Academic Integrity Badge Methodology
Learners were given the opportunity to consider the implications of integrity in their academic life and beyond. Learners who successfully completed all IntegrityMatters modules were awarded a badge validating their competency in this functional area of academic integrity knowledge. Study participants, (undergraduate university students from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) who successfully completed the academic integrity app lessons were invited via email to voluntarily participate in testing of the digital badging process. Learners are able to choose whether or not to claim badges earned. Additionally, learners make the choice to display some or all of their badges viewable publicly. Study participants were asked to claim their badge at the Cancred.ca Passport site and export it to their social media profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ profile. This process was completely automated and not intended to interfere with university level implementation of the academic integrity modules. Any course-level assignment credit for module completions were completely separate from the badging process. Earning a badge did not obligate faculty to award learners points for module completions. When a badge was earned, an email was sent to learners. Setting up a free CanCred Passport account associated with one’s university email address made it possible to publish selected badges on one’s profile page via CanCred.
Learners experienced academic integrity knowledge of the six values by completing interactive case scenarios through open access mobile technology. All users with mobile devices can download and install the freely available app through the link in the iTunes Store or Google Play (IOS https://apps.apple.com/us/app/integritymatters/id1355112345 and Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uwai.dev.integritymatters2). IntegrityMatters project activities, publications and earlier research are available for at these webpages: https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/integrity-matters-mobile-application and http://bit.ly/integritymattersapp. Project goals aimed at developing strategies that enhance student academic integrity knowledge using interactive scenarios through open access mobile technology, culminated with the achievement of a certificate and a digital badge that recognized completion. The modules in the tutorials (See Figure 5. IntegrityMatters Home page, Module Page, Case Scenario) provide examples that illustrate the expectations of an academic community. Each module focuses on scenarios involving diverse aspects of student academic life (such as cultural difference and expectations, physical stress, peer pressure, and time constraints). Learners who successfully completed all of the modules were awarded a badge validating their competency in this functional area of academic integrity knowledge.
The intention was to help understand the basic values of integrity, in hopes that learners will strive to apply these values in their actions as a member of their campus community and in their everyday life. Badge earners have gained basic academic integrity knowledge, and are aware of the impact and outcomes of academic integrity in an academic setting. A Creative Commons license ensures this open access IntegrityMatters application with accompanying lessons, quizzes and videos continue to be freely accessible so institutions may transfer and customize this tutorial to meet their own needs.
Badging Process
Our objective was to develop strategies, culminating with the achievement of an e-certificate and a digital badge to recognize successful completion all of the modules, thus validating learner’s competency in this functional area of academic integrity knowledge. Badge earners gain basic digital academic integrity knowledge; they become aware of the impact and outcomes of academic integrity with their actions in an academic setting. Learner Digital Badge Criteria and Outcomes metadata specifies that each badge earner has:
- developed a clear understanding of academic integrity,
- ability to identify the six fundamental values of academic integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage (Fundamental Values Project, 2014),
- completed the online IntegrityMatters six modules in the digital application, and
- completed and passed each quiz in each of the six modules with 75% or higher.
Pre-test and Post-test survey completion tested each learner’s academic integrity knowledge following completion of the academic integrity lessons, questions and quizzes. A final test assessing AI knowledge must be successfully completed to achieve a digital badge. The post-test compared learners’ academic integrity knowledge to their pre-test. In addition, study participants were invited to complete a Digital Badging Questionnaire to report on their experience. Some of the questions were scaling questions (1-5) where participants could add comments in text if they wished to expand on their answers in the rating scale.
Educational Technology Experience
Seventy-seven academic integrity digital badges were awarded to study participants in this research trial. Forty participants accepted the badge (52%) and completed the pilot research testing. Generally, the pilot users were satisfied with the platform and found it very easy to use and share on different social media platforms. However, some users reported some technical glitches where they were unable to directly input their badge to their LinkedIn account without copying the license number and link from the badge site to LinkedIn. To address some of the technical challenges, the project team developed a training video to guide users to claim their badge for various social media. Users had access to technical support, as necessary, during the pilot testing phase. The project team felt it was necessary to support Unicode, especially for Asian languages, including Chinese and Japanese. This type of support could facilitate the issuing of badge to multiple language learners.
