Exploring pharmacy students' interest in digital badges.

INTRODUCTION

Digital badging may address the need to document skills developed in the co-curriculum. This study examined students' perceptions of the value, motivating factors, and challenges for participating in digital badging.

METHODS

An online survey was emailed to first, second, and third year pharmacy students at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Year in school, pharmacy grade point average, organizational membership, and level of organization leadership was obtained. The survey used a five-point Likert rating and consisted of: nine perceived values categorized as value for recognition, motivation for participation, and learning; eleven motivating factors including intrinsic and extrinsic; and seven challenges for pursuing a digital badge. Overall likelihood to pursue a digital badge, motivating factors to pursue a digital badge, and top potential badge options were also queried. Appropriate statistical tests were performed to determine associations with variables and likelihood to pursue a digital badge.

RESULTS

A total of 116 usable responses were received (48.9% response rate). A majority indicated that digital badges had perceived value for all three categories queried. Both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators were important in predicting likelihood to pursue a digital badge. The influence of challenges did not explain the variations in likelihood to pursue a digital badge. Leadership and community engagement were the top two desired digital badges.

CONCLUSIONS

Survey data provided insights for determining best practices for designing a digital badge to differentiate skills among students. Further research and evaluation of an implemented digital badge is necessary for defining best practices in digital badging.