Re: Open Badges and Moodle - My badges

Re: Open Badges and Moodle - My badges

by Frankie Kam -
Number of replies: 3
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Simon
I tried out the test site and managed to create a badge on both courses. And also re-logged in as student and got myself awarded the badge. Very nice. Now I understand how useful this can be.

It's nice that the whole assigning of badges is automated by Moodle without intervention by the Teacher (except for setting up the badges and criteria). IMHO, for small classes (5 to 20 students) and for more manual control over issuance of stamps, the teacher might also want to try out the Stamp Collection module (erm ... the multistamp variant smile ). However, for large classes (>20 to 300 students) and an over-worked teacher for whom time is the essence, Open Badges really comes into its own. A real-time saver. Very, very nice. Looking forward to more functionality and enhancements to the UI as you mentioned.

Two things. Firstly, as the teacher role, I was trying to add the Badges block to the test site so that the student could just glance at the site and see how many badges he or she earned so far, but I couldn't find a way to add such a Block. Did I miss something?

Secondly, in 
http://openbadgestotara.elearning.catalyst.net.nz/badges/index.php?type=2&id=2 I added a pic for a badge which I later tried to change to another pic. Couldn't (not allowed to be changed) do it. So, as ateacher role in the test site, how can I change the current image?

Regards
Frankie Kam

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Frankie Kam

Re: Open Badges and Moodle

by Simon Coggins -

Hi Frankie,

1. I think the page you are looking for is My Profile > My Badges. This is where a user goes to see all of their badges and control the visibility of them to others.

If a user makes some of their badges public they will appear on the user's profile. There is also a "My Badges" block which users can add to the "My Home" section.

2. The problem seems to be that the badge is "Active", and active badges are locked down to prevent changes. If you deactivate the badge (button at the bottom of the overview page or green dot from the index) you should be able to change the image (as long as it hasn't yet been earned by anyone).

Here's what the help says:

Badge status determines its behaviour in the system:

  • ACTIVE – Active badge means that this badge can we earned by users, but it has not been issued yet. When a badge is active, its criteria cannot be changed.

  • INACTIVE – Inactive badge means that this badge is not available to users and cannot be earned. Criteria of an inactive badge can be changed.

  • ACTIVE AND LOCKED – Badges with such status can be earned by users, but they have been issued in the past. Therefore, their criteria are locked and cannot be changed.

  • INACTIVE AND LOCKED – Inactive badges cannot be earned by users and their criteria cannot be updated.

Badges are set to locked automatically once they have been issued to at least one user. Unlike active or inactive, this property cannot be manually changed. If you need to modify details or criteria of a locked badge, you can duplicate this badge and make all the required changes.

Why do we lock badges?

We want to make sure that all users complete the same requirements to earn a badge. Currently, it is not possible to revoke badges. If we allowed badges requirements to be modified all the time, we would most likely end up with users having the same badge for meeting completely different requirements.

That's the reasoning behind it, but I think this has highlighted a bit of a usability issue that we need to give some more thought to. We have just sent this work off for external usability review so I'll make sure we discuss this if it doesn't come up in their findings.

Simon

In reply to Simon Coggins

Re: Open Badges and Moodle

by Frankie Kam -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Simon

Thank you for pointing me the way. Your instructions are clear and most useful. I have found what I've been looking for.

Frankie Kam

In reply to Frankie Kam

Re: Open Badges and Moodle

by Yuliya Bozhko -

Hi Frankie,

In addition to Simon's post, I wanted to add that we would appreciate any suggestions on how to improve the "language" of this feature. If some terms seem confusing (I looked at them far too much to have an objective opinion), we are more than happy to change them and make them sound better for everyone smile

Thanks for your feedback!

Yuliya