What do you do if nobody applies for the Open Badges on offer for your conferences, webinars, training sessions or other events? When 100s of participants return fewer than two or three applications? If this sounds familiar then you’re not alone. It’s reason number one for new badge issuers faltering at the first hurdle and for the prevalence of junk badges awarded for little more than attendance.
The good news is there are plenty of proven solutions to help increase uptake. But, before looking at those, it’s important to talk about what you shouldn’t do. Things you you might be tempted or pressured by others to consider.
- Do not remove the evidence requirement and automatically award the badge. You’ll get a reputation for issuing low quality badges and event participants will get no value from them.
- Do not write badge evidence for participants. It destroys the chances of learning transferring into the real world and signals to participants it’s okay for them take a back seat and be a passive observer.
- Do not make the badge criteria any easier than it needs to be. Reducing required wordcounts, dropping reflective writing requirements or removing activities or questions just to increase uptake is always a bad move. You’ll reduce the value of the badge and it’s potential to assist the learning process.
- Do not do away with the badge altogether. This benefits nobody.
With that out of the way, let’s look at the very first thing we should do.
Ask participants why they didn’t apply
Reach out to people who didn’t apply for the badge and, quite simply, ask them why.
Speaking to people will give you an insight into where things went wrong. Conversations are ideal, but surveys or emails can be a good way of pinpointing the people you want to have the conversation with.
Don’t expect anyone you approach to suddenly go out and apply for the badge especially if months have passed. However, what you find out should help with future events.
Check participants know about badges
One reason why people don’t show an interest in badges is because they don’t know what they are, they’ve never heard of them before. They don’t know what the benefits are and how they improve on traditional recognition methods.
At the event itself, it’s important to introduce badges – even if it’s only a five-minute introduction. A demonstration of how to apply for the event badge is a necessity and should preferably come at a point in the event where people are unlikely to miss it.
Handouts explaining the event badge should be on every chair or in the event pack. Make sure people are told where to find these, they can easily get lost amongst all the other materials participants may collect.
You can also make sure you have people on hand throughout the event to explain and sell the concept of badges to participants.
Prepare your participants
Someone is far more likely to apply for your badge if they already have an outline of what they need to submit as evidence.
At intervals throughout the event, remind people of the badge criteria and give them time to think and jot down ideas what they will submit as evidence for the badge. Keep asking people:
- what was important to you there
- how might you make use of that – what will you do?
If people get stuck with this then spend time time with them as this is not just an issue for badge take-up but with the learning as a whole. If your event has clearly defined business outcomes then don’t be afraid to be prescriptive here, tell people exactly what you expect them to go back into the workplace and do.
All of this takes up time but it means participants leave with a clear idea of what they need to do next and an outline of what they will speak about in their reflective account. The the hardest part over for them, they have a plan and they just need to execute it.
Stay in touch with participants
Stay in touch with participants in the weeks following the event by including information about badges, their benefits and how to apply in any after event materials you send out.
After two weeks, collect anonymous quotes or highlights from reflective accounts already received and distribute these in an email to inspire and remind participants who have still to apply.
If anyone has not applied after three weeks, you should contact them by phone to make they have the support they need to complete the learning transfer process. If the participants were sponsored by an organization, you may also report back to the sponsor with a reminder that participants need support and facilitation to complete their badge activity.
Make the badge mandatory
Make the badge mandatory by stressing to participants and other stakeholders, like their managers, they will not achieve the learning requirements or pass until they have applied for the badge with an evidence submission that meets its criteria. Attendance alone is not enough.
Making the badge application a mandatory requirement for learning may increase the number of submissions, but it may also lead to poor-quality submissions and underperformance.
People without experience with reflective writing or self-directed learning may struggle and become stressed. This option should only be considered as a last resort, and only if you have the resources to fully support every participant.
Summary
- Resist temptation to remove the learner from the badge award process.
- Ask learners and other stakeholders why they didn’t want the badge.
- Explain the benefits of badges and how the application process works.
- Prepare participants as much as possible during your event.
- Stay in contact with your learners and other stakeholders in the weeks following your event.
- Make a badge mandatory only as a last resort.
You can download the slide deck mentioned in this blog post as either a PDF or Microsoft PowerPoint file.