MicroCredentials - Quick Guide
Microcredentials recognize a variety of learning opportunities, spanning both non-credit and for-credit offerings. They are often aligned with industry demands to help students gain employment or advance in their careers. Microcredentials should provide a detailed record of competencies and typically focus on the discrete skills students have achieved. We encourage you to engage both the faculty who design new learning experiences and administrators who approve, track, and document offerings as you consider Getting Started with Microcredentials.
Additional Resources
Integrating Competency-Based Microcredentials into Stackable Graduate Degrees
Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Effective Practice (pdf)
- Learn how students in a fully online accelerated graduate program earn micro-credentials in the form of graduate certificates as part of a stackable master’s degree. The certificates focus on high-tech, high-need, competencies and skills employers across a wide array of fields, including information systems and technology, educational technology, business, and healthcare, are looking for. Integrating certificates into existing programs can afford students the opportunity to promote their professional mobility by developing specialized skills they can apply on the job right away. Micro-credentials in the form of graduate certificates have the added benefit of offering learners the flexibility of starting a formal academic program and earning a credential with or without committing to an entire degree.
Strategies for Using Badging and Microcredentialing in Online Courses
- Understand the differences between digital badging and microcredentials.
- Discover the benefits of digital badging and microcredentials.
- Get started designing a skills-based project for a badge.
- Identify free resources to support badging and e-portfolios.
- Develop strategies and skills for using microcredentials and badging in teaching.