Abstract:

Lecturers in higher education face challenges such as lack of student engagement, self-regulation, and situational interest. Our research aimed to identify specific problems in the pedagogical process and address them using digital badges in the Moodle online environment. The literature recognizes the use of badges to overcome the above challenges. In this article, the process of developing a strategy for implementing digital badges in courses such as "Introduction to Programming" and "ICT in Education" is presented. Various aspects of the learning process are addressed: Attendance, persistence in submitting assignments, active participation in various course activities, self-regulation, engagement, and collaboration. The issues were identified through semi-structured interviews with the course instructors and the badging system was developed after an extensive literature review in the field. We considered the particular characteristics of student teachers, which require high levels of empathy and social awareness, communication skills, creativity, innovation, collaboration and a commitment to lifelong learning. The outcome of the research is a badge system that directly addresses the identified issues and characteristics of student teachers, differentiating it from existing systems. We believe that the research findings are important for the development of pedagogical practices in these programs as they provide educators with a conceptual framework and practical strategies for implementing badges as a means of increasing situational interest and active participation in the learning process.

Keywords:

Digital badges, teacher training, badge system development, implementation strategy.