The Development of Digital Badges: A Personalized Approach to Professional Learning by Alicia Nuttall Madsen A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION IN CURRUCULUM AND INSTRUCTION Weber State University Ogden, Utah February 14, 2019 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 4 Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Nature of the Problem ..................................................................................................................... 7 Literature Review........................................................................................................................... 9 Professional Development......................................................................................................... 11 Online Professional Development ............................................................................................. 13 Digital Badges ........................................................................................................................... 15 Cooperative Learning ................................................................................................................ 19 Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 20 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Method ......................................................................................................................................... 23 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 24 Future of digital badges .............................................................. 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Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 32 References .................................................................................................................................... 34 Appendix A .................................................................................................................................. 39 Digital Badge Template ............................................................................................................ 39 Appendix B .................................................................................................................................. 49 Team Building Badge................................................................................................................ 49 Appendix C .................................................................................................................................. 61 Class Building Badge ................................................................................................................ 61 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 3 Appendix D .................................................................................................................................. 72 Knowledge Building Badge ...................................................................................................... 72 Appendix E .................................................................................................................................. 84 Processing Information Badge .................................................................................................. 84 Letters .......................................................................................................................................... 95 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 4 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my project chair, Dr. Vincent Bates, Ph.D., Weber State University. Without his patience and guidance, I could have never finished this project. His dedication to helping me through a pause in this process is what made the completion of this journey possible. Dr. Bates was willing to take on this project knowing that dealing with me would be a difficult challenge. I am grateful for his dedication as he supported me through, what I can only imagine, would have been painful editing sessions. Dr. Bates was also instrumental in challenging my thinking about research in its various styles. Furthermore, he taught me the value of understanding theory and methods to develop my practice. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Sheryl Rushton, Ph.D., Weber State University, for her attention to detail. Her APA editing was the resource I needed for my paper. Dr. Rushton was an inspiration for continued education after the job of mom seemed to expire. She demonstrated not only passion for life-long learning but also a passion for math education that inspires me to stretch, grow, and develop in my mathematical teaching practice. With her practical pedagogical strategies, I continually improve my instructional practice. Words are not enough to state the debt of gratitude that I have for Valerie Boyles, M. Ed. She not only dedicated her time to this project, but she also gave hours of support listening to my ideas and thinking. She provided a wealth of insight and challenged me to clarify my perspective. Valerie has been my biggest champion as she helped me overcome the hurdles of my weaknesses and focus my reflections on my strengths. I will be forever grateful for her patience and kindness as I develop as an educator and as a human being. I must express my profound gratitude to my husband and daughters for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my endless years of education, COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 5 teaching, and this project. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them and their love. Finally, I need to thank my parents for being constant proponents of education and instilling a life-long desire for me to reach my own educational goals. This project is dedicated to them. Mom and Dad, I finally did it! COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 6 Abstract Traditional professional learning opportunities for educators have generally included face-to-face, in-person instruction, with the expectation that educators modify or change their existing practice with little guarantee of effective implementation of the desired pedological skills. The purpose of this curriculum project was to expand the ecosystem of digital badges—a digital icon that represents one’s competency through reviewed evidence—by developing a stack of cooperative learning badges. A badge development template was used to write the badges including; a description of the necessary demonstrative skills to earn the badge, key vocabulary related to the badge, a narrative of classroom application, the evidence options to earn the badge, reflection prompts, criteria by which the evidence and reflection will be evaluated, and resources relevant to the knowledge and skills as outlined in the badge. The cooperative learning stack was submitted to the professional learning department for feedback and review. The development of the badges required extensive research about the instructional strategy of cooperative learning and research for reputable resources for educators to gain knowledge for effective implementation of the skills needed for badge acquisition. With the increase of badges into the ecosystem, educators can personalize their professional learning journey with more options for earning badges. As educators continue with formal and informal professional learning, badges value their developed skills by providing representation of learning and practice. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 7 Nature of the Problem Traditional professional learning opportunities for educators have generally included face-to-face, in-person instruction with the expectation that educators would return to their classrooms and make changes to their instructional practices. Although educators might leave face-to-face classes with renewed energy and inspiration to make changes to their practices, they also return to their classrooms with overwhelming amounts of work to make up for the time away from the classroom. Face-to face or in-person professional development can have negative impacts on classrooms as educators have to construct substitute teacher plans, leave the classroom instruction to the substitute, return to the classroom with a potential loss of quality instruction, and then proceed to not only reteach the lessons that were not effectively taught by the substitute teacher, but they also attempt to implement the new models and ideas. Additionally, many educators attend in-person professional development and leave feeling that the content in the course was not applicable to their individual classroom needs or situations (Krasnoff, 2015). These actions and more have left many educators with hesitance to leave the class for professional development and to find ways to continue their learning in ways that have fewer negative impacts on the students and their educational experiences. In fact, many educators have forgone any professional learning or development at all, which in turn does not increase the use of evidence-based instructional strategies and techniques into their practice and leaves educators falling behind on current pedagogical knowledge and skills of effective educators. Research studies suggests