What is the benefit of the Go2B project? The research question is focussed on the project’s central hypothesesis: whether Open Badges are an effective tool to recognise informal/intercultural learning in European and global school projects and whether the labour market is interested in Open Badges earned by students. Open badging (OB) is an evidence based online system that allows students to showcase the learning experiences gained from ‘learning challenges’, during exchanges authenticated by the badge provider. After the badge is awarded, the student can display the badge via social media platforms and digital applications. The benefit of the open badge standard is that it produces a rich and unique set of data for each participant. Moreover it can interact with other learning record systems and so form a rich landscape with big data tool application. Therefore it is by connecting global badges to intercultural learning that Go2B intends to create a recognised digital standard for intercultural competence, connecting students, schools and businesses. The Open Badge standard has been set up by Mozilla. http://openbadges.org Who are the partners and other stakeholders? There is a balance between the experience and expertise of partners UK partner DigitalMe (a technology-based non-profit company) is the expert in Open Badges delivery in the UK. There are two secondary education schools (Jan van Brabant College in the Netherlands and Vrijde Sint-Lambertus scholen in Belgium) both with extensive experience in international exchanges. The Open University Netherlands University with expertise in all three domains relevant for the GO2B project. Two SME (small and medium sized companies), Euneos in Finland and Jialei in the Netherlands both with expertise in the development of competences, in intercultural learning and in managing a network of schools collaborating with schools wordwide Go2B will produce most of the intellectual outputs in close cooperation with other stakeholders A group of seven schools ( ‘Inner circle ‘group) will take part in testing of the Open Badges Another group with seven more schools will be invited to give intensive feed back (testing period) ‘Wider circle’ with about 65 schools A group of private sector companies Which methodology has been applied to produce the eleven outputs? The Intellectual outputs are interconnected and can be divided in 1. Student centered IO’s. How can the school prepare the students (IO4) in high quality mobilities (IO2) to acquire intercultural competences (IO3)? IO 2. A grid of indicators to identify the quality of intercultural learning during mobility activities IO IO 3. A grid of intercultural competences IO 4. Teaching materials and teaching strategies to prepare students at school 2. Institution centered IO’s . How can the school make sure that the quality and privacy are guaranteed (IO5) and what should be changed in the school policy plan (IO7)? IO 5. A strategy of quality and privacy and IO 7. A model for school policy plans 3. Research centered IO’s. Stocktaking the 'State of the art’ (IO1) and research on the extent to which international exchanges provide a space for young learners to gain intercultural learning skills required by companies, higher education providers, etc.(IO8). 4 Dissemination related IO’s are: Ka1 course design (IO9), two Webinars (IO10), one on-line Masterclass (IO11) Four transnational project meetings, one training event (Netherlands) for teachers and one multiplier event (Netherlands) are included. What is the impact of the project? Students. We expect 200 students of nine schools to take part in the testing period (month 13- 16) and 50 à 100 students to earn badges. Management and teachers of nine schools to adopt the Open Badges approach and the integration of the validation system in the existing Quality Assurance strategy of the school. About ten companies with an interest in intercultural competencies in the workforce will be involved (feed back groups, interviews) Impact on research. Go2b will form one of the first formal European studies into the application of open badges The quality of the outputs will be will assessed by quantified numbers of students, teachers and board members of the schools and of other stakeholders using on-line questionnaires and interviews. External evaluation will be commissioned Dissemination and exploitation. The consortium can inform about 3.000 educators in UK and about 1.000 schools in Europe A dissemination plan will include Website, flyer, two runs of webinars, one run of Masterclass A multiplier event 2017 (150 participants) , presentations on Conferences nationally and internationally, publication by Open University Netherlands and social media, in particular curation via Scoop.it Deliverables will be freely accessible via the website until the end of the Erasmus plus programme A KA1 course on the use of Open Badges for informal learning will be o