Designing Effective Digital Badges

Joey R. Fanfarelli is Assistant Professor of Games and Interactive Media in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media at the University of Central Florida, USA.Rudy McDaniel is Director of the School of Visual Arts and Design and Professor of Games and Interactive Media in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media at the University of Central Florida, USA.

"This is a must-read for badge system designers. The authors summarize key issues in designing digital badge systems in general and in four specific educational settings where badges are likely to be used. Importantly, they embrace a perspective on gamification and incentives that highlights potential pitfalls and helps designers avoid them. The chapters also reference a good deal of relevant research that will help guide further investigation into key issues."—Daniel T. Hickey, Professor in the Learning Sciences Program at Indiana University, USA"Don’t even think about building a badge system until you’ve read this book. McDaniel and Fanfarelli have written a superb instructional guide that will make your brain relax when you start wrestling with the complexity of badge system design. They link together open credentials and serious game design in a way that few have tackled and do a knock-out job showing where both fields connect, creating a clear path forward for designers and their teams."—Sheryl Grant, Senior Advisor for Transformational Learning at OpenWorks Group, USA

• List of Tables and Figures. Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: What Are Digital Badges, and Why Should We Care? I. What Is a Badge, and How Should I Use It? 2. How Are Badging Systems Constructed? 3. What Can Badges Do? 4. How Do Badges Shape Behavior? II. Contexts and Practice 5. Using Badges in Video Games 6. Using Badges in Online Learning Systems 7. Using Badges in Mobile Applications 8. Using Badges in Military Applications III. Evaluation and Evolution 9. Badging System Testing and Evaluation 10. Novelty and Badging 11. Conclusion: The Future of Badging