[Edu-sig] School of Webcraft (Mozilla and P2PU) - Invitation to advise on our Python Badge criteria

[Pippa Buchanan]

Dear members of the Python Edu SIG,

School of Webcraft
<http://new.p2pu.org/en-US/schools/school-of-webcraft/>is a community
offering and developing a set of peer-driven courses on open
web development freely available via Peer 2 Peer
University<http://new.p2pu.org>(P2PU) in partnership with
Mozilla <http://mozill.org>. We've had a number of Python courses and study
groups set up within School of Webcraft. We'd like to invite the Python Edu
SIG to help improve these popular offerings and in particular to help us
develop the criteria for peer-assesment on Python competencies.

Together with the Open Badges <https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges> project
we're developing an assessment and badge pilot
<http://badges.p2pu.org/>with the goalof providing alternative
pathways to certification and credentialing<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges>.
Learners can take a series of peer-reviewed assessments to demonstrate their
skills, completing assessment successfully earns them badges they can share
with stakeholders such as potential employers. Currently the badge pilot is
available to School of Webcraft participants.

We feel these efforts will not only further the  impact of informal and peer
learning channels, but also give us the  opportunity to be further innovate
with assessments. We are working hard to  create assessments that are
authentic and relevant to web developers, to capitalize on their existing
portfolio where possible and to inspire  continued learning and growth
during the assessment process.

Assessments we have piloted so far have avoided standard multiple choice,
but instead are based around challenges or exercises  and narratives, with
an aligned rubric to assess against. Here are two  examples of two different
levels of assessments we are currently  running:

   - Javascript basic:
   http://badges.p2pu.org/questions/1/javascript-basic-badge-challenge
   - Javascript expert:
   http://badges.p2pu.org/questions/2/javascript-expert-badge-challenge

We are writing you to enlist your help in creating/identifying additional
assessments for both Beginners and Advanced Python badges for the second
phase of the badge pilot.

By helping us out on this pilot you'll be developing tangible and meaningful
ways for employers and Python developers to measure and identify their
skills beyond the vague "rockstar" status. In recognition of involvement in
the pilot the Python Edu SIG will be  listed and linked as advisors for the
relevant badges.

We would benefit greatly from  your insight into what the key elements of a
rubric should be, as well  as ideas around potential challenges or
exercises. The model we have been using is:

   - Assessment challenge/instructions
   - Rubric to assess against (aka, "A Python Expert is someone who...."

Again, please see the links above as examples of the  model we have been
currently using. We are not adverse to other ideas or  models, but we do
want to continue to strive for authentic and highly  relevant assessments
wherever possible.

We are moving very quickly with this so please let  us know if you have some
ideas you can pass along.

Thanks in advance for  your help with this important effort.

Erin Knight <http://twitter.com/#%21/eknight>, Badge and Assessment Lead,
Mozilla and P2PU
and
Pippa Buchanan <http://twitter.com/#%21/pipstar>, School of Webcraft
Community Lead, Mozilla and P2PU

To become further involved with the School of Webcraft please join our
discussion
list <http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft>  or create or
participate in study groups or courses.
<http://new.p2pu.org/en-US/schools/school-of-webcraft/>
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