Unlike traditional degrees, digital credentials allow potential employers to verify skills and students to showcase these skills
There's no competition with degrees! Degrees are important, are not under attack, and are already good at what they are intended to do. Innovative credentials address needs the degree isn't necessarily intended to address: verifiability of granular skills and the ability for learners to articulate, demonstrate, and narrate their skills.
institutions need clarity to create coherent credentialing ecosystems that are aligned with their mission and the market.
Mission alignment.
Stackable credentials are also critical to the “Some College, No Credential” (SCNC) market, which reached a total of 36.8 million under the age of 65 in the U.S., up 2.9% from the previous year. Recent research from UPCEA and StraighterLine found that 76% of SCNC adults said being able to earn alternative or microcredentials that could stack toward a degree would increase or greatly increase their interest in completing their degree
In other words: 36.8M people have some college, and 76% say the ability to earn formal credentials that stack to degrees would increase their interest in completing their degree. That's 28 MILLION adults who already did post-secondary once and could be re-engaged. The dreaded enrollment cliff is 3M and yet 10x that number of people who already self-selected into college once gets none of the same attention. It's a massive opportunity.
Lack of standard definitions makes it harder for learners to navigate options and for employers to assess value
This assumption needs to be validated. Would standard definitions be a silver bullet for learner navigation and employer value? To wit: We have standard definitions for degrees and yet the navigation and value problems persist in that domain. What if the more important issue is not what to call these programatic containers but rather how to describe the contents of what they contain?
companies with external partnerships that provide employee training or professional development increased from 54% in 2022 to 68% in 2023, and among those without existing relationships, 61% of companies would be interested in developing these partnerships.
Most companies have external partnerships for employee training and the majority of those that do not would be interested in having them.
CVCL_1685
DOI: 10.1002/mc.23910
Resource: (ATCC Cat# CRL-1629, RRID:CVCL_1685)
Curator: @dhovakimyan1
SciCrunch record: RRID:CVCL_1685
Detailed Tables of ContentsCourses that garner high enrollment often present detailed tablesof contents. These structures provide a transparent overview of thecourse content, allowing learners (or corporate purchasers) to assessthe relevance and alignment with their learning objectives. The termsfound in the tables of contents can also play a significant role inimproving search engine optimization (SEO
Table of contents for transparency and helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions. Plus, could impact SEO.
That feels like the kind of distinction employers make between Princeton and The University of Phoenix. They know those providers and can make sound assumptions about job seekers holding credentials from these places and programs
This is a description of common practice, not a valid point about making reliable judgements about credential meaning and quality.
Because there were so many, because there was no regulation or oversight to assure quality or competency, because there was no standardization or segmentation of badges, people had no idea what they meant.
How do we know that this has been a problem? It's conventional wisdom but what validates it?
For existing students, the priority is immediate recognition of skills and knowledge in the major or complementary to the major, helping the student earn a fellowship or prepare for graduate school, to encourage persistence and completion, and to help students compete in the job market
Naming the important learning => encouraging persistence/success => currency that helps access future opportunities
Each microcredential is a substantive learning experience with set learning outcomes and assessments where student work is produced. While community building or participation in meetings or events can be important parts of the student experience, they do not rise to the level of a SUNY microcredential.
Credentials must be credentialing something.
All work is aligned with key pillars set by SUNY’s Board of Trustees and Chancellor John B. King, Jr., including student success; research and scholarship; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and economic development and upward mobility
2 Keys: this synthesizes with student success, research, and other existing priorities; and executive sponsorship is baked in.
employer verification
In addition, this hints at employMENT verification: this could be a light lift sort of Tier 1 entry point for organizations to be both issuing and consuming credentials. Large employers spend a lot of resources responding to requests to verify former workers' employment histories. If part of off-boarding departing workers includes VCs for official employment verification, that could lead to big savings of time and resources (as long as other employers accept the credentials), as well as accelerate hiring processes that sometimes lead to failed hires bc people find another position that starts sooner. For key HR leaders to start with badging from a place of effortlessly improving their efficiency and costs might be a better place to launch than more involved strategies that offer less immediate value propositions.
