to view the presentation.

The BadgeMaker project team introduced the new project and its objectives:

  • Share how badges benefit learners, employers and educators
  • A working solution of the end-to-end BadgeMaker for its project partner, Borders College
  • A sustainable model and plan

Where we are:

  • Borders College have identified the group of learners who will co-design the pilot
  • We are exploring the technical options
  • The principles that will underpin the solution are also progressively emerging:
  • We will focus on accredit skills that are not currently recognised
  • The project will be a step forward on the organisation’s journey, not necessarily the perfect and final end-to-end solution
  • We will focus on the sustainability of the pilot beyond the lifetime of the project
  • Wherever possible we will re-use or build on existing solutions
  • We might focus on developing behind-the-scene connectors between existing systems

This is still in a work in progress. While Borders College recruits their Digital Ambassadors as their first cohort of learners to co-design the Open Badges, our next steps will be to:

  • Develop the process blueprint
  • Start sketching the user experience
  • And continue to explore the technical solutions

If you are interested in Open Badges, don’t hesitate to get in touch: curious@wearesnook.com.

17 Dec 2015