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Response to Questions: Tweeting Badges?

 

Courtesy New York Times

Questions for Consideration

  • This is a really interesting topic. I'm wondering whether the author identified the age and gender differences in the research? How would different age groups and different genders perform differently?
  • Do you feel that the researchers had enough structure around their research design to reach a solid conclusion? I would think that motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) would play a huge role, but also badge types are many!
The article I reviewed was a 2015 study titled, Tweeting Badges: User motivations for displaying achievement in publicly networked environments. It explores why some online users choose to  display the badges they earn on social media.

All of the questions I received were excellent and insightful. The two above really sparked my curiosity around gender and motivation as they relate to badge display, which remained unexplored in the article I selected. 

The researchers in the study captured some gender data but chose not to pursue an analysis of it. For example, we know that of the 837 surveys sent, only 142 were returned. Of those 142, only 37, or 22%, were women respondents. There is no other mention of gender in the study.

Why was this the case?

Did women actually represent only 22% of those who shared badges on Twitter overall? Or were women just not interested in responding to the survey? And how many of those who did respond fell into the --

 ‘Actually, I did not realize that I had shared the badge/The badge was shared automatically with no purpose’ category? 


Maybe women did not find these sets of badges engaging, or maybe they just aren’t interested in the value of credential displays at all.  

Tenor.com

Two similar studies focusing on digital badge adaption and the perceived value of badges in higher education had similar survey participation issues along gender lines (only 15% and 33% were female) and neither explored the issue of gender-based motivations for digital badge adaption. 

This represents a critical gap in the research, especially when studies like the focus of this review position their findings as providing "recommendations as to how to improve badge-based gamification, particularly across platforms." 

Can you make that claim if you only have half of the gender picture? Or should we just assume that only males are hard-wired to value and display badges like digital birds of paradise?
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We do know that this is not the case when it comes to professional credentials. According to applied economist Leonora Risse, “many [women] sense they need to do more than their male counterparts to prove their worth in the workplace”. In fact, women tend to over-credential themselves in preparation for seeking a higher role.
 
In a surprising example of this, Risse details that it took a Nobel Prize before Canadian physicist Donna Strickland felt comfortable enough to apply for a promotion to full professorship. So shouldn't this focus extend to online credentialing? 

theglobeandmail.com
How do you explain the low female participation rate across these digital badge studies? It could be that the badges in the studies were perceived as too trivial to trigger what Risse describes as their ‘achievement motivation’. They didn’t represent sufficient professional value to bother with. Or maybe they were simply unwilling to respond to yet another unsolicited message sent to them via social media.

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I think this is an interesting a topic that needs further exploration. Understanding what motivates women to pursue and display credentials like digital badges will add to the current motivational research and enable researchers to build badge-based gamification frameworks that are both inclusive and appealing to women.

Kwon, K. H., Halavais, A., & Havener, S. (2015). Tweeting badges: User motivations for displaying achievement in publicly networked environments. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(2), 93-100.

Schwarz, S. J. (2016). Digital badge adoption: earner's perceived educational value.

Dowling-Hetherington, L., & Glowatz, M. (2017). The Usefulness of Digital Badges in Higher Education-Exploring the Student Perspectives. Irish Journal of Academic Practice, 6(1), 1-28.

Risse, L., Farrell, L., & Fry, T. R. (2018). Personality and pay: do gender gaps in confidence explain gender gaps in wages?. Oxford Economic Papers, 70(4), 919-949.




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