For nearly half of the lower-wage employment analyzed, we identify at least one higher-paying occupation requiring similar skills in the same metro area. We also find that transitions to similar higher-paying occupations would represent an average annual increase in wages of nearly $15,000, or 49 percent.
Recognition can change the world. Signals need to be valid and trustworthy, but we're so close to making a huge difference in the world through recognition of things that are already there, just hidden in plain sight.
Our vision is for members of the UMBC community to amass hundreds of microcredentials throughout their careers
This is first I've seen this explicitly stated by an organization
Better understanding of what learning described by credentials prepares earners to do in theworkforce, at the skill level. This may be a reframing of competencies toward position descriptionlanguage
Employers want to know what credentials are credentialing, and they want to hear it in their own language. The temptation will be to convince faculty and others to revise descriptions, however the opportunity is in leaving that and instead seeking their consensus and comfort with interpreting their descriptions into the languages of employers.
In the list of top ten skills rising in importance between now and 2027, three relate to self-efficacy: “curiosity and lifelong learning” (ranked fourth), “resilience, flexibility, and agility” (ranked fifth), and “motivation and self-awareness” (ranked eighth).
Durable skills that are valued by Consumers and could be noticed, named, and credentialed.
First, microcredentialsshould be part of thestrategic programportfolio for all institutionsof higher education.Additionally, institutionsshould resource theirmicrocredential activitiesappropriately forsustainability and growth
This requires executive sponsorship and cabinet-level involvement.
only 69% said that senior leadership at their institution has embracedmicrocredentials
Less than 100% and also compelling for the 30% that lack senior leadership embrace to share that "hey, 7 out of 10 leaders do embrace this stuff, so is there a strategic reason why we are choosing to be outliers here?"
(20%) did not include microcredentials as astrategic priority
Implying that 80% DO include microcredentials as a strategic priority
RRID:CVCL_0547
DOI: 10.1002/mc.23752
Resource: (BCRC Cat# 60343, RRID:CVCL_0547)
Curator: @AniH
SciCrunch record: RRID:CVCL_0547
This is often described as a mainreason why qualification systems not opened to all types of credentials
Barrier is about burden to status quo...if sustainable process existed, would systems accommodate something that is probably in learners' interests?
attribute a quality label to credentials outsidethe formal system
Model for HE to value high quality external (non-accredited) credentials
The mainfactors limiting the level of trust include: doubts about the quality of somemicrocredentials, no agreed standards for quality assurance, and uncertainty as towhether certain microcredentials will be recognised by national authorities,employers or education and training providers
Seeds of doubt on MC quality
Assigning credits to learning outcomes allows for the accumulationof units of learning and provides for transferability from one setting to another forvalidation and recognition. Interviewees representing countries in which VETsystems are modularised indicated that modules are designed to indicate a set oflearning outcomes that are expressed in terms of credits. The interviewees fromnational authorities and VET providers commonly agreed that the introduction ofmodular structures in VET and the application of a learning outcomes-basedapproach was set to provide more individualised training paths, enabling accessand progression for learners.
Align Learning Outcomes to Credits (key for meaningful unbundling/bundling)
The European approach to microcredentials(European Commission, 2020a) also highlights the importance of clearly definedlearning outcomes as a way to promote overall transparency and provide detailedinformation regarding what a learner is expected to know and is able to do
Purpose of Learning Outcomes
microcredentials must be transparent and understandable and shouldinclude summary of critical information such as:(a) the title;(b) the duration of a learning activity;(c) provider of the course;(d) description of the content;(e) learning resources;(f) type of assessment;(g) credits attributed to the course;(h) prerequisites needed for enrolment;(i) learning outcomes;(j) body ensuring the quality of the course;(k) options for stackability, if any
11 data elements for transparency
Playbooks have had over 14,000 views by over 6,000 users since published.
