[Apologies for cross-posting]
====================================
2nd International Workshop on Open
Badges in Education (OBIE 2015):
From Learning Evidence to Learning
Analytics
=> in conjunction with the 5th
International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference
(LAK'15), Poughkeepsie, New York, USA, March 16-20, 2015 (http://lak15.solaresearch.org/)
IMPORTANT DATES
====================================
* 16 January 2015: Paper submission
deadline
* 02 February 2015: Notification of
acceptance
* 16 February 2015: Camera-ready
paper
OVERVIEW
========
Open digital badges are Web-enabled
tokens of learning and accomplishment. Unlike traditional
grades, certificates, and transcripts, Open Badges (OBs)
include specific claims about learning accomplishments and
detailed evidence in support of those claims. The thinking
and negotiations that go into deciding what claims and
evidence to include in badges often result in highly
credible and valuable information about the accomplished
learning.
Considering the richness of data
associated with OBs - (meta)data stored in badges
themselves, primarily requirements, achievement evidence
and timestamps, as well as data about learning pathways
followed by students (i.e., learning traces) - it is
reasonable to expect a very powerful predictive element at
the intersection of OBs and Learning Analytics. The data
associated with OBs might offer highly valuable input not
only to predict what may be a good fit for the next
learning activity, but perhaps even what a learner is
capable of in a certain timeframe. This fertile ground
could have substantial implications for recommending and
exposing students to a variety of curricular and
co-curricular pathways utilizing data sources far more
nuanced than grades and achievement tests.
AUDIENCE
=========
OBs connect educational providers
and practitioners, entrepreneurs, and researchers in
discourses on teaching, learning, assessment, digital
credentials, and digital education in general. While
preserving its general focus on opportunities and
challenges associated with OBs, this 2nd installment of
the OBIE workshop will be primarily intended for those
interested in the intersection of OBs and Learning
Analytics. This intersection includes gathering,
integration, and analysis of data and resources associated
with OBs, with the ultimate aim of providing teachers,
learners and other stakeholders in the ever-increasing OBs
ecosystem with informative and relevant feedback, and
predictive functions. Participants in the workshop will be
exposed to presentations and discussions on the position
and role of digital badges in instructional design, on
compelling data and analytics challenges and opportunities
that the OB infrastructures open for the Learning
Analytics field, and on different types and designs of OB
systems and their potential to impact the future of
education.
TOPICS OF INTEREST
==================
The workshop would welcome
submissions from the following (though not restrictive)
list of topics:
* Challenges and opportunities
associated with the use of Learning Analytic methods and
techniques in the domain of OBs.
* Different kinds of feedback for
teachers and students that could be generated based on the
data and resources associated with OBs.
* Leveraging learners'
badge-earning pathways as means of i) assisting badge
issuers in improving their instructional design, and ii)
scaffolding learners' reflection over the learning
process.
* How different kinds of badges -
e.g., participatory badges vs. assessment-based badges -
impact learners' engagement in disciplinary discourse?
* Intersection of OBs and the
recent initiatives to open and share analytics data - how
openness and visibility affect the functionality of badges
as a motivator of behaviour?
* Combined use of OBs with other
recent education-oriented initiatives (e.g., xAPI, LRMI),
to allow for a greater insight into to evidence associated
with badges.
* Examining learning pathways that
emerge in large scale OBs efforts like the seven-city
Cities of Learning in 2014.
* Using semantic technologies to i)
analyze evidence contained in digital badges, ii) allow
for a comparison and alignment of badges issued by
different organizations, and iii) interpret the meaning of
a collection of heterogeneous badges.
SUBMISSIONS
==========================
We welcome the following types of
contributions:
* Demonstration abstracts (up
to 2 pages)
* Short research papers (up to
5 pages)
* Full research papers (up to
10 pages).
Please submit your contributions
electronically in PDF format at
All the submissions will go through
a blind peer-review process. Submissions will be evaluated
according to their significance, originality, technical
content, style, clarity, and relevance to the workshop.
At least one author of each
accepted paper is expected to attend the workshop.
All accepted workshop papers will
be published in a separate volume of CEUR proceedings.
WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
===================
* Daniel Hickey, Indiana
University, USA
* Jelena Jovanovic, University of
Belgrade, Serbia
* Steven Lonn, University of
Michigan, USA
* James E. Willis, Indiana
University, USA
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
===================
* Samuel Abramovich, University at
Buffalo
* June Ahn, University of Maryland
* Vladan Devedzic, University of
Belgrade
* Dragan Gasevic, Athabasca
University
* Sheryl Grant, Duke University
* Mart Laanpere, Tallinn University
* Rudy McDaniel, University of
Central Florida
* Ivana Mijatovic, University of
Belgrade
* Jose Luis Santos Odriozola, KU
Leuven
* Abelardo Pardo, University of
Sydney
* Elvira Popescu, University of
Craiova
* Razvan Rughinis, University
Politehnica of Bucharest
* Adolfo Ruiz, Tallinn University
* Felicia M. Sullivan, Tufts
University
For further questions please
contact the organisers via
*** obie2015[at]easychair[dot]org
***