Many of us want our library instruction programs to be centered on our students. Many of the best practices for student centered instruction involve outcomes assessment methods. There is an unfortunate disconnect between the specialized language generated by outcomes assessment methods and the everyday language used by students. All too often the outcomes we want our students to reach are not written in language our students can read.
This session will examine how digital badges are an ideal tool for code-switching (or switching between more and less formal dialects) dense academic language into language targeted for beginning scholars. Using the Creative Commons three-layer license as a model for achieving this code-switch, the session will demonstrate how badges serve as entry points for students and start a trail of bread-crumbs that scaffolds them toward more specialized language after they engage with the basic concepts.