Open Badging Perceptions
We developed a ten-minute online questionnaire through SurveyMonkey© for users to complete to assess their badging experience. Qualitative findings indicated helpful feedback from users for evaluation of digital badging experiences. Responses from 33 participants who completed the Badging Questionnaire varied. Most were pleased to be able to add the badges to their social media platforms, especially on LinkedIn. Seventy-nine (79%) percent of users responded they were satisfied with their digital badging options. Whereas some users found the badging process relatively simple to use, others were not sure their badge was placed in the correct social media platform of their choice. Some users indicated they experienced technical challenges with their mobile phones and planned to double check their laptop computers to ensure the badge transfer was completed.
A number of users indicated they were new to the badging experience, while others found the process a novel alternative to a printed paper certificate. One user comment indicated that, “it allows employers to see that we are certified individuals, and the URL provides a level of authentication to the badge”. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of participants indicated they felt that badging was developing breakthrough technology while another 27% disagreed with this statement.
Almost seventy-one percent (71%) of student users indicated the badging process worked for them without any bugs, delays or errors. Some commented the training video was helpful for them to follow the steps to obtain their badge. Overwhelmingly, eighty-seven percent (87.8%) agreed with the statement that digital badging was easy to use. Comments indicated that “Very simple and easy to follow. It’s intuitive”, while another participant stated, “the process is straightforward” and “adding it to LinkedIn was easy, especially with the YouTube video”. Alternative feedback indicated that setting up an account “was a tedious process” for them.
The participant responses to whether digital badging was a useful process was quite mixed, with some participants agreeing (close to 30%), whereas others disagreed (27%) and over one third (33.3%) were neutral on this question. Comments shared to help explain their positive stance included, “it allows potential employers to see my badge without having to present a physical one to them” while others were unsure about the practicality of badges and whether others would recognize them, “not sure how credible an online badge is and whether it is easy to copy them?”
When asked about the value of staying connected to people important to them, forty-two (42.5%) percent of respondents indicated their university connection mattered to them, “this badge is mainly for lab instructors/TAs [teaching assistants]/Profs to show that a student understands the policies surrounding plagiarism”, while almost twenty-eight percent (27.8%) shared that potential employers would be interested in seeing evidence of badging “can help employers identify more competent individuals”. Sixteen percent (16.6%) indicated that badges wouldn’t enhance connectivity to people “doesn’t really aid in maintaining connections. [Badges] Potentially aid[s] in expressing your qualifications and achievements.”
Finally, study participants were asked recommendations to enhance future digital badging processes. Suggestions ranged from “higher resolution, enhance image quality” to “remove registration” to “auto filling the field so that you do not need to copy each field of information in order to share it on social media” to “market badges better, make badging more prevalent”. Another suggestion included, “make the badge public automatically, unless you specifically want to set it as private. Kind of like how Facebook posts work.” A helpful suggestion included, “Integrate it into LEARN (learning management system) so that students starting a new course/term will need to obtain the badge before submitting assignments. This would replace integrity quizzes the profs have for each course and can be done all at once with the badge as proof of agreement, completion, etc.” Others indicated additional security for badging, such as “I would add some level of further authentication in case the badge was provided to the wrong individual”. Direct integration with social media, “having direct links to share via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, if possible.” Learners often felt that badging was unfamiliar to schools and employers, “It needs to become a more widespread practice in order for it to be effective for students in the job search process.” A few learners indicated they would prefer to print the badge or have a tangible representation of completion of their work while others felt the digital badging process worked well.
Overall, participant feedback provided a range of responses, but the answers were very helpful to the research team in determining whether to pursue continuation of the digital badging process. One learner indicated that, “Badging was relatively simple to set up, it keeps up with the modern technology and is heavily used for connecting and self-marketing.” A common response was that learners wanted their badges integrated with the school’s learning management system to show their Professors, Teaching Assistants and other students the work they had completed. These responses encouraged us streamline our project into our learning management system.
