Open Badge a scopo formativo: resoconto di una esperienza didattica in ambito universitario.

This paper questions the possibility to use Open Badge for educational goals. A pilot experience was carried out in the Department of Education, Roma Tre University. The OBs were designed by the author and assigned to the students who successfully performed the laboratory activities within her course, titled «Comunicazione di Rete». The online Cooperative Learning laboratory engaged 31 students in the construction of a digital product and in the activation of the communication and relational modalities required in the online learning communities, as recommended by the related scientific literature. All the planned activities have been indicated in specific operating protocols, and rigorously monitored using a checklist and a rubric. The assignment of the OB allows to declare that the subject has acquired a methodology fostering the development mediation, collaboration and cooperation skills. Not all students earned the OB, but all those who have earned it have passed the exam with excellent results. Despite the inevitable critical features of a pilot project, the observation data seem to confirm the line of research that guided the activity: the use of the OB for educational purposes lies in its capability to make other-directed evaluation processes transparent and to promote forms of self-evaluation and self-direction