Call for an Open Recognition Alliance

In October 2016, a group of educational visionaries met in Bologna and launched the Bologna Open Recognition Declaration (bord), calling for the creation of an Open Architecture for the recognition of all forms of learning. The declaration remains open for public endorsement via signature and the opportunity to claim a badge. (Link)

Since then, recent announcements/events in the community have prompted discussions which  led to the idea to create an Open Recognition Alliance to carry the open recognition vision forward.

Why Do We Need an Open Recognition Alliance?

While Open Badges have demonstrated that we can create a more open space for the recognition of learning, the journey to make all forms of learning recognised has just begun. Most of the work is still ahead of us, whether it is about adoption or changes in practices, mind-sets, technologies, infrastructure, governance and policies.

The first leg of this very exciting journey was made possible thanks to the powerful support of initial sponsors (the Mozilla Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation) followed by the creation of the Open Badge Alliance.

One outcome of this work, the Open Badge standard, has now been transferred to the stewardship of IMS Global, a key international player when in the standardization of learning-related technologies. We should celebrate that event as a sign of the maturity Open Badges have been able to achieve less than 5 years after their inception. This is no small feat!

But apart from the need to provide a safe harbour to the current Open Badge standards, we should also recognise that technical standards are just one element of the bigger picture. Open Badges are also about practices and policies in addition to technology. And they are just one of the possible technologies at our disposal to recognise both formal and informal learning.The recognition of learning itself is just one element in the more general issue of recognition in an open society: how do we recognise the aspirations of individuals, the paths they want to explore, the knowledge, skills and abilities they are pursuing and the roads and bridges they want to build?

We need to explore together the next leg of the recognition journey;  we need to establish a network of networks, organisations and individuals who want to make Open Recognition a reality. The recognition journey needs to explore more innovative practices, technologies and policies. We felt the need to create a space for it. We have named it the Open Recognition Alliance (ORA).

What the Open Recognition Alliance Do?

The initial mission of the Open Recognition Alliance is to explore, imagine and promote a range of practices, researches, technologies and policies supporting open recognition. And to carry out this mission, we need to define a funding and governance model.

We want to open the discussion about the creation of the Open Recognition Alliance to all interested parties. We propose the following agenda:

• Early Development, early 2017

• Exploration of the mission, challenges to address, goals to achieve, funding, governance and incorporation.
• Outreach and partnership development
• Invitation of ORA Ambassadors, making sure to be inclusive of country / state / sector / domain
• Prefiguration of an advisory board
• Community activities: bi-weekly community calls, handling inquiries from interested parties, induction for newcomers
• Formalisation of the Open Recognition Alliance, April 2017:
  • Definition of the mission and governance
  • Initial projects: defined during early development stages

Contact / Join the conversation

Join the conversation January 4th on Uber conference.

• Web: openrecognition.org
• Uber Conference: openrecognition
• Twitter: @openrecognition #openrecognition
• Medium: openrecognition
• Slack: openrecognition (by invitation)
• email: contact@openrecognition.org
• Online forum: TBD

Call authors

• Serge Ravet, ePIC, Europortfolio, France
• Nate Otto, Concentric Sky, USA
• Don Presant, Learning Agents, CanCred.ca, Canada
• Shelly Alcorn, CAE, Alcorn Associates Management Consulting, USA