Badges! Badges? Badges ... Lessons learned playing with digital badges

Digital badges such as the Fitbit activity monitor systems and the Apple Watch activity app rewards are being integrated into our lives, but their potential for motivating students to become independent and prepared learners by cultivating their inclusion in formal class setting remains relatively unexplored (Glover, 2013). To explore the potential of the digital badge in an educational setting, a study at Flinders University using Moodle™ learning platform was developed to investigate the digital badge as a motivator for being prepared for face-to-face classes (Chittleborough, Mocerino, & Treagust, 2007; Gregory & Trapani, 2012). A first year nursing topic of approximately 400 students was redesigned in 2014 to accommodate several game elements, as per gamification techniques, which included digital badges (Deterding, Sicart, Nacke, O’Hara, & Dixon, 2011). The results obtained by pre- and post-topic attitudinal and qualitative surveys, capture the overall level of interest experienced by students over two consecutive years (2014 and 2015). The preliminary results of a three year study indicate that digital badges motivated 23% of the student cohort in 2014 and 25% in 2015. The findings of the study provide practical considerations for how digital badges may be positively used to motivate some students to prepare for class, while identifying potential issues for anyone wishing to explore the opportunities of informal, non-graded digital badges.