Although micro-credentials have been around in varying forms for a long time, they have risen to greater prominence globally over the last two or three years owing to the opportunities they present for swift, focused upskilling and more accessible engagement in higher education.

Various studies, including work published by QAA in this area outline opportunities for micro-credential approaches to be used to enhance the student learning experience by providing more flexible and granular approaches to learning and achievement.

This project addressed concerns raised regarding increasing assessment workload when making existing degree courses more granular.

The project team, which includes five computer science national teaching fellows, generated a report which presents six case studies from across the UK demonstrating different ways in which badges and micro-credentials can be accommodated either alongside or within existing courses. The case studies make use of a skills profiling approach to granularize existing courses into their skills hours.

The report demonstrates how badges and micro-credentials can be used based on their skills hours. The approaches outlined within the report demonstrate not only a mechanism to incorporate badges and micro-credentials within higher education provision, but also a way to explain more clearly to learners, teachers and employers how such provision aligns with future job roles. In so doing, it opens up opportunities for more flexible personalised learning and earning approaches both within higher education and beyond.

The project team close the report by providing a number of recommendations regarding potential next steps to realising these opportunities.

Tune in to this podcast from Project Lead Rupert Ward who discusses the importance of building digital trust in badging. Rupert references how ‘’learning fitness’’ could be more like physical fitness and talks in detail about the role of technology in shaping the future of learning.

Project lead:

University of Huddersfield

Project partners:

Abertay University, Ulster University, University of Bath, Manchester Metropolitan University, Northumbria University and University of Sunderland