Learners’ motivation and the perceived value of digital badges in canvas-based leadership MOOCs

Digital badges have evolved as innovative ways of documenting learners’ competencies and participation. They are also believed to steer learners’ behaviour engagement. The primary aim of this study is to explore learners’ perceptions of digital badges’ value in MOOC courses on academic leadership. A mixed methods research design comprised of an online open-ended questionnaire for 62 participants and semi-structured interviews for seven participants was utilised to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The results showed that learners positively perceived digital badges as behaviour motivators, credentials and recognitions, and instructional tools. Moreover, different perceptions of digital badges among groups with different demographic features were shown. Other perceived factors such as badge issuers, visual design, and level of difficulty of the digital badges have influences on learners’ perceptions. In addition, learners’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have a strong, positive relationship with the perceived value of digital badges, whereas amotivation has a very weak or no correlation with it.