Digital badges for deliberate practice: designing effective badging systems for interactive communication scenarios

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of digital badging in technical and professional communication for supporting deliberate practice, or practice that is done with intent to improve a skill or ability. The focus is on deliberate practice as it relates to information design and writing within interactive environments. Deliberate practice is deconstructed into its required components with connections established between these components, badges, and best practices in the literature. Relevant theories are discussed and examples are used to demonstrate strategies for implementing badging systems for deliberate practice within technical and professional environments. The takeaway from this paper is that digital badging systems present opportunities to foster deliberate practice. This practice can then improve a variety of skills and abilities within complex environments, both for improving design and better training end users. Our paper synthesizes findings from the literature to suggest a number of best practices for designing opportunities for useful deliberate practice using digital badges.