that in-person, one-time, “sit and get” professional learning opportunities do not meet the needs of many educators (Klein & Riordan, 2009; McComb & Eather, 2017; Smith, Hofer, Gillespie, Solomon & Rowe, 2003). When given choice, as with all COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 8 learners, teachers’ engagement with the content often depends on perceived relevance or personal interests (Klein & Riordan, 2009). When teachers can choose their professional learning path and to choose their pace, they tend to be more engaged and interested in the learning and more likely to attempt implementation of new skills or change their philosophies (Guskey, 2002). One way my school district has attempted to allow for personalization of professional learning has been to offer online professional learning courses. These courses offer limited choices as well as allow for personalized pace and location of learning. Teachers are not required to write substitute plans, leave the classroom, or lose instructional time for professional development. In contrast, online courses that continue to follow the “sit and get” format of gathering content with little practice or implementation, little or no coaching with feedback, and decreased likelihood of continued practice with peer feedback or collaboration. Again, in this current model, it is left to the educator to gather new pedagogical knowledge and skills on their own time, in their own learning style, and implement new strategies without clear criteria of success or feedback on their practice. This allows for poor attempts or no attempts of implementation of evidence-based instructional strategies. Although the online professional learning opportunities have less negative impact on the classroom due to lost instructional time, they do not increase effective implementation of new skills. To increase educators’ effective practice my school district is implementing a new initiative intended to honor and value the professionalism, time, and personalized interests of their teachers. The school district is initiating a professional learning opportunity that allows educators to choose their interests of study, embark on a personalized learning paths with the learning styles of their choice, go at their own pace, and demonstrate their competency of COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 9 outlined knowledge and skills. This program is aimed at closing the gap between gathering content knowledge and implementation of skills. This program involves enacting a system of digital badges to represent an educator’s competency of the knowledge and skills outlined by the badge. It will include a digital representation of professional learning and will conclude with an expert-reviewed demonstration and reflection of effective implementation of the skills, techniques, strategies, and tools within the educators’ practice. Like a catalog of various professional development courses is needed, a comprehensive “ecosystem” of digital badge offerings is needed. My district has partnered with an online platform to house the digital badge ecosystem, but the entire ecosystem of badges must be written and developed to meet the most pressing needs of educators throughout our district ranging in grades K-12. As the district’s Professional Learning Specialist, I have been tasked with the responsibility to help develop the ecosystem of badges by working with stakeholders to write digital badges and by researching and writing a “badge stack” that will be used to help teachers increase their pedagogical knowledge and skills of cooperative learning structures. Literature Review This literature review discusses the models of traditional and online professional development and explore the purpose of digital badges as a potential professional learning model which will require the creation of a digital badge ecosystem containing badges of evidence-based instructional strategies, such as cooperative learning. First, I will look at traditional professional development and how it does not ensure a change in implementation of practice. Next, I will review online professional learning as a more personalized type of professional learning, but still not ensuring effective changes to practice. Then I will give an overview of digital badges as a different approach to professional learning in a personalized learning style and based around COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 10 evidence of effective implementation. Finally, I will look at cooperative learning strategies, specifically, the work of Spencer and Miguel Kagan, as types of structured cooperative learning strategies, which can be implemented in the classroom as an effective learning strategy and can be demonstrated as a set of specific and discrete skills. In educational settings, professional development has traditionally relied on one-time workshops or conferences as the medium to inspire and motivate educators to enact effective change to their practice, thereby potentially increasing student engagement and achievement. This model of professional development did little to differentiate for individual learning styles, place the learning in context of different content area, or build effectively upon educators’ backgrounds and experiences. With the introduction of accessible technology and the decrease of education funds, face-to-face professional development models have in many instances been replaced with online professional development courses that allow the learner to develop content knowledge in an online delivery system or Learning Management System (LMS). However, early models of online learning still struggled with meeting the individual needs and backgrounds of all learners. With advances in technology and an announcement in 2011 by Mozilla, open digital badging was labeled and defined (MacArthur Foundation, 2011). Rooted in traditional badge earning systems, such as scouting or military, digital badges allow for badge earners to select their own path of badge earning, individualize the necessary instruction to develop their knowledge and discrete skills outlined by the badge criteria, and schedule a personal timeline for completion of the badge. The creation of a digital badge ecosystem that meets the common interests of many learners requires a variety of stakeholders with a varied background to write digital badges and determine the granularity of the value of the badge and the criteria of evidence and reflection. One area of evidence-based instructional strategies is COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 11 cooperative learning. Kagan & Kagan (2009) developed, named, and defined these cooperative learning structures as practical tools intended to boost student engagement and achievement. Professional Development Traditionally, professional development in education has been accomplished by one-time or series of face-to-face workshops, or conferences (Edwards, 2017). These models may inspire and engage teachers in the moment, but they fail to account for individual background experiences, knowledge, and pedagogical skills. In addition, they often are not pertinent to content areas (Edwards, 2017; McComb & Eather, 2017) and they often leave the expectation and responsibility of successful implementation to the teacher with little or no follow-up or support (Klein & Riordan, 2009; McComb & Eather, 2017). This model fails to adequately allow teachers to process the new information, determine the best course of action, make the necessary changes, evaluate and reflect on the changes, or work collaborative with other teachers; it leaves the teacher with a vague understanding of the process, but not the tools to successfully implement (Krasnoff, 2015). Professional development as a one-time learning opportunity is not sufficient enough for teachers to learn and make effective changes to their practice that results in increased student performance (Smith et al., 2003). Guskey (2002) states that “professional development programs are systematic efforts to bring about change in the classroom practices of teachers, in their attitudes and beliefs, and in the learning outcomes of students” (p. 381). Effective professional development helps to ensure the previously stated changes by allowing for teachers to reflect on their beliefs, (Guskey, 2002) valuing the backgrounds of knowledge and skills of each educator (Edwards, 2017), and providing sufficient time to practice the newly acquired skills along with feedback (Klein & Riordan, 2009). These individual qualities are difficult to achieve in a traditional face-to-face style professional learning. Reflection of education philosophy and beliefs might be addressed in COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 12 a professional development but true shifting in paradigms, for most people, require time to think, process and evaluate their own beliefs. I have personally witnessed the discomfort and frustration of educators when they are posed with a thought that challenges their current belief and practice. Change can happen, but they often need time, not in a public setting, to process this new information and accept a new paradigm, followed by a change of