Veronica Godshalk

Professor of Business Administration
World Campus BSBIC Program Coordinator
Penn State University, Brandywine Campus
TLT Faculty Fellow
Focus Area: Digital Badges

One of our carry-over themes this year is Digital Badges. Ronnie Godshalk, Professor of Business Administration at Penn State Brandywine, has an interest in implementing badges to link program learning goals in the World Campus’ B.S. in Business to digital badges, allowing learners to earn digital badges that showcase evidence tied to specific learning goals. One of the motivations for badges is the ability of potential employers to see actual evidence of learning, when considering our students.

Currently, in the literature, digital badges are also described as open badges which allow learners to share their earned badges with others, most importantly, potential employers. The concept of open badges is under development by Mozilla, and other researchers, so learners can show evidence of skill competency potentially for career advancement. This opportunity to share evidence-based badges may create impetus in learners to earn badges.

Ronnie has already surveyed students and employers regarding the types of badges that have the most appeal. Common themes from both students and employees were leadership, time management, and diversity.