Exploring Badging for Peer Review, Extended Learning and Evaluation, and Reflective/Critical Feedback within an Online Graduate Course

The use of digital badges for peer-credentialing web-shared work offers the promise of extending classroom learning beyond explicit course objectives and evaluations. This pilot study of peer-awarded badges examines the results of an online graduate course where students voted on and evaluated the web-shared work of their colleagues on different criteria than used by the instructor, encouraging critical review of colleagues, extending student learning in lateral ways, and suggesting activities for later course work. Although voting was anonymous, student evaluation results were quite consistent across the class and students appeared to have extended their perspective on course content areas (emerging technologies in this case) through the process of peer review. Students expressed warm, cordial communications within the course that may have been enhanced by learning about the personal and professional interests of colleagues through this peer-review process.