Hi everyone, Apologies for cross-posting: 1st International Workshop on Open Badges in Education (#OBIE2014) - https://sites.google.com/site/obie2014ws/ - => in conjunction with the 13th International Conference on Web-based Learning (ICWL2014), Tallinn, Estonia, 13-16 August 2014 => proceedings published by Springer IMPORTANT DATES ==================================== * 1 May 2014: Paper submission deadline * 23 May 2014: Notification of acceptance * 13 June 2014: Camera-ready paper * 12 August 2014: Open Badges in Education workshop day (to be confirmed by the Conference organizers) OVERVIEW ======== Open Badges (OBs) initiative is a community effort aimed at introducing novel means and practices for knowledge/skill assessment, recognition, and credentialing. Along the way, it is also promoting values such as openness and learner?s agency, as well as participatory learning practices and peer-learning communities. Even though digital badges are not a new phenomenon, their use prior to the emergence of the OBs initiative was largely associated with isolated efforts of individual organizations, and there was no systematic approach to issuing and using badges. Likewise, OBs should not be equated with digital badges that are used solely as a part of gamification efforts aimed at motivating users for different kinds of tasks; OBs differ in at least two significant ways. First, they allow learners to gather badges that originate from different sources (i.e., organizations acting as badge issuers), and to select and combine the earned badges into custom profiles suitable for the given occasion (e.g., job application). Second, OBs are self-sufficient in the sense that they carry all the information one would need to understand and value the achievement/status they refer to. All these novel and distinctive features have positioned OBs as suitable candidates for addressing some of the pressing challenges in the context of life-long and Web-based learning, including: i) recognition of learning in multiple and diverse locations and environments that go beyond traditional classrooms; ii) recognition of diverse kinds of skills and knowledge, including soft and general skills; iii) recognition of alternative forms of assessment; iv) the need for transparent and easily verifiable digital credentials. TOPICS OF INTEREST ================== Open Badges (OBs) are rapidly gaining traction among educational practitioners as well as education-oriented companies and non-profit organizations. However, so far, there have been only a few research studies aimed at validating the propositions related to OBs. This indicates an obvious need for higher engagement of the research community in order to assure a deeper understanding of not only OBs and their potential roles, but also the larger educational ecosystem within which they operate and evolve. Considering everything stated above, this workshop would welcome submissions on some of the topics from the following (though not restrictive) list: * OBs as a motivational mechanism * OBs as a mean to support and promote participatory learning practices * OBs as a mean to support and recognize alternative assessment * OBs as a mean to recognize prior learning * OBs as a mean to facilitate charting of learning trajectories * OBs as a facilitator of self-regulated learning * OBs as a mean for building and maintaining learner's profile (portfolio) * Implementation of OBs in different kinds of educational settings (formal, non-formal, informal) * Software systems and tools for the implementation and deployment of OBs * Technical challenges in enabling the intended functionalities of OBs SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION ========================== We welcome the following types of contributions: * Short (up to 5 pages) and full (up to 10 pages) research papers, * Poster abstracts and system demonstrations (should not exceed 2 pages). All submissions must be written in English and must be formatted according to the Springer LNCS format (http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0). Please submit your contributions electronically in PDF format at * https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=obie2014 All the submissions will go through a double-blind 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 post-proceedings volume in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS =================== * Weiqin Chen, University of Bergen, Norway * Vladan Devedzic, University of Belgrade, Serbia * Dragan Gasevic, Athabasca University, Canada * Jelena Jovanovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia PROGRAMME COMMITTEE =================== * Samuel Abramovich, University at Buffalo - SUNY, USA * Simon Cross, The Open University, UK * Elizabeth Dalton, University of New Hampshire, USA * Rebecca Galley, The Open University, UK * Sheryl Grant, Duke University, USA * Richard Kimbell, Goldsmiths University of London, UK * Rudy McDaniel, University of Central Florida, USA * Ivana Mijatovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia * Michael R. Olneck, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA * Razvan Rughinis, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania * Jose Luis Santos Odriozola, KU Leuven, Belgium * Julian Sefton-Green, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, UK * Felicia M. Sullivan, Tufts University, USA For further questions please contact the organisers via *** obie2014[at]easychair.org *** Sheryl Grant Director of Social Networking HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition sheryl.grant@duke.edu Duke University 114 South Buchanan Blvd. Smith Warehouse Durham, NC 27708