MicroCredX
About Micro-Credentials Exchange
Adopting micro-credentials implies cultural, pedagogical, technological and political obstacles which prevent the progress of skill and competence expression and brokerage that can be greatly enabled by credential portability. A market-oriented redesign of modules, provided as online courses or MOOCs will cater not only to the needs of students of one’s own institution, but also to international students and employees needing professional development. Such a shift could also allow interaction amongst these three learner groups, but it demands a tremendous culture change from faculty members. The same is true for the recognition of outside credentials and their integration into the curriculum.
MicroCredX project addressed the needs of the strategic triangle of HEIs, the world of work and students. The key achievements for the project were:
- Promoting inter-connected HE systems across the sector by cooperation in course development and strengthening international relations.
- Addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity, particularly through the provision and recognition of micro-credentials.
- Stimulating innovative learning and teaching practices through collaborative micro-credential provision models between HEIs.
The project:
- Worked with institutional leadership in HE to identify and dismantle barriers to making course offerings more flexible via micro-credentials and accessible to persons outside of Higher Education;
- Assisted institutions to extend their educational offerings in the field by integrating modules from other national and international providers.
- Launched combined course offerings made up of micro-credentials, specifically tailored to emerging industrial needs.
- Harmonised policies and regulations for an easier transfer of micro-credentials within the partnership, enabling openness and transparency so that learners, employers and other credential consumers all have access to informative standardised data.
- Enabled students to engage in virtual learning , taking advantage of these micro-credentials to enhance their studies and integrate them into their final qualifications
- Established a network of institutions active in preparing students for industry 4.0 who recognise micro-credentials from within the network for access and progression
- Distilled the lessons of the consortium in implementing these offerings into a set of tools which can facilitate other HEIs in following the same path.
MicroCredX was divided into 4 phases:
Phase 1: Making the Case
To gain institutional buy-in, we worked with institutional leaders to demonstrate how providing and recognising micro-credentials can be beneficial to the institution, contribute towards institutional objectives, priorities or legal obligations, and how any conceptual and organisational barriers can be overcome.
Phase 2: Creating a Strategy
Each consortium member prepared micro-credentialing strategies, indicating plans for roll-out of micro-credentials, as well as a recognition model for integrating micro-credentials from other institutions into their programmes. Strategies led to a set of pilot activities and micro-credential expansion plans for after this.
Phase 3: Launching an Offer
Partner institutions implemented their strategies by launching over 30 virtual micro-credential courses via a catalogue, with 400 students who applied to receive a European Digital Credential. This launch allowed us to identify and correct emerging issues with regards to enabling virtual mobilities.
Phase 4: Expanding our Offer
The pilots were followed up by network expansion, increasing the number of educational institutions participating in our micro-credentialing network.