Evidence of proliferation
Recruited 30 new members to the Network to engage in planning and implementation of incremental credentials. Among those are state systems of Hawai'i, Minnesota, the University of Texas, and the City University of New York (CUNY) System; and 24 public and private colleges and universities across 22 states.
Proliferation of HE commitment, including state systems.
alternative credential programming and financialmodels are highly decentralized across an institution – so much so that it may bedifficult for an institution to have a good grasp of its entire portfolio. Adding alternativecredentials to an institution’s strategic priorities will firm up program and business modelplanning and execution
Inconsistent processes for establishing programs, funding programs, and pricing programs
First is the strategic priority within their institution. Ifalternative credentials have been embraced by senior leadership and included in thestrategic plan, they are more likely to have the necessary resources allocated to them
Executive sponsorship => resources allocated.
Americans’ views of what a college education should be tend to prioritize specific, workplace-related skills and knowledge rather than general intellectual development and personal growth. Half of Americans say that the main purpose of college should be to teach specific skills and knowledge that can be used in the workplace, while 35% think its main purpose should be to help students grow and develop personally and intellectually and 13% volunteer that these objectives are equally important.
The majority of people in the US believe workforce-relevant skills and knowledge should be a priority for college education. Regardless of whether faculty intentionally and overtly design learning to focus on these skills and knowledge, I believe that nearly all high quality offering in Higher Education implicitly include skills and knowledge with valuable transfer to the workplace. And Best Practices in digital credential design allow us to notice, name, and formally recognize though our credentials where they show up in our learning opportunities and when learners acquire them.
At BYU-Pathway Worldwide, this approach has been associated with a 20% increase in student retention (Marcus, 2020). These examples demonstrate the positive impact of earning a certification or certification on persistence, retention and graduation rates for learners in baccalaureate programs.
One study examining short-term credentials embedded in associate degree programs found that these short-term credentials had positive impacts on retention and degree completion
Although there are equity concerns that are essential to consider, the Student Success piece is a compelling element to consider: In addition to supporting learners' needs for acquiring skills and providing them with credentials to communicate about their skills, the possibility of credentials supporting completion and attainment could be a valuable consideration in program design.
This six-part series tells the ACD story of exploration, innovation, and learning
6 part playbook from Alamo
approaches to align data analytics microcredentials with undergraduate experiences;
embedded MCs
WCET
Report from 2022 WCET workshop
colleges will also have to invest in a major effort to “convince graduates that part of paying it forward is to respond to surveys aimed at determining what worked for them.”
gauge the value of the microcredentials they offer, a step I suspect many have not yet been brave enough to take. That calls for tracking how often learners claim their awarded microcredential and share it to a professional networking site like LinkedIn, and for collecting feedback on why they did or didn’t. Another suggestion from the primer: track the number of microcredential learners who go on to enroll in a degree program
Interesting data to collect. Relates to the Equity report from Credential Engine: https://credentialengine.org/credential-transparency/equity/
Digital Micro-Credential Efficacy and Impact on Learner Confidence
However, the graduation certificate is still paper-based and does not fit employers’ digitized recruitment processes. Digitizing the graduation certificate is overdue to align with the digitized processes of employers and universities. However, there is only a few research on that issue. This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature analysis. Therefore, we investigated 147 articles in the context of research on digital credentials.
Consumption issue: the outgoing recognition is valued by the sender but not in a format that is appreciated by the receiver. The problem with putting highlights on a laser discs is that it requires someone to have a laser disc player.
