Longwood University MOOC Offers High School Students Post-Secondary Readiness Skills While Earning Badges
NEW YORK, NY – October 31, 2012 – Using the innovative BadgeOS learning platform, Longwood University in Farmville, Va., is offering a post-secondary readiness MOOC program for high-school students this year. The noncredit course, called “5 Skills You Need to Succeed: What Employers Want You to Know,” teaches communication and presentation skills, critical thinking, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, and how to successfully navigate the work world. BadgeOS allowed Longwood University to easily create a very unique MOOC program that would include badge-based rewards to increase participation and retention.
“We are establishing a new paradigm for learning in education,” stated Dr. Nicholas Konrad Langlie, director of planning and policy in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. “With the help of BadgeOS, we have created an interactive online course that incorporates gaming elements to increase engagement and foster retention. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, but it would not have been possible without the BadgeOS team’s expertise and learning platform.”
Jonathan Finkelstein, director of the BadgeOS Project and founder and CEO of Credly, said, “This MOOC is an example of why we created BadgeOS. Dr. Langlie created a visionary program that will have a real impact on students working to improve their life and work-readiness skills. We are eager to see the progress of Dr. Langlie’s important program.”
About BadgeOS™
BadgeOS is a first-of-its-kind learning platform that fosters and recognizes individual learning and community involvement through microcredentials and badges. The BadgeOS approach empowers and encourages learners to master new skills and knowledge, while engaging with others in a social give-and-take that builds one’s value to the community and network of connections. Learners earn badges that they take with them for life, demonstrating to the world what they know and how others value their contributions. The BadgeOS system is an ideal vehicle for building learning experiences around existing materials, subject matter expertise and open educational resources (OER), and for recognizing the informal and social learning that happens both in and out of institutional settings. For more information visit: www.BadgeOS.org.
About Longwood University
Longwood University is an institution of higher learning dedicated to the development of citizen leaders who are prepared to make positive contributions to society. Longwood offers more than 100 majors, minors, and concentrations to just under 5,000 students. Founded in 1839, Longwood offers undergraduate programs in business administration, education and human services, the arts and sciences, plus graduate programs in English, education, sociology, communication sciences and disorders, and business administration. Longwood is one of the few colleges and universities in the country to require internships or research projects of all students.
