Badges for Learning

jward · ‎07-24-2015

At Instructurecon this year, I presented a session on badges. While there are several solutions for badging that integrate with Canvas and more being developed, my current favorite is Canvabadges. More than platform and how to make badges, I think it is important to talk about why you would use badges in a course (or institution), how they would impact your current teaching and student learning practices, and how to structure them to maximize student impact. Badges are growing in popularity in K12 and Higher Ed and I think as we begin to talk about them and use them in our schools, we need to make sure we have all of the information needed to get it right.

My presentation focused more on these pedagogical questions and less on the actual process of setting up and creating badges.

You can see my presentation here: How to Succeed with Badges Without Really Trying

You can download a copy of my slides from the presentation here: Badges For Learning - Google Slides

As you get started with Canvabadges, here are some templates that are ready to be imported and labeled with your own title: Sample Canvas Badges

If you want to design your own badges, here are a couple of badge designing sites that can make that part of the process a little bit easier. (Just remember to add your image as the base/background file in the badge designer in Canvabadges to ensure your badge will go cleanly to Mozilla Backpack.)

Makebadges - the badge design tool for schools - by Makewaves (super easy and simple.)

OpenBadges.me (the same platform used in Canvabadges, but sometimes this interface is a little easier to use.)

ClassBadges (templates, preloaded images, wicked easy)

If you want to learn more about how to integrate badges in your courses, watch for another course on the topic to begin soon in our CanvasLIVE course offerings (I am shooting for September).

One of the things I love about Canvas is that it plays nice with other open platforms. So, rather than tell you how badges work and lock you into our system of badging, you can find solutions that fit your needs and build integrations that best serve your students and teachers. One of the most exciting developments that is upcoming is an integration with Canvas Premier Partner - Credly. Look for more information about that soon on our website and in the CanvasLIVE I will be teaching in September.

Finally, for those of you who like to see everything before you get started, I am including 3 screenshots of our current Canvabadges integration in the attachments below.

I love hearing about what our users are doing with badges in their courses or schools, so please share your thoughts (or questions) in the comments.

Happy badging,

Jared.

macaulayl · ‎09-17-2015

@jward , your second screenshot above states that badges should be automatically awarded if the "manually award" checkbox is not checked. I am just starting to experiment with Canvasbadges, but I have students who have met the requirements I have set for a module and they are not automatically getting awarded. AND a ticket to support stated I have to manually award them....Well, that doesn't make sense to me! Can you help?

Here is one place I have a badge: https://etown.instructure.com/courses/430/modules/items/35232

jward · ‎10-08-2015

Hey macaulayl,

The link you sent looks like it currently has the box checked to require manual approval. It also looks like you have a final grade cutoff score of 80% set for the badge you sent. The final grade is calculated at the end of the term and if a student meets the grade requirements at that time, the badges they have earned are awarded. I usually leave that blank for badges to be awarded during a course so that they can be awarded as outcomes are met or modules are complete. A final grade score would work great for an end-of-level badge that is awarded at the end of a course.

If you uncheck the "require manual approval" box and remove the final grade cutoff percentage, badges should be automatically awarded once the students complete the requirements of the module.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Jared.

hardinm · ‎10-10-2015

@jward , I am new to badges, and I would like to know how credits work. Is there any way to make a badge tied to a quiz score?

hardinm · ‎10-11-2015

Mine really isn't awarding the badges and I don't have the manual award function selected! Help

travis_thurston · ‎10-30-2015

In using Canvabadges, make sure you're looking carefully at the requirements you're setting for badge completion, and how you are setting the requirements for completion in your modules. It certainly is possible to have it work based off of a quiz score, if you have that quiz set as a requirement for module.

klm0046 · ‎01-06-2016

Jared---have you had any issues with badging and FERPA? Has this come up as something that may be of issue? On of our IT people suggested that,

there might be a possible issue with Canvas Badges passing information to Twitter. Specifically, Twitter's terms of service state "some usage information will be passed back to Twitter" and that this may or may not open a backdoor to FERPA protected information.

kmcpher1 · ‎07-12-2016

My organization is moving to Canvas. I want to use Canvabadges, but I am hearing that it requires Javascript, and that Javascript can crash the whole system. Can anyone shed some light on this for me please?

canvas_admin · ‎07-15-2016

@kmcpher1 , I've been running Canvabadges for 8-12 months now for my Canvas training course and one of our open courses. It does require the use of javascript (here's the installation instructions with a link to the javascript: Canvabadges ), but I've not had that mess up anything else in Canvas or cause any system crashes. That's not to say that it's impossible, but I've not encountered any issues (yet, knock on wood).

kschneider25 · ‎07-15-2016

We also use Canvabadges with no issues. We actually LOVE Canvabadges!

jtorres1 · ‎07-20-2016

Hi Mark,

Could you explain how students are able to view their badges? I have Canvasbadges installed and have issued a test badge. I have the JavaScript loaded, but I'm not sure how students are able to view and display their badges. Thanks!

canvas_admin · ‎07-22-2016

Hi jtorres, students can see their badges on their profile page. I'm not 100% sure but I think they have to have edited their profile. They could simply put in gibberish or something if they don't want to reveal actual personal information. Here's a screenshot from my test account that has had a badge issued to it.

2016-07-22 10.49.24 am.png

drimmer · ‎07-25-2016

Is it possible to create badges as part of an orientation to Canvas programme, e.g. First Person to Start a Discussion, Completed First Quiz, Set-up Profile, Submitted Assignment at least 24hrs before Deadline...?

kschneider25 · ‎07-25-2016

@Dr. Rimmer - Canvabadges will automatically award badges on assignment grades, URL "evidence" submission, completion of modules, or on the completion of an outcome.

The instructor has the ability to manually award badges, too.

tmp06a · ‎10-04-2016

I set up a badging system w/canvabadges, but then investigated Badgr. I liked the Leaderboard feature for our purposes. The problem is that the badges are not awarding in Badgr. It looks simple, and I think I have dotted all the i's, but when the user completes the assn, no badge.

Does anyone have Badgr experience? I have notified their help personnel, but no feedback yet.

Tina Powers

cheryl_howells · ‎06-02-2017

I have been testing Canvabadges on our test server. However when we were due to add to our live system we realised that Canvabadges is no longer being supported.

See screen shot below.

Very frustrating as we now have to start the whole process again with another product.

I would appreciate any advice from the community on which products you would recommend.