It is also important to note that this positive evidence for low-income certificate-earners stands in con-trast to findings for other historically underserved groups; studies indicate that individuals of color and older individuals go on to stack credentials at lower rates and see smaller earnings gains relative to White individuals and younger individuals (Bohn and McConville, 2018; Bohn, Jackson and McConville, 2019; Daugherty et al., 2020; Daugherty and Anderson, 2021). Although we suspect many low-income individuals are also individuals of color, the findings suggest that there are inequities within stackable credential pipelines that might be more strongly tied to race, ethnicity, and age than to socioeconomic status. It is also possible that many low-income individuals never complete a first certificate and thus do not enter a stackable credential pathway
Important note on Equity: The positive findings for credential-stacking among low-income individuals stand in contrast to findings for other historically underserved populations, such as older learners and individuals of color, which show some evidence indicating lower rates of stacking and lower returns from stacking relative to younger individuals and White individuals.
Complete Solo Teaching Requirement / Final which requires 10 hours of classes as solo instructor.
"Complete" speaks to measurables that may not be transparently aligned with the competencies. This criteria statement however does specify that the completion means the earner has done 10 hours of solo instruction. That's helpful. Even better would be if those 10 solo classes were supported with assessment beyond just showing up. The alignment to external standards is also a model example.
Proposed effective human resources initiatives based on workforce analytic
Solid earning criteria. Linking to rubric or something measurable would be even better.
Once the awarding and registration systems are in place, institutions should also integrate with a modern CRM solution to attract and manage student interest, support, and personalized communications to increase enrollment and engagement. The CRM needs to support career services and other experiential learning departments as the school looks to build outside relationships with organizations and industry partners to provide real-world learning experiences and assessment opportunities for students
CRM focus that goes beyond the academic unit to include others. Also think about Alumni Affairs, Foundation, and lifelong learning.
How are you going to maintain quality? Who will teach the program? Who will oversee it? How will you assess the success?
Assessment questions
If non-degree or alternative credentials were stackable, overhalf (56%) of respondents said this would increase theirorganization’s interest in non-degree or alternative credentials.Stackable credentials would greatly increase interest for 24%
75% would have increased interest if the credentials are stackable. For a group that also claims to not know what these things really are, tough to know how much to read into this. On it's face, it's powerful encouragement for incremental credentialing.
Respondents most often agree or strongly agree that non-degree or alternative credentials have helped their organizationfill existing skills gaps (74%) and that they are helping to improvethe quality of their workforce (73%)
While data is kind of all over the place, this seems like a reliable response. Regardless of how well they understand non-degree credentials and how much meaning is mixed in other areas of the survey, it's straightforward that a super majority see MCs filling skills gaps and improving the quality of their workforce.
Appendix F: Questions Universities Can Ask Certification Bodies to Assess Quality of Certifications
These questions (I believe) are coming from a place of validating certifications. Experts publish these as helpful guides to understand if and to what degree certifications are trustworthy. In other words, are they worth the paper they're printed on? In the case of micro-credentials, most questions are likely overkill for the proposal process, etc. Given the central role and importance of TRUST however, perhaps providing a version of these questions to stakeholders seeking to propose micro-credentials could be beneficial in pushing their thinking, or at least centering these themes in their thinking.
“Public research universities are committed to improving the workforce outcomes of their students and to addressing the workforce needs of local economies. This approach can ensure students that their credentials will have value to the labor market, and it can ensure employers that graduates have the skills required to perform in the workplace.”
For some, this is reasonable and rationale. It's the point of the whole enterprise. Yet for others, this take is controversial, as it may threaten the ideals and/or visions of the purpose of Public Education. These stakeholders may ask, "Is it the job of public education to serve industry's needs by preparing proper cogs for the workforce wheels?" At the same time, others may wonder, "Is public education willfully performing a disservice to our students if our credentials are not valued by employers?"
These are important questions to ask, and to answer.
t be issued for unevaluated learning accomplishments, such as the mere completion of a series of tasks, attendance at events, or for learning that has not been assessed, as competency and learning accomplishment evaluation is very important.
Criteria must be measurable and assessable.
ental responsibility – Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 – Substantive and temporal scope – Definition of ‘civil matters’ – Decision concerning the taking into care and placement of children outside the family home – Public law measures for child protection)