actions (Guskey, 2002). Every educator comes with their own prior knowledge, experiences, beliefs and pedagogical skills. A traditional professional development has a single entry point. If the content is not applicable or accessible to the learner then the participants have decreased satisfaction due to boredom or frustration with a lack of relevance, thereby not valuing the diversity of learners (Edwards, 2017; Guskey, 2002). New pedagogical skills need to be practiced and reflected upon before an educator feels confident of successful and effective implementation. Traditional professional development does not often have the necessary time to provide opportunities for practice of the new skills or the participant is not willing to practice in a public, peer-observed setting (Klein & Riordan, 2009). This leaves the participant to practice in the classroom in “real time” with no feedback or coaching. Evaluation of professional development programs have determined that the most important factor to change in the classroom is teacher motivation (Edwards, 2017; Guskey, 2002; Klein & Riordan, 2009; Smith et al., 2003). While many teachers participate in professional development, many are mandated by school or district personnel removing any choice by the educator (Guskey, 2002). The requirement of professional development attendance dramatically impacts the beliefs of the teacher regarding the new information and assimilation with their current practice (Guskey, 2002; Krasnoff, 2015). Although teachers might attend a workshop, COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 13 without “buy in” teachers are resistant to change their practice, or their fear of failure prevents them from changing their practice without support or feedback for improvement. Factors of professional development that impact change in teachers’ practice are varied as well as the quality of the changes in pedagogical practice (Longhurst, Jones, & Campbell, 2017). Established features of successful professional development are, changes to teachers’ knowledge, ownership of decisions, strong pedagogy within the course and the pedagogical choices of the teacher, active learning, practice of new pedagogical strategies with feedback, collaboration with peers of similar situations, and ongoing coaching or support (Krasnoff, 2015; Longhurst et al., 2017). Professional development needs to be individualized for each learner. Relevance of subject matter and pedagogy needs to be apparent (McComb & Eather, 2017). New pedagogical skills need to be practiced, reviewed and practiced more to increase teachers’ competence and enhance their understanding and use of the pedagogy (Guskey, 2002). Teachers must have opportunities for reflection on changes to their current practice and have choice of which resources they want to utilize in their classroom (Longhurst et al., 2017). All of these factors are difficult to achieve and personalize for each learner. To accomplish the goal of personalization, many schools and districts have opted to present professional development through online courses. Online Professional Development Online learning, courses offered through an online LMS platform, allow for individualized learning opportunities with the advantage of flexibility in path, pace, space and personalization. In the UK online learning is the favored style of professional learning (McMurray, O’Neill, & Thompson, 2016). Beach and Willows (2017) stated that “online learning is a favored approach because it creates accessible opportunities…” (p. 61). COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 14 Collaboration can still be implemented using online discussion boards included in the LMS platform (Rhode, Richert, & Miller, 2017; Teras & Kartoglu, 2017) Online courses are a convenient way to meet the needs of many learners without the impact of valuable resources (McMurray et al., 2016). Online learning removes obstacles that face-to-face learning poses, such as it removes finding a location, or leaving the classroom for a course (Beach & Willows, 2017; McMurray et al., 2016; Rhode et al., 2017). It allows for the learner to choose the time spent in professional development, where the learning happens, provides professional development opportunities for outlying or rural areas, and keeps teachers in their classrooms for teaching (Beach & Willows, 2017). Just as traditional professional learning needs to be of contextual relevance to the teacher, online learning must also meet the needs of an adult learner by building on background experience, attaching to content, being an active learning opportunity for critical thinking and problem-solving, and engaging in meaningful collaboration of ideas and feedback (Teras & Kartoglu, 2017). Online professional learning can be personalized according to the teachers’ area of content, and implementation can be practiced with feedback. The sharing of audio and video allows for pedagogical practice and feedback to allow for changes in the field with job embedded learning assignments. This can result in meaningful change to practice (Teras & Kartoglu, 2017). Although, online courses should not be treated as a one-size fits-all approach, just as with all learners, adult learners need a varied amount of time to access information, process the information and make decisions about their practice at their own pace. Furthermore, the technology design should not get in the way of the learner and their learning experience (Rhode et al., 2017). COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 15 Much has been researched in the comparison of conventional delivery methods of professional development and online delivery of professional development. Despite the notion that traditional methods are seen as having a greater impact no evidence has been found to support the notion. The outcomes of online learning are similar to the outcomes of traditional workshops (McMurry, O’Neill, & Thompson, 2016). In order for online professional development to be effective, teachers must not only gain new knowledge and pedagogy, they must practice the skills, instructional strategies, and technology associated with the strategies and the must include collaborative discussions, feedback and self-reflection of the entire learning process (Edwards, 2017). Digital Badges The process of earning a physical badge to display an accomplishment or achievement has been around a long time in institutions such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the military (Shields & Chugh, 2016). Similarly, a digital badge is a representation of competency or achievements at a more fine-grained level than a degree. Degrees represent an extensive study of a wide breadth of topics with a specialization of a more focused study, over, generally, a four-year time period. Digital badges make specific discrete or fine-grained skills visible. They make the connection between education and employment, by providing a visible representation of explicit skills a potential employee or educator possess (Lockley, Derryberry, & West, 2016). They are a digital image or icon that is visual, available online, and contains metadata (Bowen, & Thomas, 2014; Casilli, & Hickey, 2016; Gamart, Zimmerman, Dudek, & Peck, 2014; Gibson, Ostashewishki, Flintoff, Grant, & Knight, 2015; Shields, & Chugh, 2016). The metadata include information of the criteria to earn the badge, the intended knowledge and skills required to earn the badge, the badge recipient’s information and date of earning, along with potential links to the evidence or artifacts (Casilli & Hickey, 2016; Gamart et al., 2014; Gibson et al., 2015). The COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 16 metadata within a digital badge offers transparency into the learning and pedagogical skills along with the earner’s reflection of their learning and understanding (Gamart et al., 2014). Upon successful completion, a digital badge can be displayed on a digital resume, social media account, e-portfolio, digital “backpack” or on a leaderboard (Sheilds & Chugh, 2017). Digital badges offer badge earners an opportunity to display competency of skills that are often overlooked, such as problem-solving, critical-thinking, technology aptitude, and effective pedagogical instructional strategies (Sheilds & Chugh, 2017). Historically, digital badges became a possibility in professional learning in 2011 when Mozilla launched their Open Badge Project to recognize that continued learning happens after the certification or degree program and that this learning is needed and valued (Ash, 2012). Mozilla (a global, nonprofit organization dedicated to the continued improvement of the use of the internet), the MacArthur Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation (both dedicated to improving education in all forms) launched a competition to find innovative ideas and designs for education reform. This competition resulted in a $2 million prize for innovation in digital badges (Macarthur Foundation, 2011). The education professional development badge community of badge developers and earners want to acknowledge that “learning happens anywhere and anytime, both formally and informally, and that regardless of how learning