define a current ecosystem
DESCRIPTION
First assignment for the Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials MOOC. We were asked to: Consider an industry or community of practice where you anticipate that badges could have a positive impact. -- Describe the ecosystem of this industry or community and provide an overview of how it currently works. -- Describe the roles of the primary stakeholders in this ecosystem: learning providers, job seekers, and employers. -- Create personas/archetypes that represent each of the stakeholders. -- Write one or more “before badges” user stories that articulate specific problems or areas needing improvement in this ecosystem.TRANSCRIPT
Employee needs certain number of PD
hours per year
Employee seeks out and
attends training
opportunities
Supervisor reviews
evidence of PD on annual
review
Stan is an entry-level employee in an accounting firm. Employees at the firm are responsible for making sure they complete a certain number of professional development hour per year. Some are required, others they seek out for themselves. In order to prove they completed the required number of hours, employees keep copies of seminar descriptions, certificates of attendance, receipts, whatever artifacts they can, and hope they are accepted. He often thinks he learns as much from online resources, but he can’t prove it, so he attends often boring and uninformative workshops, just so he can get the certificate of attendance.
Anna is the owner of a small company that offers workshops and seminars for a variety of businesses. Each company seems to want something different in terms of verification of participant attendance. Some just want a certificate of attendance, others want some sort of test, and others just want a receipt for payment. She gets frustrated when attendees just show up for the credit, talking, texting, or even sleeping, no matter how engaging she tries to make her workshops.
Barbara is Stan’s supervisor. She reviews and approves PD activities, but generally has to just trust her employees. The certificates of attendance don’t prove they actually learned anything, and she doesn’t know if employees attended sessions at conferences, or just socialized in the lounge. And conferences are expensive! Sometimes it seems like off-site PD is just a nice way to get out of the office, not really try to develop skills.
