Open badge factory project consortium

In modern societies, learning takes place everywhere, a lot of it also in parallel with the objectives of the curricula of formal education. Traditional certificates produced by formal education are important, but along with these new electronic ways to identify and endorse competence are being created. Electronic ways to indicate learning bring a lot of added value when compared with traditional certificates. They also make it possible to indicate competences for which traditional certificates are unsuitable. The solutions that enable the electronic attesting of learning do not actually compete with the traditional certificates, rather, they complement them. The Open Badges standard is a solution which has been developed to indicate competences with the help of electronic learning badges. The Open Badge Factory project consortium that was launched in 2013 will build a service which makes it possible to utilize the badges compliant with the Open Badge concept. The service is being piloted in subprojects. With the help of research, which is being carried out simultaneously with the pilot, the suitability and the effects of the concept are being surveyed from the perspectives of higher education, organizational activities and business. This paper introduces the Open Badge Factory project consortium as well as the challenges faced and observations made so far in connection with the investigation.