Badges Are Back! - Fostering Self-assessment During Personalised Learning in Making and Digital Fabrication

Badges have been used in education and leisure activities to accredit knowledge or learning for a long time. Digital badges in particular have been reported to become a gamification element fostering students’ engagement and motivation. In our work, we explore the use of digital badges during digital fabrication and making activities as a way to foster personalised learning paths within the eCraft2Learn learning ecosystem. In this paper, we describe the development of the badge system implemented in the eCraft2Learn digital platform. The system supports students’ self-evaluation and promotes a communicative process between students and teachers for badge allocation. Visual representations of the badge system are provided here alongside the underlying pedagogical justifications behind the system development.