BEAUPEEP - Perceptions of digital badging project

​The The Badging Employability And User Perceptions: Evidence from Examples of Practice (BEAUPEEP) project explored the different perceptions of, and implications of, offering open badges drawing on examples from one external provider (Open Badge Factory) and internally (OpenLearn). The project draws/has drawn on experience from Faculty-based projects, and from OpenLearn, to reflect on the value of badging to enhance student employability alongside study. The project offers its outcomes as a source of evidence and advice for others in the University interested in setting up similar initiatives, and inform emerging thinking about the role of badging within the University’s awarding ecosystem, now led by OpenLearn. The project was a staff-student collaboration throughout its development. A core team of 4 staff and 4 students involved an additional team of 25 staff and students communicating through a MS TEAMS channel and monthly newsletters to help pilot instruments and share emerging findings. In addition a mailing list of 27, mainly students and employers, registered to receive the final project outcomes. The project was carried out in three stages: Stage 1 - a desk-based study, completed by Associate Lecturer (AL) Amanda Smith, building on her earlier MA Open and Distance Learning dissertation. This informed… Stage 2 – an online survey adapted as three versions for a) students, b) OU staff and c) employers was distributed to reach 7000+ students who had signed up to student consultation activities, a sample of 650 staff representative of the staff profile of the University and a wide range of employers through the networks of the Careers and Employability Service (CES) Nearly 100 CES contacts were involved as well as emails going out via Business Development Unit was well as through a number of Industrial/Advisory Boards within the OU . Surveys were completed by 31 employers; 90 staff and 117 students. This informed… Stage 3 – two 3 hour evidence café discussions co-designed between facilitators trained by AL Vicky Murphy recruited by the project and managed by student intern Lilybell Evergreen, which involved 10 and 15 participants respectively. After listening to presentations of evidence, participants discussed a) the value of digital badges, their purpose and use, b) what would be valuable to evidence and badge and c) what features digital badges are valued. The evidence collected contributes to knowledge about the value and purpose of digital badges, particularly from the under-researched employer perspective, and provides insights to build on for future initiatives in this area. In particular it feeds into the OpenLearn Digital Badging Steering Group.