Along with the lifestyle and career adjustments precipitated by COVID-19, the higher education landscape is also undergoing big changes. About 68% of adults considering enrolling in education in 2020 preferred non-degree pathways — a big leap from 50% in 2019.
Micro-credentials are a part of this new paradigm at higher education institutions globally, but before institutions make the leap, it is important to fully understand the complex process of creating and delivering these buildable programs and the critical technology ecosystem necessary to manage and leverage them.
When starting your micro-credential journey, you will firstly need to consider the end-to-end process for delivering a quality product that meets the needs of students, faculty and staff.
Below is an example of a micro-credential ecosystem, including the systems and processes that are required to create, manage and deliver micro-credentials.
Generally speaking, the micro-credential lifecycle – from creating and enrolling learners, to delivery and review – includes the following stages:
To support effective and efficient management of the micro-credential lifecycle, institutions will require several systems that address management and delivery around:
Given the above, here are some ideas on where institutions can start with their micro-credential offerings and what technology they need:
Each institution has distinct academic, administrative, and technical drivers, so each institution has different needs and goals for providing micro-credentials.
Consider the types of micro-credentials you want to offer and which learners you want to target. “Institutions need to think about where they will play and how they will win,” said Julie Mercer, university consultant and principal at Nous Group, during a recent micro-credential webinar.
In your initial planning, think about:
Following the development of your academic strategy, you may want to formulate your game plan for technical execution. You may want to consider:
Ensure that your curriculum fills a need in the academic or professional community by making a clear case for the value in each micro-credential you offer. One way to ensure the benefits to prospective students is by developing micro-credentials with local, national, or international industry partners to fill niche needs.
The right curriculum management system helps your institution propose, create, and take your micro-credential curriculum to market with speed. A purpose-built curriculum management system enables you to capture and manage your micro-credential curriculum information, govern it and publish directly to students. By having curriculum information structured within a robust system and leveraging efficient workflows and processes, you’ll be able to offer more flexibility, choice and pathways to learners.
Most micro-credentials are delivered online, and many of these students learn remotely, so having an LMS that provides a smooth digital interface between students and faculty is critical. To ensure a top-notch learning experience, your LMS will need to facilitate not only access to relevant assignment-related information and resources, but also easy communication and interaction.
Another important aspect of your LMS is how it can assist you in assessing students’ skills acquisition and competency, which can sometimes link directly into your digital badging platform.
With so many systems coming together in your micro-credential platform, it is also critical that they work seamlessly with one another. For example, your curriculum management system will capture critical micro-credential curriculum information that is needed in the SIS, LMS, shopfront, and digital badging platform. This information also needs to be revised and updated making seamless integration imperative for accurate data transfer.
Now that you have a better sense of the complex — but doable — micro-credentialing ecosystem, make sure you find the right partners to help you deliver a quality product to your students.
CourseLoop provides a superior micro-credential management solution that helps you to get quality micro-credentials to market fast.