This qualitative-interpretive study explored technology as an innovation, design principles of digital badges, the core features of professional learning, and adult learning theory's assumptions to conceptualize digital badge quality and rigor and facilitate digital badge evaluation as a professional learning design. A problem exists in designing…

This dissertation consists of three journal articles about using open digital badges to improve learning performance and facilitate students' goal setting processes. In the first study, we investigated the impact of instructional ODBs on pre-service teachers' perceived technology capabilities and their actual learning performance in a large…

Despite the advantages and increase in popularity of self-directed e-learning, this mode of learning is still reported to suffer from low voluntary enrollment rates, high learner dropout rates, as well as low retention of learning. Although there is a paucity of motivation research with regard to self-directed e-learning, a considerable number of…

School leaders are continuously searching for innovative educational practices such as the use of digital badges to curtail illiteracy. Digital badges are electronic representations of academic achievements that offer a more cohesive and comprehensive account of learning. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental research study was to…

Through design-based research, this study examines a digital badging system to support online, independent teacher professional development (PD) in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects. Sociocultural learning theory, in conjunction with the mediation triangle, provided a lens through which digital badging systems were…

Post-secondary education attainment results in higher salaries (Pew Research Center, 2014) and an increase in positive societal benefits (Baum, Ma, & Payea, 2013). Nevertheless, only 31% of U.S. citizens over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). While tradition would dictate the preparation for going to college…

Modern day students in higher education are challenged by the daily struggle of balancing life outside of school, the impetus to use technology in many aspects of their daily tasks, and their self-identified placement along the Self-Determination Theory continuum; however, gamifying a class may benefit students needing motivational incentives as a…

Digital badges are electronic icons used to recognize learning or participation in activities. Open digital badges offer the additional affordance of embedded metadata that can link to the criteria for earning the badge, evidence of the skill, and other information including issuer details. Badge systems have prompted instructional designers to…

The purpose of this collective case study was to explore digital badging in educational institutions as support for K-12 practitioners struggling to integrate technology into pedagogical practices. The researcher conducted a mixed-method study that captured perceptions about digital badges and follow-up interviews with selected badge users to…