occurs, learners need a way to communicate skills and knowledge that traditional methods don’t enable” (Lockley et al., 2016, p. 55). During a speech made to the Digital Media and Lifelong Learning Competition funds were provided by the MacArthur Foundation (2011) and the education community was motivated to develop digital badges by the remarks of the then U.S. Department of Education Secretary, Arne Duncan (2011), who said: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 17 Badges can help engage students in learning, and broaden the avenues for learners of all ages to acquire and demonstrate—as well as document and display—their skills…Badges can help speed the shift from credentials that simply measure seat time, to ones that more accurately measure competency… And, badges can help account for formal and informal leaning in a variety of settings. (p. 1) Statements such as this have encouraged many states, districts and schools to embark on a digital badge system of differing scales. I was witness to this in the 2018 International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE) conference as there were many presentations about digital badges in differing levels of development and implementation. Personal learning journeys are the varied individualized pathways of professional learning and development, that can be obtained with the learners’ choice, path, pace, and space. It allows for professional development to occur at any time, and any place, both formally and informally (Gibson et al., 2015). These personalized learning pathways engage learners of all styles as they allow for the learner to set individualized goals, select learning activities, learn in context, and develop new skills aligned with their needs and learning goals (Gamart et al., 2014). Digital badges help to recognize the lifelong commitment to learning and development of evidence-based instructional strategies, by allowing for the learner to develop their own learning goals and pathways. They remove the value on seat time and provide value for demonstrated competency of knowledge and skills. Digital badges are pieces of evidence that the badge earner is a lifelong learner of knowledge and discrete skills that they find pertinent to their individual circumstance (Gibson et al., 2015) and meet the needs of diverse learners on their personal professional learning journey. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 18 Designing a trusted or valued badge “ecosystem” or system of recognized evidence-based badges, requires that the badges within the ecosystem are created involving key stakeholders, designed by trusted and credible sources, and rely on research-based resources (Gibson et al., 2015). Casilli and Hickey (2016) describe a credible badge ecosystem must have the credibility of the designers and include experts as integral reviewers of the validity of the badge and the required evidence. Badges must be written with the highest standards and verified by stakeholders to ensure the usefulness of the badge as an indicator of competency. For a badge to be fungible, have currency, or for the badge to be recognized and accepted, the issuing institution and any other participating institutions must agree upon its value (Lockley et al., 2016). In the state of Utah, the Utah State Board of Education-specifically Dianna Suddreth, Director of Teaching and Learning, has agreed to provide credits for its’ digital badges just as it does for professional development courses. These credits can be and are often accepted by districts for salary increases. To help facilitate the recognition and value of a badge, the granularity, or scale and level of value, of a badge is often small (Bowen & Thomas, 2014). The granularity is in relation to the complexity and rigor of the skill evidenced by the badge. The framework of an ecosystem of digital badges connects individual badges by themes. These thematic connections are referred to as stacks. Similar thematic badges are put into themed stacks of both image connections and content connections (Beattie, 2016). For example, a badge on Student to Student Feedback would be included in the themed stack of badges and may include Teacher to Student feedback badge and Student to Teacher feedback badge. Drawing on the influence of video games, earning a stack of badges provides motivation for the learner to “get them all” (Beattie, 2016). Digital badge ecosystems should not only look at height of the badges but also, they should have breadth of stack topics (Beattie, 2016). This COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 19 allows for learners to design their individualized professional learning pathway to either dive deeply into one area of study or to broaden their understanding of a variety of pedagogical knowledge and skills. Digital badges’ main purpose is to support ongoing, personalized professional learning for all learners at their own pace and in their own place. One area of themes within an education digital badge ecosystem is a variety of pedagogical skills such as cooperative learning. Cooperative Learning Cooperative learning is argued by many to be the best example of modern teaching practice (Slavin, 2014; Johnson & Johnson, 1999). Cooperative learning has been researched and studied since the 1960s. It is the product of theoretical and applied research and can be described simply as school-work done in groups (Sharan, 2014; Slavin, 2014; Johnson & Johnson, 1999). Cooperative learning is pedagogy that organizes students to work in small groups “toward a common goal or outcome, or share a common problem or task, in such a way that they can only succeed in completing the work through behavior that demonstrates interdependence, while holding individual contributions and efforts accountable” (Brody & Davidson, 1998, p. 8). “Cooperative leaning (CL) refers to teaching methods in which students work together in small groups to help each other learn academic content” (Slavin, 2015, p .5). Seminal research from Slavin (1983) and Johnson and Johnson (1989) laid the foundation of changing classrooms by introducing a strategy of teaching where students work together to speak with each other, listen to each other, support one another, and gain insight from one another to ensure that all students are meaningfully and actively involved, all while gaining access to the content of a variety of subjects with higher achievement. This method of instruction has great appeal as it accommodates different learning styles, abilities, backgrounds and cultures (Antil, Jenkins, Wayne, & Vadasy, 1989). Cooperative learning (CL) is where students of all learning abilities, COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 20 are gathered around a table discussing their ideas, listening to the ideas of others and solving a problem all the while enthusiastically helping everyone in the group to access and learn the content. In a traditional classroom, students are trained early on to compete for teacher attention and grades. They are competing with their fellow classmates to be the first hand in the air with the correct answer, to have the highest grade, or for the acknowledgement of their teacher for being a good student. Collaborative learning teaches students that their classmates are resources rather than competitors. Essentially, no one wins if the entire group cannot all answer the question with the correct answer (Hadderman. 1992). Cooperative learning is an instructional strategy that often needs practice to use it effectively in the classroom. To become proficient at cooperative learning educators must understand its four essential components and practice using the strategies of Kagen & Kagan (2009) to be highly effective with students in the classroom (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). Competency of these strategies or structures can be demonstrated through video, lesson plans, observations, or student testimonials. By providing evidence and reflection of effective use of cooperative learning structures in the classroom an educator can apply for a digital badge to demonstrate competency. After a review process the educator can be awarded a digital badge. Summary Professional development is needed and valued to any education system. Educators are expected to continue their professional learning journey by participating in a variety of required or self-selected personal professional learning opportunities. These can be classified, but not limited to, reading professional journals, attending workshops and conferences, watching online instructional videos, participating in an online course, reading a published book, participating in a coaching cycle, engaging in collaborative discussions, earning a higher-education degree, or COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 21 earning a digital badge. All of these components’, and more, make up the personalized professional leaning journey that lifelong learners use to develop their knowledge and skills. All these learning opportunities can be employed to gain knowledge of discrete skills. Implementation of those skills can be practiced and reviewed with feedback until a learner determines they are competent to earn a digital badge. The badge earner assesses their skills and abilities to those outlined by the badge’s criteria and when they determine readiness the badge earner can upload evidence of the skill and reflect on the learning process. This evidence is reviewed by trusted reviewers to validate the quality of the evidence and either awards a badge or provides feedback for continued support. The badge earner can now display the digital icon and the metadata of the badge can be accessed by administration or others with credentials. The digital badge system of offerings or ecosystem must be created by trusted experts to have value for all stakeholders. The creation of the ecosystem needs to be varied and wide among stakeholders. To increase a variety of stacks available, the ecosystem is created by many stakeholders with individual knowledge and skills. The ecosystem will contain badges that are considered relevant, current, valued, and based on research such as cooperative learning. