New Directions in Learning: Badges and Peer Assessment

Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials
Deborah Everhart, Director of Integration Strategy, Blackboard
Degrees, certificates, credentials: will badges be added to this list of professionally valued "currencies"? A badge represents an accomplishment, skill, competency, or interest. Badges provide evidence of learning that occurs in and beyond the classroom. Unlike transcripts, badges give prospective employers, schools, collaborators, and other learners a more complete picture of knowledge, skills, and abilities. This session will explore emerging ecosystems that validate badges as currency of exchange for high-value postsecondary and professional credentials. Themes from the Open Badges MOOC will inform the discussion (see http://badges.coursesites.com).

OUTCOMES: Learn about digital badges, which are breaking down barriers and unbundling learning achievements * Understand the current impact they're having on government policy * Develop a deeper understanding of civic/educational partnerships in badge frameworks * Gain a general awareness of breakthrough implementations of badges in the workforce * Develop a rich understanding of the value of Open Badges

Writing in Coursera: The Challenges of Peer Assessment
Elise Mueller, Academic Technology Consultant, Duke University
Teaching a MOOC with a writing component brings a layer of complexity to assessment design. Traditional peer assessments do not directly translate into the parameters of a massive course. This session will describe peer assessment in Coursera, outline the major challenges associated with peer review, and offer insight into the reactions to the process of peer-to-peer grading by both teaching staff and students. The presentation relies mostly on the experience in Duke University's English Composition I: Achieving Expertise. It will also outline the approaches in other courses and suggest some best practices when designing peer assessments at a massive scale.

OUTCOMES: Learn about calibrated peer review in the Coursera platform * Get a sense of how peer review differs in a MOOC from a typical face-to-face or online learning environment * Learn how students and teaching staff reacted to peer assessment in the MOOC * Explore strategies for peer assessment in MOOCs