Badging and Employability at the Open University

Abstract

Awarding badges to recognise achievement is nothing new. Of late, badging has gone digital, offering new ways to recognise learning and motivate learners, providing evidence of skills and achievements both within and beyond formal learning contexts. Badging (or ‘soft accreditation’) has been piloted in various forms by the Open University (OU) in 2013, both in discrete projects and elsewhere on open courses and employer-led initiatives. This paper outlines what the OU has learned from its pilot projects and details how the University is subsequently developing a suite of badges for informal and formal students that align with employability and the OU’s existing skills-related open educational resources (OER).