Microcredentials – what’s in store for 2024
Everyday, someone seems to add a new piece to the microcredential jigsaw puzzle and without the picture on the cover to guide us, it’s a pretty confused and confounding space. We still haven’t even been able to agree if they are ‘microcredentials’, ‘micro-credentials’ or ‘micro credentials’.?
However as governments and international bodies like UNESCO start to formalise definitions for standards and quality assurance, microcredentials are becoming increasingly mainstream and different use cases are evolving.? In the conversations I’ve been having with colleagues across the higher education sector some common opportunities and challenges are emerging as the topics to tackle in 2024.
Supporting access and equity
For many, higher education is out of reach – duration, cost and physical location are all barriers to access.? Online microcredentials break down these barriers and provide people who don’t have the time, money or confidence, access to learning that will help support their career – shortening the learn to earn timeframe.? If the microcredential is also credit bearing this can be an accessible way to start on the path to higher education.? But we need to ensure that cheaper doesn’t mean lower quality.? Microcredentials should be subjected to the same quality assurance processes as any other teaching and learning activities to ensure they offer both standalone value and meaningful pathways.?
Credible digital evidence of skills and capabilities
As the credential ecosystem matures, the distinctions between microcredentials and digital credentials are becoming clearer.? A digital credential is digital evidence and could be many things, for example a drivers licence or a travel visa. Whereas a microcredential is used almost exclusively with learning or skills development and when you successfully complete a microcredential – you get a digital credential as evidence.?
These digital credentials are the backbone of Learning and Employment Records (LER) that are machine readable and form a digital record of learning and employment achievements.?? As AI powered employment and career marketplaces become more prevalent, the need for digital credentials that make skills and capabilities explicit will become essential.? Giving your learners a PDF or a pretty badge isn’t enough – give them usable metadata in digital credentials that the learners themselves can manage.? SmartResume has a great overview of Leaner and Employment Record ecosystem , which highlights the importance of functional digital credentials, with examples from many US based and global players
The virtual globalisation of education and the workforce
Work from home maybe contentious at the moment but the last few years have shown us some fascinating opportunities of being able to tap into both a global education market and a global talent market.? With new technologies and jobs emerging, microcredentials can fill the need for rapid and targeted upskilling.? However one of the challenges bubbling up here is that whilst industries want the capability and skills uplift for their workforce and the quality assurance from Universities, the credit assessment is expensive and is of more value to the individual.? A B2B model can look quite different than a B2C offering.? One way to tackle this might be to offer 2 phase assessment.? Phase one is automated assessment that provides an industry relevant digital credential and phase two is assessed by the higher education provider and provides a credit bearing digital credential.? An employer could pay for phase one and may offer some employees phase two, or the employees themselves could opt in and pay for phase two, but it would need a different approach to many of the existing models.??
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Interoperability and standardisation
If we want learners to adopt a lifelong learning mindset and use microcredentials as pathways into and along higher education, we need to tackle interoperability and standardisation.? I’m not advocating a one size fits all solution but like Lego bricks, different credentials need to fit together so each learner can build their own model.? Standardisation and interoperability ensures learners are not locked into a single provider or needing to deal with onerous RPL or credit transfer processes.? Standardisation is vital and in Australia, unlike many other jurisdictions we don’t even have a standardised credit system.? For example if you do a university subject ?you get vastly different credit from different universities, eg. ?Deakin – 1 credit point, Melbourne Uni – 12.5 credit points, The University of Sydney – 6 credit points.? The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is one example of how this can work that has been adopted broadly across Europe and beyond.?
Pathways into degree
Entry requirements also need to be addressed - at its simplest we have entry requirements to ensure that students who enrol in degrees are at an appropriate level to be capable of successfully completing the course of study, so universities ask for evidence such as prior qualifications, language proficiency or professional experience.? I would like to suggest that if learners can successfully complete microcredentials that give credit into a degree, they have demonstrated they are capable of studying at that level and should be accepted into that degree without needing to pass any further hurdles.?
These are just a few of the opportunities and challenges ripe for tackling in 2024, and I’m sure there are many more keeping some of us awake at night.? Love to hear what others think are the hot topics in short form and lifelong learning.
Wendy Palmer
Principal Consultant
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Executive Officer at Victorian Curriculum Maintenance Management Service
8 个月Good insights into possible ways forward Wendy. Suggest you have a look at Rich Skills Descriptors. These provide the meta data you are looking for to incorporate learning achievements into digital credentials. Add a standardized credit system across all education sectors and we would have the seamless skill and knowledge development system that we truly need for the 21st century. It is long past the time that our historically discrete education sectors which evolved for very different purposes realized that an advanced nation needs something much more coordinated and connected.
Product @ Shift iQ | M.Ed., D.C.
9 个月This is such a great point, Wendy Palmer: "I would like to suggest that if learners can successfully complete microcredentials that give credit into a degree, they have demonstrated they are capable of studying at that level and should be accepted into that degree without needing to pass any further hurdles." With streamlined processes and lower cost to enter compared to a traditional degree, this seems like a logical starting point for many individuals and something institutions of higher education should highly consider.
Innovator ??Educator ??Facilitator ?? Mentor??Social Capitalist ?? Regional Business Advocate ??Speaker ?? Phd Candidate ?? Young Person and Future Skills Advocate
10 个月Amanda Cole Chanelle Swanepoel
Curiously investigating skills, employability, data, recognition, mobility and more
10 个月Thank you Wendy Palmer for highlighting the metadata within digital credentials. This is the evidence and trust layer that is so important as the market explores recognition of learning across all of our life experiences or our constellation of life experiences - thanks Candy Ho (何甜茵)
Academic Director, Educational Innovation on the unceded lands of Wurundjeri country
10 个月I like the way you've started to unpack the qualities or characteristics of digital credentials compared with (digital) micro-credentials in this insightful blogpost. I, too, am looking forward to the day with employers and learners stop asking for PDF of their learning 'outputs' - and start to tap into the affordances of the digital ecosystem to go deeper in how we create and represent the evidence of learning. This also means that we (providers) will need to get much better on how we represent that evidence of learning in say, metadata of the micro-credentials; eg through our design of badges, Personal Evidence Records, or other ways such as you mention LERs - and of course there are digital wallets etc. I think this is an emerging conversation that needs further thinking and discussion - and working with all stakeholders in the micro-credential and skills ecosystems so that we design and develop useful and meaningful representations to employers, learners, as well as meet the needs of providers. I'm glad you've put it on our 'road maps' for 2024, Wendy!