Author: IBL News

IBL Studios Education released on this week the first Xblock that allows digital badges to be awarded from an online course using Open edX.

The IBL OpenBadges XBlock connects any Open edX code-based platform to any badge-issuing server, including the open source BadgeOne server.

This software has been developed by IBL Studios with conceptual and feature design by Lorena A. Barba and Michael Amigot as well as financial and technical support from edX.

It was used in Prof. Barba’s open online course “Practical Numerical Methods with Python”, which started on December 2014. General consultancy on the principles of open digital badges in education was provided by Prof. Daniel T. Hickey and his team at Indiana University during the fall of 2014.

These are the features:

1. The badges can be awarded from a “Graded Sub-section” in a course in Open edX. The instructor sets the minimum score for the eligibility of the badge, and configures the badge component with the data of the badge service, badge ID, custom messages for the user, etc.
2. Once it’s added to a Graded Sub-section, the open-badges XBlock will automatically check the user’s score in that sub-section (when the user enters the sub-section).
3. While the user does not have a high-enough score for eligibility, the XBlock will display a custom message indicating that this is the case.
4. Once the user has a high-enough score, the XBlock will reveal the badge image and the input fields to claim the badge.
5. The user fills the claim form, entering URL fields providing evidence of her learning, etc.
6. Once awarded, the badge becomes privately available in the user’s account on the badge service. The user then “claims” the badge to make it public (this is the normal operation of open-badge services.)

IBL OpenBadges XBlock is available for free download and installation at GitHub.

Bitnami.com, a well-known cloud hosting company, has created a pre-configured image to run Open edX on Amazon EC2, based on the Birch release and Ubuntu 14.04.1.

Details are here. And docs, here.

The fact that Open edX is available in the AWS Marketplace has been highlighted by edX in a recent press release.

However, it is worth remembering that pre-installed images have been provided by edX on Amazon.

Some users in the developer community have noted that Bitnami’s solution is “disappointing, not responsive and no-go for clients”. Ubuntu 14.04.01 on Open edX is truly experimental. “Regular installations are full of problems, so who needs to experiment with a new Ubuntu”, said David C.

EdX has partnered with the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) to offer a special selection of high-quality, free courses to combat summer learning loss and avoid returning in the fall with atrophied skills.

This offer includes more than 60 courses from top institutions in core subjects such as math, science, and language as well as skills-based courses in software development, computer science and innovation.

These courses are ideal for career-minded high schoolers (who are dealing with their AP exams and college admissions), college-age students, and working professionals.

These courses include:

• MyCS: Computer Science for Beginners – A fun and creative introduction to computer science for learners of all ages.
• Pre-University Calculus – A course that helps students prepare for Introductory Calculus classes.
• On-Ramp to AP Physics C: Mechanics – This course aids students who have taken intro-level high-school physics, getting them ready for more advanced courses including AP Physics C: Mechanics.
• Preparing for the AP* Spanish Language and Culture Exam – This course to perfect your Spanish speaking and writing skills while learning about the cultural aspect of the Spanish-speaking world to prepare for the AP* Spanish Language and Culture exam.
• Programming in Scratch – A course to teach children (and programming rookies of any age) how to code.
• Introduction to Psychology – A course to study the human condition, including learning, behavior and dysfunction.

Badgr, written in Python by the new Badge Alliance Director Nate Otto, has been released. This is another great badging initiative that comes to the edX universe, in addition to BadgeOne.

Badgr Server provides an API for issuing Open Badges and handles badge management for issuers, earners and consumers.

According to its GitHub page, “it will soon provide integrated badge management and sharing for badge earners and tools for inspection, exploration and discovery of Open Badges and a world of learning opportunities.”

The edX.org portal plans to use this server, along with the badge XBlock developed by IBL Studios. EdX’s portal blog and Concentric Sky –the company that Nate Otto works for– posted this week describing their collaboration.

The Open edX community portal has started a web page to acknowledge open source contributors of the Open edX platform. Some contributions are significant: large features, major upgrades, high-risk security bugs…

This Hall of Fame of contributors is not complete, and that is why edX encourages people to submit their commits.

BadgeOne is the first free, fully open-source, OBI-compliant, multi-language open-badges server. Available in Github since mid-June for any site administrator to download and install, this badge server is operable with Open edX and LMS platforms. It is written in PHP and requires only an Apache server and standard web technologies.

The BadgeOne server was developed by IBL Studios, with GW Professor Lorena A. Barba in an advisory role, and with financial and technical support from edX.

Along with the badge server, IBL and edX have developed an XBlock that allows connecting securely an Open edX platform with the badge server. Other badge providers will be supported in the future. The XBlock—to be released soon—was thoroughly revised and extended from a prototype written for Prof. Barba’s Fall 2014 MOOC.

This badging project has its origins in the first integration of open badges in the Open edX platform, in November 2014.

[Update: Background information to use the BadgetOne’ API http://badgeone.com/api_doc/ ]

Amnesty International will offer a series of MOOCs about human rights education on edX.org, starting in Fall 2015. The first course, “Reclaiming Freedoms through human rights”, will be followed by others over the next several years.

