Growing the Open Badges Ecosystem

The 2014 Open Badges Summit to Reconnect Learning brought together nearly 300 participants from around the world to set the course for the next evolution of Open Badges, a new approach to assessing learning and recognizing skills and competencies wherever they are learned—in school, on the job, in the community, or online.

For K-12 schools, out-of-school programs, higher education, businesses, and professional organizations, open digital badges are an increasingly popular way to verify and document skills and achievements that are not adequately measured by standardized tests and traditional resumes or diplomas. Open badges emerged through a series of pilot projects like Chicago Summer of Learning and research initiatives like HASTAC, and they have demonstrated the potential for disruptive innovation in the way we learn in today’s connected, digital world.

Held in February 2014 in Silicon Valley, the Summit to Reconnect Learning was the first event to focus on moving Open Badges from the edges of innovation to the mainstream. Throughout the event, a wave of new business and education partners made public pledges committing to help accelerate the spread and scale of digital badges for learning.

The Sprout Fund hosted the event on behalf of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a leader in the Open Badges movement.

Program In Brief