Digital Badges and Goal-Setting

Posted on November 30, 2017 by David Niguidula

Many schools ask students to set goals for themselves. These could be academic, career, or social goals; these could be goals for the quarter, the year, or something to be achieved before they graduate. This is a good exercise  – but to be useful, there has to be some follow-up. That is, once a student has set a goal, someone needs to check in to see if the student is following through, and taking steps towards achieving those goals.

Digital badges can be helpful here. If a student has a vague goal of wanting to get better at math, the teacher or advisor could suggest that the student work on some math-oriented badges — such as completing a project, or working on certain “math practices” like problem solving or modeling.

Similarly, a student who think she wants to pursue a career in “business,” could be directed to specific badges, such as participating in a business club / organization (like DECA, FBLA, Junior Achievement or SkillsUSA) or earning a badge through certain courses offered in the school.

The idea here presumes that the school has a set of badges in place. But even if your school is just beginning with badges, a way to follow up with student goals is to generate specific next steps that the student can take, and a timeline for those steps. As the student accomplishes them, these milestones can be displayed as completed badges.