Open Badges / ICAAFs Project
We aim to develop and strengthen a decentralised accreditation system which empowers learning providers, permaculturists, farmers, and ecosystem restoration practitioners, and the regenerative field as a whole to issue credentials in the form of ‘open badges’; while also operating as a unifying network for regenerative education.
These badges can replace academic credentials, quality certifications such as ‘Organic’ or ‘Fairtrade’, attendance certificates for events, and create entirely new streams such as greater recognition of experiential learning, better recognition of indigenous learning practices, and new monitoring and evaluation processes for land or social/community permaculture projects.
One of the most exciting potential outcomes of the iCAAFS project is the ability for learners to carry over credentials from within the iCAAFS ecosystem of un/learning providers in order to build up to ‘Diploma’, or “Degree’ milestone badges which recognise the lifelong learning pathway of an individual and/or community. This objective requires the commitment of a number of key partners, but we intend to test a prototype milestone qualification by the end of this project lifecycle.
iCAAFS is firmly rooted in permaculture ethics, regenerative practices as well as an intention to embrace indigenous and decolonial forms of un/learning and knowing.
iCAAFS is at present developed to a minimum viable prototype which includes basic documentation of philosophy and use, prototype badges design, platform use, basic business plan, and testing of technology needed to implement.
We are now rolling out iCAAFS to stakeholders representing the most diverse use cases we can imagine in order to test its limitations and discover new possibilities; as well as co-design the detailed documentation and strategy with the end users. We are also developing and launching an iCAAFS onboarding course in order to streamline the un/learning process for new badge designers and issuers.
We intend to set up an advisory board of indigenous and decolonial leaders to inform the direction and philosophy of the iCAAFS project. Partners, badge issuers, and un/learning providers will be invited to participate, create autonomous working groups, and propose designs/projects for iCAAFS for the long term direction. In order to do this we need to co-create a functional participatory organisational design and governance.
Team
Siobhan Vida Ashmole, Andrew Langford
Reporting Officer: Siobhan Vida Ashmole
Area
Training and eLearning, Next Steps Project, Grassroots permaculture project
Objectives 2023
1. Enrol 2-5 case study partners in the iCAAFS program.
2. Document onboarding and badge development process with each new case study partner, obtain feedback early and often, refine this into a case study which can be shared for training and educational purposes.
3. Develop detailed onboarding documentation and codesign this through feedback with initial partners.
4. Identify training course location for best reach and impact.
5. Develop and launch onboarding training course.
6. Together with initial indigenous, BIPOC and decolonial education leaders, create a set of advisory board goals and guidelines for attracting members.
7. Develop funding strategy for advisory board to compensate for work fairly.
OUTCOMEs 2023
iCAAFS is at present developed to a minimum viable prototype which includes basic documentation of philosophy and use, prototype badges design, platform use, basic business plan, and testing of technology needed to implement.
We are now rolling out iCAAFS to stakeholders representing the most diverse use cases we can imagine in order to test its limitations and discover new possibilities; as well as co-design the detailed documentation and strategy with the end users. We are also developing and launching an iCAAFS onboarding course in order to streamline the un/learning process for new badge designers and issuers.
We intend to set up an advisory board of indigenous and decolonial leaders to inform the direction and philosophy of the iCAAFS project. Partners, badge issuers, and un/learning providers will be invited to participate, create autonomous working groups, and propose designs/projects for iCAAFS for the long term direction. In order to do this we need to co-create a functional participatory organisational design and governance.
Objectives 2024
september 2024 update
This quarter, we focused on refining the Open Badges Design course, producing onboarding webinar content, and introducing badge templates for the community. A key development in our business model was the decision to sponsor a few case study partners over the next 15-18 months. This idea came from feedback that even small shared fees might be a barrier during the early launch phase. These partners will test the system and provide valuable feedback for case study documentation.
We’ve already signed up Ikhwelo Healers Collective, an indigenous knowledge collective of healers working on advocacy, social justice, climate change, permaculture, and environmental conservation in Southern Africa; who will use the badges for membership and plan to expand into a points-based system to track participation. This partnership is particularly exciting as it aligns with our focus on indigenous knowledge and un/learning. We hope this connection might extend into shared governance and advisory roles.
For CoLab members who have shown interest but haven’t signed up yet, we’re open to collaborations without shared fees at this stage and encourage members to reach out to the iCAAFS team or contact Vida on vida@gaiau.org
resources created
contact links
We invite anyone in the permaculture/regenerative field with projects and offerings in the following areas:
1. Un/learning (including all types of alternative, indigenous, action and experiential un/learning as well as more formal avenues working on climate/land/community)
2. Certifications of quality for products, projects or organisations (i.e. replacing BCorp, Organic, Fairtrade etc.)
3. Monitoring, Impact and Evaluation
We would love to hear from you, get you involved in iCAAFS codesign, and see your project using open badges. We especially invite elders from decolonial-indigenous backgrounds, and un/learning/M&E/certification providers who are willing and able to contribute to the overall project, to reach out about board opportunities.
You can reach the project lead, Siobhan Vida Ashmole at vida@gaiau.org