“From the seasoned activist who wants to learn more about human rights, to the technology entrepreneur whose interest has been piqued by the surveillance and privacy debate, these new courses will have something for everyone,” explained edX and Amnesty International.

The goal of the two organizations is to establish the largest online platform for human rights education globally, starting with more than 4 million learners from every country registered on edX.org. “Our global platform will be an ideal place for the organization to amplify its message of justice for all,” edX said.

In order to develop a course relevant to learners, Amnesty International –who has become edX’s newest member– has set up a survey to determine what kind of course would be of value to users.

[Press Release: Top human rights experts to offer cutting-edge education course with ‘something for everyone’]

Guest Post: James Willis | 06.19.2015

This post originally ran on the Re-Mediating Assessment Blog on June 19, 2015

 

IBL Studios Issues an Open Source Badging Platform

By James Willis

We worked with Michael Amigot at IBL Studios in a previous project to launch the first instance of open badges in Open edX in Lorena Barba’s Python MOOC at George Washington University. The code to issues badges is now available at GitHub as an open source tool for those interested in issuing their own Open Badges Infrastructure (OBI)-compliant badges. IBL designed this to be “[a] platform to award your own institution’s badges. The badges you create and earn with this server are compatible with the specifications of the OpenBadges project.”

The open badges community continues to grow through the development and implementation of open source software. What distinguishes IBL’s platform is that it is a fully-functioning, badge-issuing open source code that will work with multiple providers, including learning management systems.

It is fully OBI-compliant, multi-language, and tested across platforms. IBL premiered this server in recent MOOC work for the Spanish government. Cross-links are provided for Mozilla Open Badges Backpack and the Open Badges Technical Specification.

Mozilla Open Badges Backpack

Launched in mid-June, this badge server is fully open source so that any site administrator may implement the coding for free. The server is operable with Open edX or other providers so long as the following requirements are met:

• PHP > 5.3.9 (php5-mysql, php5-json, php-gettext) (Recommended > php 5.4.0)
• MySQL 5.x (PDO connections are used with php5)
• Apache2.4 server (you could use Nginx; remember to configure the options properly)
• mod_rewrite (to protect certain directories with .htaccess files)
• Certain directories require write permissions (defined in installation process)

At the Open Badges in Higher Education project, we are happy to see these resources going forward for Open edX.  We are continuing to work with IBL and the Open edX community to help instructors and organizations issue open badges that are compliant with the Open Badge Infrastructure standards.

 James Willis, III is a research associate in the Center for Research on Learning and Technology at Indiana University. He has a PhD in comparative religion from King’s College London. His research interests include academic technology and learning assessment, human-machine ethics, and the digital humanities.

[ Update: BadgeOne.com – An Open-Source Badge Server, Operable With Open edX ]

EdX has received the top spot in PC Magazine‘s Education & Reference Comparison Chart, earning 4.5 out of 5 stars and an editor rating of “excellence”.

PC Magazine has commended edX for “its welcoming platform for faculty and students”, “innovative assessments”, “free honor certificates”, “growing catalog of excellent courses” and its open source platform (Open edX), that “enables developers to build and share assessment modules”. “Faculty ought to appreciate the platform’s open-source code, generous support, and institutional backing.”

IBL has extracted other ideas from PC Magazine’s review:

• “EdX offers both self-paced and timed classes. Its courses possess features of online education, including discussion forums (often moderated by faculty and teaching assistants); machine-graded multiple-choice assessments; self and peer assessments; and, of course, video lectures (typically divided into segments of twenty minutes or less).”
• “Home institutions do not grant credit to their edX courses. For example, I can audit The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours class for free, but if I want course credit, I will have to enroll in a semester-long Harvard Extension course, which costs between $1250 (for noncredit or undergraduate credit) or $2200 (for graduate credit).”
• “Participants will spend most of their time in Courseware, which begins with a left-aligned overview. Lessons are divided into sections, sections into learning sequences, and learning sequences into units. Participants navigate through units using arrows at the top of the screen. I found this process somewhat inorganic at first, and I would have preferred something like Coursera’s auto-progression; however, once I adjusted to it, I actually preferred the edX structure because it allowed you to anticipate forthcoming content via the object icons.”
• “edX offers the most versatile toolkit. In addition to multiple-choice, tick boxes, and fill-in-the-blanks, edX supports specialized tools such as circuit simulators and chemical bond simulators. DemoX showcases some of the most ingenious assessments, including those designed for the K-12 market (e.g. a drag and drop tool for counting) and introductory sciences (an interactive periodic table).”

https://youtu.be/bNtJ1g9lF3I?t=31m13s

EdX is celebrating its 3rd birthday this June, while the Open edX is making its 2nd year since it was released as open source.

“With a mission of bringing the highest quality education to learners everywhere, we set out to change the landscape of education both online and on campus (…), we are proud to now offer more than 500 courses to our global community of learners that is more than 4 million strong!”, has explained edX.

The video above was recorded on June 8, during the party celebration at edX’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It combines happy-birthday wishes from universities around the world with interesting insights disclosing the state of the edX project and plans for the future.