Digital Badges in Online Medical English Study Course: Learning Design and Students' Perceptions

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00784
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: Shimane University
• Principal Investigator: IWATA JUN 島根大学, 学術研究院医学・看護学系, 教授 (00280438)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 汪 曙東 島根大学, 学術研究院教育研究推進学系, 准教授 (50435046)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: デジタルバッジ / マイクロクレデンシャル / 医学英語教育 / ESP / eラーニング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated the impact of the use of “digital badges” in our online reading course in Medical English. We developed learning tasks on Moodle. Students were instructed to complete these tasks before class. When these tasks were successfully completed, digital badges were issued and displayed on their portfolio on Moodle. We expected that the badges would help encourage students’ learner motivation.
After the 14-week class was finished, an online survey was carried out to investigate students’ perceptions about the use of digital badges. The results showed that 81.1% students found that the badge system was helpful in confirming that they had completed the tasks. The results also showed that 64.2% students found the badges influenced their learning motivation. These findings in our study indicate that the digital badge system can be a powerful tool to motivate learners to work on their learning tasks more autonomously.

Free Research Field

医学英語教育学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ビジネスや工学分野の専門英語学習eラーニング教材は開発例が多いが、医学英語学習教材は、ニーズがありながらも学習者数が限られており、開発例が少ない。加えて「ジャンル分析」によって精選した素材やトピックをもと作成されたリーディング学習教材は例を見ず、新規性を有している。
学習達成状況を可視化する「デジタルバッジ」を導入することで、学習効果だけでなく、学習への動機を高め、学習者の自律的学習を促進する効果が期待される。このような機能を取り入れた教材開発例はないことから、本課題の教材開発手法とその有効性に関する研究成果は、学術的意義が高く、他の専門分野英語学習eラーニングへの応用と発展が期待される。