Setting up badges in Bb
Contents
1
Set up the badge activity ........................................................................................................................... 2
2
Set up certificate folder ............................................................................................................................. 2
3
Create badge and trigger(s) ....................................................................................................................... 3
4
Define triggers – set up one or more rules/criteria .................................................................................. 4
5
Select reward – create badge .................................................................................................................... 6
6
Make badges visible to students by adding the menu item My Badges ................................................... 6
7
Creating and using your own badge images.............................................................................................. 7
8
Read about the use of badges in higher education ................................................................................... 9
Inger-Marie F. Christensen, SDU Universitetspædagogik, maj 2017
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1 Set up the badge activity
Begin by creating the content, activity or assignment that is to trigger the badge: You can e.g. upload a
video or a text to Blackboard and activate the Mark as Reviewed feature. Subsequently, you can set up the
system to release a badge, when the student has seen the video/read the text and clicked the Mark as
Reviewed button which has been added below the uploaded text/video.
In addition, you can link badges to everything that is listed with a column in the Grade Centre. I.e., an
assignment created by using the Assignment tool, a quiz created using the test tool, a discussion forum, a
blog or a wiki that was linked to the Grade Centre when created etc. Last but not least, you can manually
create columns in the Grade Centre e.g. in connection with student presentations in class. In other words,
badges can also be linked to activities taking place outside of Blackboard.
See the example below where badges have been linked to badge assignments that are carried out using the
blog tool. A menu item called “Badge assignments” has been created with the purpose of giving students
easy access to the 3 blogs:
2 Set up certificate folder
When you create a badge, a diploma is automatically created at the same time, and you must specify where
on your course site this diploma should be placed. We recommend that you create a folder in the Course
Information section and call it “Badges you have earned in this course” e.g. Students will not be able to see
a certificate before they have earned the badge connected with it.
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Below you will find examples of the certificates that are created when you set up a badge.
3 Create badge and trigger(s)
You are now ready to create badges. This is done via the Control Panel / Course Tools / Achievements.
1. Click the Create Achievements button.
Inger-Marie F. Christensen, SDU Universitetspædagogik, maj 2017
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2. Select achievement type:
Milestone badges can be awarded for students’ completion of individual course activities and
assignments whereas course completion badges are awarded to students who have completed all
course activities and assignments or the final exam/assignment. If you select Custom, you get the
possibility to add your own category of achievements.
3. Name the achievement
4. Choose folder for certificate
This is where you choose the folder you created for the certificates associated with each badge.
5. Decide: visible to students before receiving?
We recommend making badges visible to students from the start of the course to motivate and engage.
6. Type in description: Badge awarded for… / learning goals achieved!
The criteria that must be met to trigger the badge are described here – this is important in order to
make the use of badges meaningful and to give value to the badge itself.
4 Define triggers – set up one or more rules/criteria
Step 2 is the selection of Trigger(s). This is where you link the badge to the relevant content or the relevant
column in the Grade Center. Please note that the badge can be triggered directly when students upload an
assignment or write a blog post, e.g. Badges can also be linked to the achievement of a particular score and
will then only be released when you have graded the attempt and typed in the score and feedback in the
Grade Center.
Inger-Marie F. Christensen, SDU Universitetspædagogik, maj 2017
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How to set up triggers (see illustration below):
For Grade Center items:
1. Select a Grade Center column.
2. Immediate release of badges – check mark “User has at least one attempt”
3. Release badge after assessing attempt – check mark Score and indicate minimum or maximum score
needed.
4. Note that in the case of tests in Blackboard that are automatically graded by the system, the badge will
be released to students who obtain the score listed.
For Review of content uploaded to Blackboard:
Review Status: Browse to select the item to be linked to the badge.
Move on to the next step.
Attempt activity = badge released
Badge released according to
score achieved
Badge released when student has reviewed item
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5 Select reward – create badge
1. Type in issuer: teacher, university, study programme or the like.
2. Set expiration date if required.
3. Choose image from catalogue or Browse to upload own image (see below how to upload your own
images to the image gallery)
4. Decide: Publish to Mozilla?
When you create a badge, you can make it possible for students to publish the badge when earned to a
website called Mozilla Open Backpack. Students can create an account on the website and collect all
their badges. From Mozilla Open Backpack, students have the possibility to publish their badges to
social media and thus render their skills and competencies visible to a wider audience.
5. Save and exit.
6. You have created your first badge.
6 Make badges visible to students by adding the menu item My Badges
1. Click the + button above the course menu on the left hand side and choose Tool Link.
2. Type in a name for the menu item, e.g. My
Badges.
3. Make sure that Achievements is selected in
the type box.
4. Check mark Available to users and click
Submit.
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5. The result:
When students click the bullet on the right hand side of each badge, they can access the reward details and
view the requirements:
7 Creating and using your own badge images
Blackboard has a small gallery of images for achievements, but you can also create and upload your own.
Recommended size: 90 x 90 pixels.
Note that simple images work the best because of the very small size
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Here are some examples:
In order to add your own images to the Blackboard gallery, do the following:
1. Go to the relevant course in Blackboard
2. Click Content System in the Control Panel of your Blackboard
course.
3. Then click on the first link that appears below the heading
Content System. This is the archive of the Blackboard course, you
have accessed.
4. Click the create folder button and create a folder with the name
Achievements
5. In order for students to be able to see the badges, you must change the permissions and grant
open access.
a. Click on the hand/document symbol to the right of your new folder.
b. Click the button Permit Anyone.
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c. Students only need access to Read, so click Submit to save the new permissions. All
subfolders and items in the Achievements folder will inherent the new permissions you just
set.
d. Click Ok in the bottom right-hand corner to return to the Content System.
6. Now click on the link to the Achievements folder to access it and create a new folder called Badges.
7. Upload your badge images to this folder.
8. When you create badges (achievements) the image gallery will display all the images you have
uploaded.
8 Read about the use of badges in higher education
•
Abramovich, S. (2016). Understanding digital badges in higher education through assessment. In:
On the Horizon, Vol. 24 Iss 1 pp. 126 - 131
•
Ahn, J.; Pellicone, A. and Butler, B. S. (2014). Open badges for education: what are the implications
at the intersection of open systems and badging? In: Research in Learning Technology. Vol. 22.
•
Hurst, E. J. (2015). Digital Badges: Beyond Learning Incentives. Journal of Electronic Resources in
Medical Libraries, 12:3, 182-189.
•
MacArthur Foundation (undated). Badges for lifelong learning.
https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/BADGESFORLIFELONGLEARNING_INFO.PDF
(accessed March 29, 2016)
•
Grant, S. L. (2014). What Counts As Learning: Open Digital Badges for New Opportunities. Irvine,
CA: Digital Media and Learning Research Hub. http://dmlhub.net/wpcontent/uploads/files/WhatCountsAsLearning_Grant.pdf (accessed March 23, 2016)
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