Announcing Badge Portfolios: Resumes for the Digital Age
By Hank Holiday, Co-Founder of Badge List
The Badge List team has learned a thing or two over the past few years about what makes a great badge. First and foremost we think that a truly useful badge is one that is backed by clear learning evidence. That’s why Badge List is built around a powerful evidence collection workflow. Badges start with a list of requirements. Badge seekers then submit all of the required evidence and it is reviewed by the badge awarders. Both the evidence and the feedback from the awarders are then presented on what we’ve called the Badge Progress Log. So far this model has worked really well for our growing community of badge builders.
When we first began, we designed this structure primarily from the perspective of the badge builder. Starting with a list of requirements provides a rubric along with a de-facto way of organizing badge content. This always made sense to us because it matched the way assignments are structured in most educational contexts. But as we’ve worked more with learners we’ve seen how important these progress logs have become to them as well. A badge holder’s progress log becomes a linkable reference point for that particular skill or achievement. n some cases we’ve seen it become a sort of topic-focused resume filled with a curated set of examples of their work.
So today we’re announcing some simple, but we think powerful, changes to these progress logs. To begin with, we’re renaming them. Badge Progress Logs are becoming Badge Portfolios. Renaming things is confusing for users and not something that should be done lightly, but we think this is important and that’s why we wanted to share a bit of our perspective on just why we think it’s so important.
In Search of the Ultimate Learning Resume
In order for badges to fulfill their potential they will need to become the most accessible and reliable signals of critical learning achievements.
Accessibility is a pretty easy one for badges to win. Being reliable, however, means beating the functionality of traditional standbys like the old-fashioned resume. We think that means that badges need to become a bit more like resumes: a curated collection of relevant information designed to convince the eventual badge “consumer” that the highlighted person really is an expert. With this goal in mind we think it’s time to refer to the collection of evidence behind each Badge List badge using a more appropriate noun: a portfolio. And we need to empower these badge portfolios with the ability to make a convincing argument for the badge holder’s expertise. That means including not just the endorsement of knowledgeable experts but also collections of actual work evidence.
Portfolios of work are not a new thing. Digital portfolios (often referred to as e-Portfolios) have been around for years. What badges offer us is a way to unite many previously disparate elements (structured rubrics, work evidence, expert opinions, group affiliations and more) into a unified and highly credible credential. With this as our goal we think a good badge needs to be structured to elicit evidence that is valuable at a glance while also allowing the more engaged badge consumers to dive deeper.
Admittedly badge platforms (Badge List included) have a long way to go before they can be considered more reliable than a resume. But we think that the improvements outlined below are a step in the right direction. These are just a few of many big changes that are still to come.
What’s Changing in Badge List
We began this last round of updates with some specific goals and questions in mind:
More evidence can (up to a point) mean a better portfolio. Can we encourage learners to submit more evidence without making it mandatory?
A real portfolio is something truly personal. Can we let learners add their own custom content to the badge portfolio?
Badge requirements are great, but they can be a bit rigid in some cases. Can we let badge creators craft requirement lists that are more flexible?
The changes below are what emerged from these questions.
Letting Learners Choose the Evidence Format
When building a badge you use the requirements editor to define each of the types of evidence required to earn the badge. One of the things you’ve always had to do is pick a single type of evidence that can be submitted: either text, image, web link, computer code or tweet. Today we’re making it possible to select Any Format. This allows the learners to choose what type of evidence to submit when they post it. Going forward, Any Format will be the new default value for badge requirements.
To let learners pick the evidence format, just set select “Any Format” in the “Evidence Format” dropdown.
Here’s what it looks like to learners when they submit evidence to a badge requirement set to “Any Format”.
A Better List of Badge Requirements
We’ve improved the design of the Badge Requirements displayed on the badge page. For members of the badge they now see exactly how many items they’ve posted and can see at a glance what’s left for them to submit. Non-members see a simplified view. Both views now include the requirement summary and an easier to see More Info link to get to the full requirement page (which, by the way, is a great place to post longer format documentation).
Here’s how the new badge requirements list looks to a badge learner.
Badge Portfolio Redesign
As outlined in the intro, Badge Progress Logs are now called Badge Portfolios in order to encourage learners and badge builders to think of them like robust collections of evidence. To make this easier we’ve completely re-designed the badge portfolio page. All of the evidence is now put in a single visual container that’s easier to browse and read through without clicking around. Summary information for each requirement is viewable inline without leaving the portfolio by clicking the little plus icon to the right of the requirement title.
These changes are simple, but we think they make the badge portfolio a lot more useful (and a lot more fun to use).
Changes to Feedback Requests and Evidence Posting
Part of treating a badge more like a portfolio is encouraging learners to make it their own. We also want to give them the ability to get their portfolio just right before submitting it for feedback.
Up until today, badge portfolios were automatically submitted for feedback as soon as at least one piece of evidence had been submitted for each requirement. Starting today this will no longer be automatic. Now when all of the requirements are covered, the learner will see a helpful message at the top of their badge portfolio that reminds them of the next step but leaves them in control of the process. We hope this will reduce confusion, encourage the posting of more evidence and enable badges with more flexible requirement structures.
Submitting evidence is a little different too. Now all of the action happens in the badge portfolio itself. Learners submit evidence by clicking the green plus sign next to the requirement in their portfolio. If they want a heads up view, they can still go to the badge page and see a concise list of what’s been done and what’s left to do.
Post a new item from your badge portfolio by clicking the big plus button on the right side of the header bar.
Post a new item from the badge page by clicking the little plus button in the “Required Evidence” list.
These changes help streamline the badge seeker’s workflow, making it easier to see what the next step is while being reminded of the ultimate goal: building their badge portfolio and getting it endorsed.
Let us know what you think...
That’s it for now! Stay tuned for more exciting updates coming soon (you can follow @BadgeList on Twitter to get all the latest).
We’d love to know how you see badges evolving and what you think is needed for them to tell a better story than a resume. You can reach us at [email protected] or via the chat widget in the Badge List app.