Flexibilization of higher education is a hot topic in the Netherlands. One of the conditions for making this flexibilization possible is the use of open badges, which are digital certificates that allow students to visualize the knowledge and skills they have acquired. A national infrastructure for awarding open badges to students, called edubadges, has been set up for this purpose.
Edubadges are normally created and awarded per institution. The Dutch Working Group on Information Literacy is now working on a scoop. In order to give edubadges added value, work is being done on institution-wide Information literacy edubadges. The IL taxonomy has been used as the basis for these badges.
The added value of these interchangeable badges is that students who transfer to another institution or curriculum can use the badge to show what level of IL competency they have. In this way, it is easier to catch up with the required IL competency level of the new curriculum. Moreover, because multiple institution are involved in its creation, it can contribute to the quality improvement (Raish & Rimland, 2016) of IL education and testing as part of it. Finally, IL badges allow for visibility of information literacy within the curriculum (Rimland & Raish, 2017).
The biggest challenge in this project is reaching consensus on learning outcomes to be tested and an edubadges format related to this. During this session we will take you on a journey towards institution-wide badges.
References
- Raish, V., & Rimland, E. (2016). Employer perceptions of critical information literacy skills and digital badges. College & Research Libraries, 77(1), 87–113. htttps://doi.org/10.5860/crl.77.1.87
- Rimland, E., & Raish, V. (2017). Design principles for digital badges used in libraries. Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 29(4), 211–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2017.1378540
- Van der Meer, H. A. L., & Post, M. (2020). Information literacy taxonomy. Retrieved from: https://www.shb-online.nl/information-literacy-en/subject-matter#ac_3351_collapse4
Harrie van der Meer1, Johanna Krijnsen2, Lieke Haverkort3
1University of Amsterdam / Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; 2Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; 3Politieacademie, the Netherlands
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