Digital badges and learning analytics provide differentiated assessment opportunities

Posted on February 28th, 2017

This EDUCAUSE Review article looks at how the intersection of digital badges, learning analytics, and differentiated assessment could be beneficial to learners. According to the article, both open digital badges and differentiated assessment have challenges to overcome. Open digital badges lack compelling evidence in their value, and differentiated assessment, which is at odds with standardized testing norms, has not been widely embraced. The article suggests that learning analytics can be used to create visible learning pathways that capture specific evidence of learning for badges. This information can then be used for future learning opportunities. Learning analytics can also help predict how students need to learn material and how they need to be assessed. “Used together, these three technologies can help educators target specific interventions, catalog learning evidence for future use, and provide a pathway to customize educational experiences at scale,” the authors state.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/2/digital-badges-and-learning-analytics-provide-differentiated-assessment-opportunities