Richards, Ciara (2019) Digital Badging and Teacher's Professional Development: An eLearning Module.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
While professional development (PD) has always been essential in meeting the learning needs of teachers, traditional forms of PD are incongruous with today’s professional demands and complex skills required by students (Borko, 2014; Brooks & Gibson, 2012). Digital PD, on the other hand, offers the continuous, supported, and collaborative features that are recognized to produce the best results of both teacher and student achievement (Anderson & Henderson, 2004; Desimone & Garet, 2015; Desimone, Porter, Garet, Yoon, & Birman, 2002). In order to circumvent the professional boundary of motivation, digital badges can be used to allow teachers to personalize their learning in order to sustain interest and participation (Gamrat, Zimmerman, Dudek, & Peck, 2014; Jones, Hope, & Adams, 2018). The purpose of this project was to create an online professional development module for K-5 teachers to engage in building familiarity with and proficiency in navigating the Studies Weekly website using digital badging as a motivational element to complete each module. This project explored various literature related to digital PD settings along with the concept of digital badging for motivational purposes for teachers. Districts are starting to realize that traditional PD may not be the most effective use of their resources or their teacher’s time. While the use of digital professional development is fairly new in the teaching profession, it has been used to effectively train the workforce of major industries since World War II (Higgins, 2017; Martín-Gutiérrez & Meneses-Fernández, 2014; Schmitt et al., 2012). To ensure successful implementation of PD, however, the professional boundary of motivation must be addressed. This project used Articulate Storyline 360 as well as the ADDIE model of instructional design to create interactive digital professional development modules to engage teachers in building familiarity with and proficiency in navigating the Studies Weekly website using digital badging as a motivational element to complete each module. Analysis phase consisted of an informal needs assessment to gain a present perspective on what teachers need in terms of professional development, what would prevent and motivate them to use digital professional development, and their knowledge of and access to technology. The result of the needs assessment provided the content for the tutorial, while the blueprints and learning objectives of the modules were determined in the design phase. During the development phase the final project was created with multimedia elements to allow teachers to learn how to navigate the major features of the Studies Weekly website, access the grade appropriate resources available at the article level, and utilize the testing tools to assess student’s knowledge. After testing the modules on various devices during the implementation phase, approval from the IRB was obtained. Lastly was the evaluation phase, where learners were provided the modules to test and evaluate using Kirkpatrick’s level one in the form of a survey. Twenty-eight teachers were invited to participate in the field testing of the modules. Of the twenty-eight teachers invited, thirteen voluntarily completed the modules and responded to the survey. Feedback from the survey covered motivational factors of digital badging, ease of access and effectiveness of the eLearning modules as a form of professional development, if they would continue to utilize the eLearning modules as reference in the future, and the overall strengths and weaknesses of the modules. The results showed an overall positive attitude toward the modules, the concept of digital professional development, and digital badging; with the main negative comments being about the lengthy completion time. Based on the results, it was concluded that the project’s learning objectives were met, as 92.3% of teachers felt prepared to use the Studies Weekly website in their classroom with their students. Additionally, teachers were able to utilize the modules as a professional development resource; 100% were able to easily access the modules and will use them again in the future.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Depositing User: | Repo Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Mar 2019 16:00 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Mar 2019 16:00 |
| URI: | http://lib.e-learning.ph/id/eprint/101 |
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