Digital badges offer a way of accrediting skills often unrecognised by formal qualifications; skills essential to success at college and beyond. The aim of this 2017/19 digital recording of English and maths (DREAM) outstanding teaching, learning and assessment (OTLA 3) project by Eastleigh and East Sussex colleges was to see if using digital badges towards Functional Skills and GCSE qualifications in maths and English improves learner motivation, achievement and employability. By the end of the project, nearly 400 learners across the two colleges enrolled with the Open Badge Academy.

In their Outstanding Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (OTLA 3) project in 2017/18 Kendal College and HMP Haverigg built on a previous Education and Training Foundation (ETF) project piloting the 'Effective Practice Guidelines' (EPGs) for assessment and tracking.  They tested EPG-recommended approaches, such as ‘limiting assessment to what is necessary’ and ‘assessing for self-belief and motivation’. They focused on GCSE maths progress (or lack of it) at a microscopic level to enable learners to recognise, record and ‘own’ their progress.

A project addressing the challenges of teaching mandated maths GCSE  to often unmotivated learners.

This action research project, which trialled new exemplar Functional Skills maths and English activities, was part of the ETF Phase 3 Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment programme in 2017/18. The aim was to investigate the newly created activities, to evaluate their effectiveness, and to identify training other teachers might need before using them. The project found that an experienced subject specialist teacher would be able to use the activities but an inexperienced teacher would struggle without guidance.