Here’s a real “meta” scenario:  An online graduate-level course about the use of games and badges in learning — being offered in BadgeOS, replete with Credly and Mozilla-compatible badges for the learners taking the course.

Susan Manning, Ed.D. leads this four-week course entitled, “Using Games for Learning and Assessment.”  It is offered by the University of Wisconsin-Stout, through their School of Education’s Online Professional Development program.

From the course description:

Designed for educators and trainers interested in learning about game-based learning and assessment. Explore quests, incentives like badges, the core tenants of game-based learning and how it supports the inquiry process. Get your game on and gamify learning for your students!

Integration of interactive games and simulations with the curriculum, implications for effective assessment. Use of games to support collaboration, problem-solving, decision-making and to increase motivation and engagement in the classroom including benefits and drawbacks.

We are delighted to be supporting this new badge-empowered course for adult learners. We’ll feed what we learn back into the BadgeOS Project, while the students feed their badges into their Open Badge Backpack.

The University of Wisconsin-Stout joins groups like the Smithsonian, Yale University, the NYC Department of Education, MoneyWizdom, and the American Association for State and Local History who are offering programs via BadgeOS as part of an initial wave of early-adopting, digital badge-issuing organizations.  We’ll share more soon about each of the above.

P.S. Check out the 100th LT GreenRoom podcast, co-hosted by Susan Manning and Dan Balzer:

http://www.ltgreenroom.org/episodes/251

This episode addresses the great meaning that ultimately can come from casual conversations, chance meetings, and seized opportunities.