Original Analysis of Alternative Credential Market
Alternative Digital Credentials
- Badges and Micro-credentials are small sets of qualifications that distinguish qualified individuals as unique, employable, and competent. Micro-credentials are usually represented through digital badges that can be shared on digital platforms used for networking and marketing (e.g. Linkedin). Micro-credentials create a portfolio of skills and achievements for individuals that showcase their abilities beyond their resume or vita.
- Digital credentials are growing in popularity and necessity. In 2014, Marklein found that 30% of the adult population held some form of alternative credential. A 2016 study of 190 four-year institutions found that 94% of them were issuing alternative credentials and 25% were in digital form (ICDE, 2019). As of 2018, 20% of all colleges and universities offered for-credit and non-credit micro-credentials, forecasted to be 30 to 40% within a decade (Gallagher 2018).
Originally, micro-credentials were designed to be cross-disciplinary credentials that communicated a student’s unique ability in a certain area or specialty. In addition to course work, micro-credentials included co-curricular or professional work to support the credential. With this combination, these credentials showed a breadth of understanding of smaller topics or specializations. Many Universities are moving away from this ideal and are now aligning their micro-credential courses within one department or division. This allows for ease of delivery and ease of attainment by students. I have compiled a Micro-credential proposal that is in line with the more traditional approach to micro-credentialing where many of the credentials are cross-disciplinary and include co-curricular or professional activities. I believe that this is in line with the tradition of excellence at Thomas More and our desire to serve a broad community of learners and professionals.
Why use Micro-Credentials?
- Revenue. Universities are using these small credentials, or badges, to increase their revenue in tangle ways that are quick to serve the community.
- Persistence. Students who achieve small gains throughout their time in college are more likely to persist. At BYU The withdraw rates between the first and second years of school have dropped 20% points since starting their Certificate First program (Marcus, Hechinger Report, ND)
- Increase in hours for existing students. Existing students may increase hours to earn micro-credentials to serve career aspirations.
- Small milestones leading to advanced degrees for adult learners. Adult learners may gather micro-credentials as a means to an eventual degree or micro-degree (Carey, 2015). 70% of students with industry certifications in the edX/Western Governors IT programs finish their degree in two years.
- Community offerings. Micro-credentials allow us to engage the community in a tangible, recognizable way. TMU can be a place where professionals and adults come for professional development and continuing education.
- Name recognition for TMU. Badges earned with Micro-credential become part of Social Media and marketing tools.
- Opportunity for growth. Micro-certifications allow TMU to meet market and employer needs quickly, keeping up with the demands placed on our students. We can add or remove certifications as needed. Faculty can propose and present certifications based on current research and expanding ideas within their field of study. Digital credentials allow us to keep pace with technological change and employer demand (Matkin, 2018).
- Competition. In short, our competitors will be using digital credentials and we do not want to experience a loss of market relevance (Matkin, 2018)
- Micro-Bachelors & Micro-Masters. We are seeing an increase in micro-degrees for people wanting smaller degree paths that will serve a professional or individual goal. This would be a stepping stone to such a path for TMU.
- Student Benefits (ICDE, 2019; Makin, 2018; Ralston, 2020; .
- Greater affordability
- More direct relevance to a specific career goal.
- Flexible learning options.
- Recognition for completed classes/skills even without a degree.
- Employers are increasingly using digital searchers for hiring, and badges are a part of that search and research (Matkin, 2018, Ralston, 2020).
- Students are in charge of their own credentials. They are able to disseminate their credentials to employers quickly, without an intermediary slowing the process.
Additional Considerations
- Prerequisites for independent micro-credentials. Some of our courses in the proposed Micro-credential sheet include prerequisites. Academic departments would have to assess whether those prerequisites are necessary for the small, unique credential that we would be offering.
- Price for micro-credentials. We may consider a “package” for certain micro-credentials.
- Northern Kentucky University is offering Micro-credentials using course clusters, and are using their typical course fees, which are lower than ours, so we may consider matching or beating their prices.
- Technical schools that are engaged with edX are offering micro-credentials for as low as $500-$1000. However, they are not receiving full credit for the courses and the courses are run by edX. Some of these micro-credentials are only 8-12 weeks.
- The University of Cincinnati is offering technical certifications to community members at ZERO cost -if they are an Ohio residents and accepted into the program. Their certifications are typically 20-30 hours specific to a technical field (e.g. Google IT support, ITIL v4 Certification) and at this time should not overlap with our offerings.
- Rutgers is offering a Mini-masters in 12 weeks for approx. $4,000. Arizona State is offering a micro-credential in Advanced Service Leadership for $3,000.
- Third-party partnership. Thomas More University would be providing the core requirements and offerings for individuals to earn their micro-credential. However, where that micro-credential “lives” is another concern. MIT engineers explained it best: We will provide everything that is needed to earn the certificate or badge, but the envelope it lives is just as important. Where these badges that represent the micro-credentials are housed becomes a way for employers, students, and community members to track, understand, and investigate our micro-credential. This is explained best by an example. Let’s say Student A earns a micro-credential in Leadership and puts his electronic badge on his email tagline, LinkedIn profile, and professional webpage. When someone clicks on that badge where does it go? We could link directly back to the University but one can imagine a whole host of issues with this: would the website be up to date with information, would the badge qualifications have changed since the student earned their badge, the student couldn’t add any of their co-curricular or professional work that supports the badge, it may not be linked to other badges or University content. To circumvent this Universities partner with third-party management companies that organize, track, verify, share, and house the digital credentials. We are meeting with a few of these companies for pricing and functionality testing. One example is Accredible. This company integrates directly with Canvas, so they are particularly interesting: https://www.accredible.com/features/. Another example is Acclaim by Credly. This company is the leader in the industry and holds the majority of University badges in the country. While more expensive than Accredible, they would put us in company with our competition. This company also integrates with Canvas. Acclaim.com
- Guidelines for Information in the Digital Credential. There are some industry standards surrounding the metadata but TMU would need to create our own rules regarding our shared data.
- Guidelines for the creation of the Micro-credential. Each University or issuing agency has outlined its own definitions and regulations for the formation of micro-credentials. TMU will need to create its own regulations on the definition and formation of micro-credentials.
Research
Large, loaded degrees are difficult to communicate, don’t compare across industries, and create skills gap leading the way for micro-credentials/badging. There is a need to tie skills people are learning the rising needs in the labor market.
Note that the research in this article focused on edX and Coursera, not the general University model. 90% of respondents reported the program beneficial. New programs did not appear to be ticket to job mobility or pay increase because employers weren’t really aware of the micro-credntials.
“Microcredentials are coming onto the scene as colleges get creative to address projections of enrollment declines in tandem with employers’ desire for more qualified workers. “In the next decade, colleges will compete for students at a competency level, not a degree level,” she said. “ Issuing credentials for work that already occurs in classes is the easiest way for colleges to begin offering microcredentials.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/whats-in-a-microcredential/556606/