layout: post title: “New features in Open Badge Passport” lang: en ref: 2019-04-26 short: “Check out map and endorsement features” —
When a badge issuer recognises the competencies, skills or achievements of a badge earner, that’s just the opening book value of the badge and the beginning of its “social life”. The real value of the badge is social, and it increases as badge earners use their badges to be recognised in different ways by members of their organisations, networks, communities or in their working lives.
Open Badge Passport has always been about going beyond limited notions of a badge repository (backpack) where users can store their digital credentials and share them out to social media, one by one. We believe that badges are connectors and that Open Badge Passport itself is a social medium for users to interact through their badges – an open source LinkedIn, enabled by badges.
The social power of Open Badge Passport is based on two key elements:
We are pleased to share three new important features that support these key elements!
In February 2018, Open Badge Factory was one of the first platforms to make it possible for organisations to endorse badges before they are issued.
In April 2019, Open Badge Passport makes it possible for individual users to endorse other users for badges they have earned. Endorsements and the endorsers’ profiles are displayed to viewers when they open the badge. There is no limit to the number of endorsements that can be placed on a badge.
With this innovation, we have nearly closed the loop of endorsement:
In Open Badge Factory:
In Open Badge Passport:
Soon, in Open Badge Passport:
We believe that endorsements and the networks of trust they make visible provide a compelling response to old questions about “credibility” and finally unlock the power of Open Badges.
We have even more proof that being awarded a badge is not the end of its story: Open Badge Passport users can now add further evidence to their badges after receiving them!
For example, if you earn a badge for being a badge expert, you can add posts from your blog or new articles you have written on the subject. Evidence can be in the form of links, attached files or micro-portfolio pages that you have created in the Pages section of Open Badge Passport. User-added evidence is clearly distinguished from original issuer-validated evidence and provides a more complete picture.
This is what we mean by “badge as portfolio”: the badge can continue to grow and be refreshed with new evidence. We are also exploring a natural extension to this concept: the ability to build a micro-portfolio in your Passport and get it evaluated and recognised as a badge.
In Open Badge Passport you can now put your badges and profile on Open Street Map! You activate this feature in your profile settings and set your location on the map. Only shared badges and profiles are displayed – you decide whether to share on Open Badge Passport only or the public Internet.
By default, badges will be located at map setting in your profile, but you can also map an individual badge to a different location, such as where it was earned.
This feature has been developed to support “learning regions”, where badging is part of a regional learning development strategy. (Emergent “territoires apprenants” in France include Badgeons la Normandie, and the B.O.A.T. network.) Visualising badges and profiles on a map provides an engaging visual way to find badges and stakeholders, building community awareness and supporting the growth of badge ecosystems.
Currently, only badges and profiles are displayed on the map, but soon you’ll also be able to find badge issuers and badges that you can earn.
If you’re on Open Badge Passport, map your badges now! Other Passport platforms will have this feature soon.
If you are interested in contributing ideas to apply and extend the features presented in this article, we invite you to join our brainstorming webinars on the 16th of September (in English), the 17th of September (in French) and the 18th of September (in Finnish). All three webinars will be held at 1:00 pm BST, (8:00 am EDT and 15:00 EEST).
For more information, follow us in LinkedIn or Twitter or visit OBF Academy.
Author: Eric Rousselle, CEO, Open Badge Factory
Open Badge Factory provides the tools your organisation needs to implement a meaningful and sustainable Open Badges system. OBF is certified by IMS Global and follows the latest version of the standard.