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 22 Purpose The purpose of this project was to expand the digital badge ecosystem by writing a stack of badges on the cooperative learning structures outlined by Spencer and Miguel Kagan. A stack consists of between three to five badges. Each badge represents the granularity of a themed cooperative learning structure. This stack of badges is included in my district’s digital badge ecosystem, allowing for educators to choose to earn this stack of badges. To meet the needs of professional learning and interests of teachers in my district I have been tasked, as the Professional Learning Specialist, with the writing of many of the digital badges that is included in the digital badge ecosystem. The process of starting a new system of professional learning has many layers from conception of ideas to live usage by educators. Some of these steps include, presenting the idea and receiving approval, gaining funding, developing the digital platform for access and tracking of digital badges, research of philosophy, acquiring stakeholder input, creation of a digital badge template, writing digital badges for the ecosystem of badge choices, presentations to users, beta-testing the online system, and recruiting and training effective badge reviewers. Many of these steps are enacted using outside contracts with companies of that skill set, but no one is more qualified to write badges for education other than qualified educators and stakeholders. The breadth and depth of knowledge and skills needed for a highly-effective educator is immense. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 23 Method As described in the purpose, a catalog or ecosystem, of digital badges was needed for educators to choose from for their professional learning plan. I researched Spencer and Miguel Kagan’s Cooperative Learning Structures to determine the structures that are considered effective in a cooperative learning environment and that can be demonstrated with evidence. I chose four themes of cooperative learning, Team Building, Class Building, Knowledge Building, and Processing Information, to write digital badges for a stack. These themes can be represented through evidence by a cooperative learning structure or strategy. I used a predetermined digital badge template (Appendix A) that had been provided to me from my district. The digital template includes the value of the badge, a description of the requirements to earn this badge and what the badge represents, evidence choices and criteria for evidence, and reflection which will be completed for each badge within the Cooperative Learning stack. Additionally, any useful resources are included in the digital badge template. The timeline for writing each badge was approximately six to eight hours, which included research for a variety of resources the badge earner can use to develop their knowledge and skills. After the stack was written digitally, the Professional Learning Supervisor reviewed the stack of badges and provided any necessary feedback prior to submission into the ecosystem of digital badges. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 24 Discussion Approaching the creation of the individual badges required a great deal of research. There are many cooperative learning instructional strategies. Most of them have an evidence base to support the use of the strategy in the classroom to increase student learning. Originally, I thought I would include badges for specific structures, defined by Kagan and Kagan, (2009) and a badge about Jigsaw or Co-op Centers. While researching the resources related to these strategies it became increasingly clear that creating badges on only one specific structure or strategy was not in keeping with the purposeful use of cooperative instructional strategies. Educators should plan with purpose and be intentional of that purpose when determining which cooperative instructional strategy would be the most effective for the intended purpose. Furthermore, limiting an educator to a specific structure is not in keeping with the personalization that badges are intended to foster. With that in mind, I determined that purposeful themes would be best for teachers to choose which cooperative learning structure or strategy works for them and their students and achieves the desired outcomes. The challenge was to determine what types of cooperative learning had the potential to be demonstrated by the badge applicant, through evidence. I determined that I would need to look for themes of cooperative learning strategies that are best used in the classroom to support the success of teachers and support student learning. I determined that although Jigsaw, Co-op Centers, and Cooperative Investigations are considered “classic cooperative learning” (Kagan & Kagan, 2009), I choose to create badges in the four areas: Classroom Building, Team Building, Knowledge Building, and Processing Information (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). In my experience, teachers seem to struggle in two main areas of their practice, classroom management and successfully teaching students sense-making and critical thinking skills. The afore mentioned COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 25 badges would help support teachers to develop both classroom management and student thinking skills. I determined to have these sets of topics be the four badges in the stack of badges named Cooperative Learning, based on Kagans’s structures. Although there are dozens of structures, I did not want a badge for each structure but a badge that represents a theme of purpose with a variety of structures that could be used as evidence for the singular purpose of class building, team building, knowledge building, or for the purpose of processing information. This categorization was influenced by Kagans’s classification of structures (2009). The most challenging and exciting part of the creation of digital badges was finding and researching the resources that are attached to each badge. These resources serve as support for the badge applicant to gain the knowledge and concepts necessary to earn the badge. Each badge needs a variety of reputable resources consisting of journal publications, books, articles, videos, and websites to help the badge earner in their professional learning journey. Finding resources that have different information, perspectives, and purpose are important to the breadth and depth of learning the badge applicant may need to support their learning. Unfortunately, although the internet provides ease of access to endless options of resources, not all resources are reputable, reliable, timely, and relevant. I found that many websites copy and paste off other websites. That makes sifting through redundant and out-of-context information a time-consuming adventure. Time-consuming or not, the reading and evaluating of the individual resources was enlightening and broadened my understanding of how cooperative learning is often portrayed. The information shed light on strategies and structures that are more common or more popular. I discovered the valuable resources that can be found when using the name of a specific structure. By naming the structures resources were easy to find. The challenge was determining which structures were conducive to the four themes of the badges. Fortunately, COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 26 Kagan’s descriptions were invaluable by providing a list of structures that when used purposefully and with intention, would lend themselves to one of the themes of class building, teambuilding, knowledge building, or processing information. For the Team Building badge the resources that I have provided range from scholarly articles to blogs on the subject of team building through cooperative learning activities. The most valuable resource (the one I based my themes from) was the book titled Kagan Cooperative Learning (2009). This book had an immense amount of information regarding the research, rationale, management, implementation, and individual structures for Team Building. Additionally, I provided the information for the book titled 60 Kagan structures: More proven engagement strategies (Kagan, Kagan & Kagan, 