Open Badge: woah, I want this; never mind, I don't want it.

 

One thing that immediately came to mind while reading Randall and West's article of open badges was a question I have always had about résumés.

Whenever I read a résumé, I find myself wondering: How do we know any of this is true?

Of course, I'm not suggesting that people are lying. But résumés are fundamentally self-descriptions. No one is humble on it. Someone can write that they are an excellent leader, a strong communicator, or an innovative problem solver, and there is often very little evidence attached to those claims. Among colleagues, I've occasionally joked that the person on a résumé and the person in real life can feel like two completely different people.

This is probably one reason why graduate programs and employers often ask for recommendation letters. They provide an external perspective and help validate some of the claims made by applicants. Even so, I've always felt there are still gaps in the process. Recommendation letters are subjective, and not everyone has access to recommenders who know their work equally well.

What caught my attention about open badges was the idea that the badge itself can contain metadata. Instead of simply showing that someone completed a program or earned a credential, an open badge can link to evidence of the work that was submitted to earn it. In theory, a reviewer could examine the actual project, assignment, or artifact behind the credential rather than relying solely on a person's description of their accomplishments.

That seems like a much more transparent approach to screening. Rather than asking, "Can this person do what they claim?" evaluators can look directly at examples of what the person has already done.

Of course, there is one downside. If open badges become the norm, I may lose my opportunity to add a little strategic exaggeration to describe how amazing I am.

Apparently, future employers might want evidence.


Reference

Randall, D. L., & West, R. E. (2022). Who cares about open badges? An examination of principals’ perceptions of the usefulness of teacher open badges in the United States. Open Learning, 37(1), 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2020.1752166

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