Exploring the Role of Feedback and its Impact within a Digital Badge System from Student Perspectives

• Published in: TechTrends 2019-07, Vol.63 (4), p.485-495
• Main Authors: Besser, Erin D., Newby, Timothy J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Education; Educational Technology; Evaluation Methods; Feedback; Feedback (Response); Information Storage; Learning; Learning and Instruction; Mastery Learning; Original Paper; Student Attitudes; Students; Technology Uses in Education
• ISSN: 8756-3894; 1559-7075
• DOI: 10.1007/s11528-019-00386-2

In academic settings where digital badges are taking over conventional task formats, educators are faced with the challenge of how to deliver and assess content and skills within badges. Imposing a mastery learning approach, where feedback is key, to a digital badge system may be a potential solution to using digital badges within higher education. As a way to support student learning, Guskey, Journal of Advanced Academics , 19(1), 8–31 ( 2007 ) emphasizes the importance of not only frequent feedback but specific feedback. In order to examine how students are using feedback to inform their coursework within a digital badge context, an online survey was designed consisting of open-ended questions about the nature and value of instructional feedback within a digital badge system. Results from the questionnaire indicated three major thematic groups illustrating feedback from the students’ perspective: Importance and Nature of Feedback, Authority over Knowledge and Learning, and Learning for Mastery.