Page 134 - Open and Distance Education In Asia : Good Practice From AAOU Members

114 OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATON IN ASIA
Good Practices from AAOU Members

RESEARCH FINDINGS IN THE LAST FIVE This program was launched in April 2019 and
YEARS AND OTHER NOTEWORTHY the digital badges began to be issued in 2020.
PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES The first series of open online certification
Open universities throughout the world have courses were developed for “Programming
sought to implement available technologies Education Program,” intended primarily for
which are sustainable in given contexts in elementary school teachers.
order to fulfill the missions given to them by
society and government and to realize their The digital badges are technically based on
objectives. When the OUJ was established in IMS Open Badge Version 2 (OBv2) and an
1983, the innovative media were television OUJ Validator site is planned to be launched
and broadcasting. The National Institute of in 2021 for the secondary consumers of the
Multimedia Education (NIME) was organized badges. Every badge has its own metadata
to launch OUJ and to support the research and recipients can confirm the information
and development of broadcasting education. using the AOBA Student Portal. OUJ digital
“Multimedia” in the name of NIME badges are based on Open Badge version 2
referred to broadcasting (TV and radio) and (OBv2, IMS Global Learning Consortium) and
printed materials (textbooks) at that time. the information contained in OBv2 badges
Unfortunately, NIME was abolished in 2009 issued by other institutions can also be
in the midst of the administrative reform displayed. An example of the digital badge
but its functions were partially succeeded and its metadata are shown in Figure 1 and 2.
by research groups and institutes affiliated
with OUJ (currently, the Center for Online Figure 1
Education, COE, established in April 2017). An Image of A Digital Badge*

Digital Badges and Micro Credentials
While the “Lifelong Learning” program
courses do not earn credit that is transferable
to any formal courses at OUJ, “certificates”
are issued after the student fulfills the
completion requirements. The program is
micro-credential-oriented and the course
size is smaller. While the course materials are
delivered through BS-TV or the Internet (i.e. *Issued to certify the completion of
video streaming), the evaluation is held only “elementary school programming education
through the online e-learning system, which program” for teachers. Various metadata
is outsourced to a cloud service provider. information is embedded in the image file
Each online learner fulfills the course (png format)
assessment criteria and the learning platform
automatically issues both printed and
electronic certificates, that is, digital badges.

The Open University of Japan (OUJ)