2019), the second book from the Kagan institution. I wanted to provide articles of synthesized research findings. To accomplish this, I included links to the Office of Research Education Consumer Guide, (1992), an article from Vanderbilt: Center for Teaching, “Setting up and facilitating group work”, (2015), and an Association for Supervision and Curriculum and Development article, “Making cooperative learning powerful”, (2014). All these articles provide the what, why, and how of the research and some articles provide specific strategies of team building through cooperative learning. To be more specific for teachers’ implementation of team building, I provided links to a few videos and websites that focused on specific strategies for team building. Finally, I included a link to a National Education Association article (NEA, 2002-2019). I included this article because it spoke to strategies of effective team building and the potential pitfalls that may occur and how to mitigate the challenges. The Class Building badge resources included most of the same books and weblinks (as the Team Building badge) that explain the theory, research, rationale, use, and facilitation of COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 27 cooperative learning for class building. But I also included websites and videos of specific structures and strategies that promote class building or a sense of “belonging.” One in particular was a website called “Teach Thought—10 Team-building games that promote critical thinking”, (2017). I determined that this site was especially helpful to the class building badge because it explained that class building strategies do not need to exist just for the purpose of class building but that class building strategies can also help develop critical thinking or sense-making skills. For even more specific structures and strategies I included links to sites that included information and videos about class building activities on the first day of school and class building activities for the whole school year. Similar to the previous badges, the Knowledge Building badge provided resources to the theory, research, rationale, and implementation ideas of cooperative learning. The Knowledge Building resources differed by providing a few scholarly articles that explain the process and necessity of processing new knowledge. I felt that including the research behind knowledge acquisition would better support an educator in being purposeful and intentional in the structures or strategies that they used to facilitate knowledge building of new information. Finally, I included an abundance of websites that list a variety of specific structures or strategies including “classics,” (Kagan & Kagan, 2009) such as The Jigsaw Classroom. By providing specific structures and strategies the badge helps teachers be ready to implement and with practice they can collect the evidence needed to submit for badge review. In conclusion, for the Processing Information Badge, again I provided the resources that established the theory, research, rationale, and implementation structures for successful cooperative learning with the purpose and intention of processing information. I also included a link that helps to inform how the mind processes information. I felt this would help teachers be COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 28 intentional in their use of the structures and strategies for processing information. Furthermore, I included websites and links of specific structures and strategies that foster information processing that allows students to participate in sense-making and understanding of information. All of the resources chosen were chosen with the intention of providing a variety of resources for all learners to use the resources that would help them to be successful. The variety of resources from books, to journal articles, and from blogs to videos are intended to personalize the learning for educators who participate in applying for the individual badge. I attempted to find resources that would cover depth and breadth for the educator’s professional learning journey. Additionally, by providing a wide variety of resources and with additional links provided within many of the resources, the educator may choose the depth and breadth of their own learning of cooperative learning and the various structures and strategies. They can determine how each structure and strategy has purpose and that information will help them in choosing a structure or strategy that best fits their intended social or learning outcome. Once the themes of the badges were determined and the resources found, I began writing the badges. The template (Appendix A) is a fillable document and is used by the Davis School District’s Professional Learning Department to upload the pertinent information into the Digital Badge system. It has sections for a description of the badge, how to earn the badge, definition of key terms, a narrative of a classroom experience, evidence submission options, evidence reflection prompts, reflection of learning and implementation prompts, and applicable resources for badge applicants to support their individual professional development. The description of the badges communicates to the potential applicants a basic understanding of what knowledge, concepts, and skills are needed to earn the individual badge. The key terms help solidify common understandings and definitions in relation to the COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 29 individual badge. In the case of the Cooperative Learning badges, it was essential to clarify the meaning of cooperative learning and structures. Kagan and Kagan (2009) states, “Cooperative learning is the inclusion of cooperative student-to-student interaction over subject matter as an integral part of the learning process” (p. 5.1). And additionally, Kagan and Kagan (2009) states, “A structure is the way the teacher organized the interaction in the classroom...” (p. 5.2). I used his definitions to clarify cooperative learning and structures. The provided template has a menu of evidence options that the badge creator may choose from to inform the applicant of which evidence options would be acceptable for the individual badge. I needed to determine which evidence options would be best to demonstrate effective use of cooperative learning that meets the intended purpose. I had to carefully consider each option to determine the feasibility of the option and its aptitude to effectively demonstrate the implementation of the cooperative learning through the submitted evidence. To accomplish this, I reviewed the options and attempted to visualize if the evidence option would or would not demonstrate an educator’s effective use of cooperative learning strategies. I ruled out many of the options such as website, application, or screencast, as these did not lend themselves to be evidence options that would show effective cooperative learning in the classroom. I determined that video would be the most effective evidence option, but I also included administrative observation results as the administrator would be able to witness the use of structures in the classroom and speak to the overall effectiveness. Each option was reviewed and selected, and a description was written to describe the evidence needed. Determining the reflection questions was not exceptionally difficult as I had received training from my department that the reflection prompts should include descriptions of implementation with the successes and challenges. The reflection should include descriptions of COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 30 student learning and a plan of future actions. Using this knowledge, I was able to create the reflection prompts with little to no difficulty which built my confidence to continue. Writing the narrative was the final item that I approached. From the research about digital badges, I knew that the narrative is often the clarifier for the badge applicant. It provides a mental visual for what the evidence should show. Having written narratives in the past, I knew that the creative writing needed would challenge me as I feel it is not my strength. I used my past classroom management experiences to draw ideas from and created classroom narratives with the help of the described structures (Kagan & Kagan, 2009) and the videos used in the resource section. This helped me to envision the action which helped with the narrative writing. The last step in this project was to have the stack of badges reviewed by the Professional Learning Supervisor. We met together, and he provided feedback. He asked clarifying questions of my decision to write badges on the themes that I chose. He wondered about the term class-building as it was not a familiar term. I explained to him that the term class-building is essentially building a classroom community of learners who are supportive, positive and who interact with one another to achieve learning goals. It strengthens classrooms to be an environment of supporting one another, no matter who needs the support. He asked if the stack of badges was complete or does it need additional badges. I explained that it was incomplete and some ideas for additional badges could include decision-making structures or strategies, procedure learning structure or strategies, or presentation of information structures or strategies. He challenged me to consider developing those badges in the future. I explained that I was not ready to take that project on any time soon. