Registration is now closed for this free event. Email info@cancred.ca if you want to be put on a waiting list to take advantage of any cancellations.

Help us transform Open Badges into alternative credentials that build our workforce

Come to learn and collaborate at this cross-sectoral workforce design lab, organized by Kwantlen Polytechnic University's Teaching and Learning Commons in partnership with CanCred.ca.

Help us build:

• More useful ways to recognize learning, development, capability and achievement in our organizations, professions, institutions and communities.
• Better pathways to career success by working with peers and colleagues across sectors.
• Alternative credentials that work, based on Mozilla Open Badges.

What if Open Badges* were more than digital doggie biscuits for the gamification of learning? What if they were portable credentials that could carry human capital forward, helping learners and workers build trust and connections in new life situations? What if they helped all kinds of people make transitions from secondary to post-secondary education, education to employment and professional recognition, between careers or even between countries for immigrants and refugees?

This is already happening elsewhere. How can we make this work here? How can we build on what we already do? How can we learn from what's already working elsewhere and adapt it here?

Help us build an open learning and recognition network and build your own professional network as you learn in our pop-up workforce design lab.

Living Agenda

Features "Instigator talks": thought leaders with short (5 min) inspiring success stories, case studies, works in progress, future use cases. Their talks will trigger popup design sessions.

• 0800-0900: Registration, Continental Breakfast
• 0900-0915: Welcome: Alan Davis, President of KPU
  
• 0915-1000: Open Badges 101: Don Presant, Learning Agents, Nate Otto, IMS Global
  Fast paced cross-sectoral overview, with crowd-sourced feedback
  
• 1000-1030: Adult Workforce
  - Adult Education/Literacy: Diana Twiss, Decoda Literacy Solutions
  - Associations/Recognizing Learning - Patrick Donahoe, Chair, Cdn. Assoc. for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA)
  - Staff Development: Krista Lambert, JIBC Centre for Teaching, Learning & Innovation
  - Workforce Competencies: Jeff Griffiths, (for Canada West Foundation's Human Capital Policy Centre)
  - Examples from elsewhere: Don Presant, CanCred.ca
  
• BREAK
• 1045-1115: Under 18s
  - BC Curriculum Reform: Chris Kennedy, Superintendent of Schools/CEO, West Vancouver Schools
  - STEAM in Schools: Templeton High School/BCIT/SAP (video)
  - Community Maker Spaces: Dethe Elza, Vancouver Maker Education Community
  - Examples from elsewhere: Don Presant, CanCred.ca
• 1115-1215: Popup design session (Adult & Under 18)
  
• 1215-1300: LUNCH (provided)
• 1300-1330: Post-Secondary Education
  - Horizontal Learning, 3D Graduates: David Porter, eCampus Ontario
  - Open Educational Practices, Open Badges & ePortfolios: Tracy Penny Light, Thompson Rivers University
  - Work Integrated Learning (WIL) at a Large Employer: Tom Murad, Siemens Canada Engineering and Technology Academy (SCETA)
  - WIL for employer networks: Chuck Hamilton and Dana Stephenson, Riipen
  - Open Badges in Scottish Colleges: Marie Cheung, Service & UX Designer (formerly wearesnook)
  
• 1330-1400: Open Recognition Networks
  - Setting goals, tracking impact: Susanna Gurr, BC Centre for Employment Excellence
  - Open Badges as learning data: Victor Glickman, Edudata Canada
  - Open Badge Networks: Nate Otto, Open Recognition Alliance / IMS Global
  - Examples of emerging Open Badge Networks: Don Presant, Open Recognition Alliance
• BREAK
• 1415-1515: Popup design session (PSE & Building a Regional Network)
  
• 1515-1600: Reflection, next steps, final remarks

Inspired by other communities

To envision a "BC Skills Network" of the future, the Forum will be applying practices from similar networks and events, such as:

• the 2016 Digital Badge Summit in Colorado
• the 2016 ePortfolio and Identity Conference (ePIC) in Bologna
• London's 2016 Mozfest
• Europe's Open Badge Network
• Pittsburgh's Remake Learning Network
• Collective Shift's Cities of LRNG across the United States

* What are Open Badges?

Open Badges are electronic credentials (eCredentials) of skills and achievement. They contain detailed information about how they were obtained, making them transparent and useful. Based on a common digital standard, they can be shared over networks and social media like LinkedIn. They can help individuals build their careers and employers find the skills they need.

(See image larger: right-click, select "View Image")

Benefits of Open Badges include:

• A visual language for Competency Based Education - badged skills frameworks create clear pathways for learning, career development and talent management
• The ability to recognize lifewide learning: formal, nonformal and informal
• A portable standard that makes it easy to recognize and integrate external learning certificates
• Self-directed learners can advance at their own pace along their own pathways
• Increased workforce engagement and retention, especially for Millenials, by recognizing lifewide skills and achievements
  

Well over 10 million Open Badges have been issued since they were invented by Mozilla Foundation in 2011. They have been adopted in diverse sectors all around the world: by educational institutions such as Open University, by professional organizations such as the Scottish Social Services Council and by large employers such as IBM and Siemens.

FAQs

What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
Parking and Transit

How can I contact the organizer with any other questions?
Email us at info@cancred.ca