Note:

If you want to create a new page for developers, you should create it on the Moodle Developer Resource site.

OpenBadges User Documentation

From MoodleDocs

Note: This page is a work-in-progress. Feedback and suggested improvements are welcome. Please join the discussion on moodle.org or use the page comments.


Status:

development in progress (MDL-35073)

Background

This document describes how to use openbadges feature developed by TotaraLMS.

The code is available on github at totara/openbadges. You can use it to install your own site (Please don't use this code on a production site yet. This is still work in progress!), or you can try out our test site at openbadgestotara. This test site has the external backpack connections and admin access disabled, but you can play around as a teacher (to create badges) or a student (to earn them).

Test site login credentials:

username: teacher
password: teacher
username: student
password: student


If you would like to give us any feedback, please use this openbadges forum, or email to Yuliya Bozhko.

Using Open Badges Feature

There are two categories of badges:

  • Site badges - available to users site-wide and related to the site wide activities, like finishing a set of courses.
  • Course badges - available to users enrolled in the course and related to the activities that happen inside of this course.

The main differences between badge types are the available criteria and the location within the navigation menus.

Badges administration

Site administrators and users with capability "moodle/badges:manageglobalsettings" can set up general settings for badges such as default issuer name, url, contacts, and enable course badges or external backpack connections. These settings are used to populate relevant fields of a new badge form and can be changed by a badge creator if necessary.

0 settings.png

Creating badges

Badges can be created by users with capability "moodle/badges:createbadge". By default, this capability is set for manager, course creator, and editing teacher roles.

1 newbadge.png

After a badge has been created, users can check its details on overview page.

2 created.png

Managing badges

On "Manage badges" page in course or site administration, all existing badges are displayed in a table showing current badge image, name, status, criteria, how many users have already earned this badge, and a set of available actions.

8 management.png

Depending on user role and permissions, the following actions are available in badge management:

9 actions.png

Note: Availability of activate and deactivate actions depends on the current status of a badge (e.g. if a badge is active, users will see deactivate action icon).

Before a badge has been issued to at least one user, all its details and settings can be edited. Use "Edit badge" action icon to access badge editing options.

To set up badge criteria, navigate to "Criteria" tab and select a required option. Criteria are added one at a time with additional options available for each criteria.

3 select-criteria.png

For example, when a user selects "Manual issue by a role" requirement, they will be prompted to select which roles can award the badge and what rules apply to this requirement.

4 add-manual.png

After criterion is set and added, it will be displayed among current badge criteria.

5 added-manual.png

To edit a body and subject of a message which users get upon earning the badge, go to "Message" tab.

Among additional options here are "Attach badge to message" which allows adding an image file to an email and "Notify badge creator" which sends a notification to a badge creator when badge is awarded (this option is available in course badges only).

6 message.png

"Award" tab displays a list of users who have already earned this badges.

14 viewawards.png

Earning badges

Once all criteria are set and badge creator is happy with badge details and settings, site users can start earning it. For users to be able to earn a badge, it first needs to be activated by a badge creator/administrator on a badge overview page or "Manage badges" page (as shown on the picture).

Only active badges are available to users and can be earned!

7 activate.png

Normally, badges are awarded to users automatically based on their actions in the system. Completion criteria of an active badge are re-calculated every time an event such as completion of a course or activity, or updating user profile happens. If a user completed all necessary requirements, they are issued a badge and sent an email notification.

11 email.png

Badges that have manual award among their criteria can be issued by one user to another. Users who issue a badge must have "moodle/badges:awardbadge" capability. Site administrators can choose their role when issuing a badge.

10 award.png

Important Note: Currently, once a badge has been issued, it cannot be revoked. So, make sure that you are giving a badge to the right users.

Displaying badges

Newly earned badges are added to a private user badge collection which can be managed on "My badges" page from "My profile" options menu. On "My badges" page users can view all earned badges and their details, download these badges, manage their visibility on user profile, and perform search through the badges. If a badge has expired, "Expired" indicator will be added to a badge image. Such badges are still displayed on a user profile page.

If external backpack connections are enabled on the web site, there will also be option related to external badges management.

13 mybadges.png

All badges earned by a user can be displayed on their profile page.

12 profile.png

When users click on a badge, they are redirected to a page with issued badge details. On this page, badge owners can download an image file or send it directly to their Mozilla backpack (if external backpacks are enabled in site global settings).

15 issued.png

Another option for users to see their latest badges is through "My badges" block that can be added to such pages as "My Home" page. Block can be configured to display a certain number of badges (it displays 10 badges by default).

Connecting external backpack

If administrator has allowed using external backpacks on the web site, users can set up connection to their backpack in "External Badges" section of "My badges" page.

Before connecting to external backpack, make sure that you have set up account in the backpack and have a public group of badges available to display.

Important Note: Currently, only connections to Mozilla Backpack is available. Once more backpack providers are available to us, we will extend this functionality with an option to choose user preferred backpack service.

When setting up a backpack connection for the first time, users will be prompted to add their email in the backpack and select a group of badges to display.

16 backpack.png

If backpack connection is successfully established, a user will see the results on their "My badges" page. In case of error (like, no user with such email exists, or there no public groups of badges available), users will be redirected back to "My badges" page to start backpack connection process over again.

17 backpack2.png

External badges will be displayed on the user profile page under public "Local badges" section. All badges from the backpack are considered to be public and their visibility in not managed locally. As well, the badges earned on the current web site and pushed to a backpack by the user are not filtered out from the list external badges.