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 31 As the Professional Learning Supervisor continued with his feedback, he expressed appreciation for the depth of the content in each badge. He commended me for my scope of resources and expressed appreciation for the reflection criteria as effective prompts for educators to examine their practice. The concerns he shared were mainly grammatical in nature. He wanted the description of the evidence to be more explicit and detailed as a list of steps. Additionally, he wanted the language to be written in present tense and plural in nature to show the evidence as an on-going or continuous skill and not a one-time cooperative learning structure/strategy. He wanted the badge to read as a current experience not something that happened in the past or just for the badge submission. These revisions were minor and maintained the original language of the badges. With his evaluation I was able to see the value in keeping the wording as present tense and plural to help educators envision these skills as continuously practicing and developing. In teaching I know that you are never perfect in your practice, there is always room for improvement. In the end I was grateful for his feedback, although it required a great deal of vulnerability, I am appreciative of his remarks and I think the final product had more clarity. One major challenge with this project is the immense size. The cooperative learning stack of badges could potentially have dozens of badges. Badge stacks are designed to be fluid to allow for increases or decreases in badge offerings as they pertain to current research and practices. Using the structures outlined by Kagan could potentially increase this stack by seven more themes (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). I will not be the writer or developer of those badges but potentially they could be created. As with any large-scale project, the development of future badges depends on time and funding. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 32 An additional challenge with this project was the use of the fillable template. The digital document was created using a software that limits the character count in each category. This required careful consideration of brief and clear descriptions. This may need to be modified for future badge submissions that require more in-depth descriptions and explanations. The template was clunky and not intuitive. I found that the template did not help with efficiency as it did not have the capability to copy and paste within the cells. For future badge submissions I would recommend that a new, easier to use template be created so as to not hamper with smooth badge development and writing. Conclusion As digital badging is a personalized approach to independent professional learning being valued, cooperative learning is not an instructional strategy that all educators would find fits their individual teaching style, making this stack of badges irrelevant to them. The longevity of cooperative learning is also coming into question as personalized learning of individual path, pace, and place is becoming the instructional methods of fashion. Teachers potentially will soon have classrooms full of students each on their own personalized learning journey, making cooperative learning impossible, hence making this badge stack outdated and irrelevant in the future, no matter the evidence-base to support cooperative learning. More research needs to be done to determine if a “one-time” shot of evidence and reflection of the effective use of cooperative learning in the classroom has longevity and if it makes significant changes to educators’ practice over time. Questions of sustainability and long-term change come to mind as needing to be explored. Determining educators' motivations to obtain badges need to be identified. Do teachers apply for badges purely for the increase in salary? Do they obtain badges for status or peer pressure? I wonder if districts and administrations mandated digital badges would teachers make substantial improvements to their COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 33 practice or would it be a one-time thing? The management of the digital badge ecosystem requires sustainability. How will the ecosystem be funded? What impact does the upkeep of the ecosystem and technology have on districts or education communities? Do digital badges inspire all educators or are their certain dispositions that are motivated to obtain badges and compete to “get them all”? I suspect that digital badges will be explored at great length in the coming years, until a new technology can provide additional classroom support, coaching, and feedback to help educators reach their full potential. The development of a stack of digital badges was a challenging process full of speculation on my part. It required a deep understanding of not only the specific pedagogical strategies, but it necessitated clear and concise writing skills, along with the time to research and create. As all educators know, time is a precious commodity that is often in short supply. This challenge will prohibit the rapid expansion of the digital badge ecosystem that needs to be wide and deep with all things pertaining to professional learning. As the ecosystem develops and stacks are developed teachers will potentially need to shift their personal paradigms to utilize the digital badge process of rewarding them for their continued formal and informal professional learning. With the increase in personalized learning for students, digital badges could potentially make their way into our classrooms. We may find a diploma replaced with a backpack of digital badges as evidence of competency of skills. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 34 References Antil, L. R., Jenkins, J. R., Wayne, S. K. & Vadasy, P. F. (1998). Cooperative Learning: Prevalence, conceptualizations, and the relation between research and practice. American Educational Research Journal, 35(3), 99. 419–454. Aronson, E. (2019). The jigsaw classroom. Retrieved from https://www.jigsaw.org/ Ash, K. (2012). “Digital badges” would represent students’ skill acquisition. Education Week: Digital Directions. June 13. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2012/06/13/03badges.h05.html Balkom, S. (1992), Cooperative Learning. Education Research Consumer Guide. Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/cooplear.html Beach, P. & Willows, D. (2017). Understanding teachers’ cognitive processes during online professional learning: A methodological comparison, Online Learning, 21(1), 60–84. doi: 10.24059/olj.v21i1.949 Beattie, S. (2016). Height vs. depth in badging framework design. D. 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Putting professional development into practice: A framework for how teachers in expeditionary learning schools implement professional development. Teacher Education Quarterly, 36(4), 61–80. Krasnoff, B. (2015). What research says about professional development. Northwest Comprehensive Center. Web site: https://educationnorthwest.org/ Lockley, A., Derryberry, A., & West, D. (2016). Drivers, affordances and challenges of digital badges. D. Ifenthatler, Dellin-Mularski, N., & Mah, D. (eds.), Foundation of Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials, (pp. 55–70). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-15425-1_4 Longhurst, M., Jones, S., & Campbell, T. (2017). Factors influencing teacher appropriation of professional learning focused on the use of technology in science classrooms. Teacher Development, 21(3), 365–387. doi: 10.1080/13664530.2016.1273848 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 37 MacArthur Foundation. (2011). Digital media & learning competition provides $2 milion for innovations in digital badges [press release]. https://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/digital-media-learning-competition-provides-2-million-for-innovations-in-digital-badges/ McComb, V., & Eather, N. (2017). Exploring the personal, social and occupational elements of teacher professional development. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 5(12), 60–66. doi:10.11114/jets.5i12.2794 McMurray, S., O'Neill, S., & Thompson, R. (2016). An innovative model for professional development. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 16(1), 145–149. doi: 10.1111/1471-3802.12139 NEA Staff Researchers (2002-2019). Research spotlight on cooperative learning: NEA reviews of the research on best practices in education. National Education Association. