Output O7 – Quality assurance

Intellectual Outcome O7 is dedicated to the quality assurance (QA) of the project, and more generally for the QA of the Open Badge system: developing tools for the QA of Open Badge initiatives. The project’s QA includes formative evaluation of processes and methodologies and summative evaluation to guarantee the quality and reliability of deliverables and outcomes. O7 also investigates quality aspects of the Open Badges system.

O7A1_Open Badges and Quality Management
The Discussion Paper focuses on the quality aspects of the varied spectrum of Open Badge (OB) initiatives. The document covers the different aspects of QA from initial badge design, assessment, delivery to evaluation for different types of badges, OB awarders, OB receivers, other OB users and OB infrastructure. This document encourages discussion on quality issues during the project period, by the OB community beyond the project partnership.

O7A2 Quality Plan
The plan is only for use within the project. It describes the agreed rules of working communication and relationship amongst the partners, methods and formats of cooperation within the partnership. It also describes the working methods for planning the work, obtaining inputs from all the partners, raising alerts and implementing corrective actions. Annexes provide formats for final delivery of project documents and outcomes.

O7A3 QA implementation
Quality Implementation of this project by the partners is the formative and summative evaluation of the project’s processes and outcomes. The tools and reports delivered by the evaluating partner help to monitor progress within the project and to serve as the “critical friend” role so crucial for quality of the deliverables. Periodical reports bring suggestions to the project management team about any issues which might arise.

O7A4 Open Badge Quality Management Guidelines
This publication is based on the Discussion Paper O7A1 and feedback from the OB community. The Guidelines relate to the quality of Open Badges, are published on the project website and serve as recommendations for other OB issuers, receivers and users.