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 addresses the needs of the strategic triangle of HEIs, the world of work and students. The key priorities for the project are to:
- Promote inter-connected HE systems across the sector by cooperation in course development and strengthening international relations
- Address digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity, particularly through the provision and recognition of micro-credentials
- Stimulate innovative learning and teaching practices through collaborative micro-credential provision models between HEIs.
The project will:
- Work 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;
- Assist institutions to extend their educational offerings in the field by integrating modules from other national and international providers.
- Launch combined course offerings made up of micro-credentials, specifically tailored to emerging industrial needs.
- Harmonise and establish policies and regulations for an easier transfer of micro-credentials within the partnership and ensure openness and transparency so that learners, employers and other credential consumers all have access to informative standardised data.
- Enable students to engage in virtual learning , taking advantage of these micro-credentials to enhance their studies and integrate them into their final qualifications
- Establish a network of institutions active in preparing students for industry 4.0 who recognise micro-credentials from within the network for access and progression
- Distil 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 is divided into 4 phases:
Phase 1: Making the Case
To gain institutional buy-in, we will work 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 will prepare 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 will be divided into a set of pilot activities to take place during the lifetime of the project and expansion plans for after this.
Phase 3: Launching an Offer
Partner institutions will start implementing their strategies by launching 25 micro-credentials via a catalogue, with the aim of having 400 students enrol and supporting a minimum of 60 virtual mobilities. The initial launch will consist of a limited pilot which will allow us to identify and correct emerging issues with regards to the provision and recognition models.
Phase 4: Expanding our Offer
The pilots will be followed up by network expansion by increasing the number of institutions participating in our recognition network. As part of expanding the offer, we also plan to transform the project consortium into a membership network with an expanded membership, standardised processes and a formal work and growth plan going beyond the project.