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/tools/16870.htm Rhode, J., Richert, S., & Miller, T. (2017). Designing personalized online teaching professional development through self-assessment. TechTrends, 61, 444–451. doi: 10.1007/s11528-017-0211-3 Sharan, Y. (2014). Learning to cooperate for cooperative learning. Anales de Psicologia, 30(3), 802–807. Shields, R., & Chugh, R. (2016). Digital badges—rewards for learning? Education and Information Technologies, 22(4), 1817–1824. Slavin, R. E. (1983). When does Cooperative Learning Increase Student Achievement? Psychological Bulletin 94(3), 429–445. Slavin, R. E. (2014). Making cooperative learning powerful. Educational Leadership, pp. 22–26. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 38 Slavin, R. (2015). Cooperative learning in elementary schools. Education, (43), 5–14. Smith, C., Hofer, J., Gillespie, M., Solomon, M., & Rowe, K. (2003). How teachers change: A study of professional development in adult education. National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, 9, 1–6. Teach Thought Staff, (2017, August 2). Teach Thought--10 Team-building games that promote critical thinking. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/10-team-building-games-that-promote-critical-thinking/ Teras, H., & Kartoglu, U. (2017) A grounded theory of professional learning in an authentic online professional development program. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(7), 191–212. COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 39 Appendix A Digital Badge Template Contact Information Please give us some information about yourself and your organization Badge Stack Title: Name: Position/Title: Phone: Email: Organization Name (district/charter/university): Department: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 40 STACK DEVELOPMENT TEMPLATE Choose a short, descriptive title for the stack. Describe stack image and color scheme, upload/attach/embed proposed image. Stack Title: Badges Included in this Stack (3-5) badges per stack: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Stack Design: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 41 BADGE #1 DEVELOPMENT TEMPLATE Choose a short, descriptive title for the badge. Include the stack(s) it falls under. Describe badge image and color scheme, or upload/attach/embed proposed image. Color scheme/images should be in keeping with the stack color scheme/image. Stack Title: Badge #1 Title: Badge #1 Design: Brief statement of how badge #1 fits into stack: Include brief descriptions of the skill/knowledge/practice that the badge represents: What it entails: What it isn’t: Definition of terms related to badge: Differentiation from other related skills: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 42 Stack Title: Badge #1 Title: Background Scenario 1-2 paragraph scenario showing the need for the skill/knowledge represented by the badge. Include elementary and secondary scenarios if needed. Stack Title: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 43 Badge #1 Title: EVIDENCE Check the type(s) of evidence applicants may submit for this badge. Include a range of evidence types that educators in different situations (e.g., classroom teachers, online teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, counsellors) can reasonably assemble. Requirement should be for candidates to submit at least two different pieces/types of evidence. They may include a third if they feel it helps to show their proficiency. Include a description of the evidence. This will appear on the badge’s portal page and will guide applicants in assembling evidence. Include 1-3 criteria statements for evidence submissions. These should describe the following: • level of performance or quality of practice the evidence demonstrates • quantity or volume for evidence (e.g., for video evidence, how many minutes) These statements will appear on the badge’s portal page and will guide applicants in preparing evidence. They will also be used by reviewers to give feedback to applicants. Video Description: Student Work Description: Lesson Plan Description: Stack Title: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 44 Badge #1 Title: Unit Plan Description: Student Performance Data Description: Survey Results (student, parent, colleague, administrator) Description: Testimonial (student, parent, colleague, administrator) Description: Observation Results (colleague, administrator) Description: Website Description: App (mobile or computer) Description: Stack Title: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 45 Badge #1 Title: Screencast Description: Other (specify) Description Candidate’s Choice – pre-approval necessary (If a candidate has an idea to show proficiency that does not appear elsewhere on the list) Description Criteria for Evidence How will the review committee know if the candidates’ evidence demonstrates competency? Criterion 1: Criterion 2: Criterion 3: Stack Title: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 46 Badge #1 Title: REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS Candidates may select either the written or the video reflection option. Included a description of what should be covered and how. This will appear on the badge’s portal page and will guide applicants in developing their reflective analysis. Included 1-3 criteria statements for the reflection piece. These should describe the level of reflection or quality of thought the evidence should demonstrate. These statements will appear on the badge’s portal page and will guided applicants in preparing an analytical reflection. They will also be used by reviewers to give feedback to applicants. Written Reflective Analysis (300-400 words) Description: Criteria for Reflection: How will the review committee know if the candidate’s reflective analysis demonstrates competency? Criterion 1: Criterion 2: Criterion 3: Stack Title: Badge #1 Title COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 47 RESOURCES List 5-8 resources for prospective applicants who may need to learn more about the target skill or knowledge. Be sure to build in variety to account for the differing learning styles of the candidates. These can include the following: • Books • Articles in professional journals • Websites • Online videos • Online courses • Other Include a description of each resource. These resources should not be LEA-specific (i.e., they should be available to employees of any Utah district or charter). Resource: Description: Resource: Description: Stack Title: Badge #1 Title: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 48 RESOURCES CONTINUED Resource: Description Resource: Description: Resource: Description: Resource: Description: COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 49 Appendix B Team Building Badge COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 50 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 51 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 52 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 53 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 54 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 55 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 56 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 57 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 58 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 59 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 60 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 61 Appendix C Class Building Badge COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 62 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 63 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 64 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 65 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 66 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 67 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 68 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 69 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 70 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 71 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 72 Appendix D Knowledge Building Badge COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 73 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 74 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 75 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 76 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 77 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 78 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 79 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 80 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 81 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 82 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 83 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 84 Appendix E Processing Information Badge COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 85 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 86 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 87 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 88 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 89 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 90 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 91 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 92 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 93 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 94 COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIGITAL BADGES 95 Letters