The non-profit Mozilla and the learning management system giant Blackboard, two of the entities behind the MOOC, announced in June that they had partnered to create a new update to Blackboard’s LMS software that would support the use of digital badges in education.
With the update, students can use Mozilla’s Open Badges Infrastructure to earn digital badges through the Blackboard Learn system and then share those badges across the internet through social media profiles like LinkedIn.
At the time, Jessica Finnefrock, senior vice president for product development at Blackboard, had said that a MOOC to help facilitate a discussion about digital badges was in the works.
Each free, weekly session will explore different aspects of digital badge technology, including the “role of post-secondary institutions in developing work-force-ready graduates and the link between competency-based learning and workplace readiness,” WCET announced.
The course will be hosted on Blackboard’s CourseSites.
“Digital badges represent an emerging way to demonstrate achievements and certify mastery and competence in a wide variety of professions, across many different sectors,” said Ellen Wagner, WCET’s executive director. “I am delighted to collaborate with these industry and practice-leading partners as we work together to get smarter about the opportunities that badges offer higher education decision makers, employers and learners.”
- What does higher-ed look like in 2023? - January 5, 2015
- Are ed-tech startups a bubble that’s ready to burst? - January 1, 2015
- Are MOOCs really dead? - August 28, 2014