Microcredentials for Excellence: A Practical Guide

Institutions all over the world are setting up microcredentials in responses to calls from governments and industry. These are short courses, usually offered online, with an emphasis on the needs of the workplace. More targeted than typical degree courses, they cover role-specific knowledge and help with essential workplace skills. They enable learners to study alongside their work, refreshing and updating their skills. With microcredentials, individuals can access the qualifications they need to get the jobs they want, retraining and upskilling whenever necessary.

These are exciting possibilities, but how can they be achieved? Written for everyone with an interest in the policy, practice, or production of microcredentials, this book takes a realistic look at what is possible. Rooted in experience, research, and practice, it identifies what makes these new courses distinctive and provides guidance on how to go about producing them and supporting learners.

Differences in scale, funding, learners, and presentation are just some of the factors that mean microcredentials are not typical courses. Setting them up and sustaining them effectively requires thought and change in all areas of an institution, as well as new or extended partnerships with employers and professional organisations. Microcredentials for Excellence: A Practical Guide examines the range of roles that contribute to a successful microcredential as well as processes and frameworks developed to help with the development of a microcredentials programme.

The book:

describes approaches to teaching and learning that work well with these courses;identifies methods of course production and learning design that have proved successful when making the move to microcredentials;suggests ways in which learners can be supported during their studies, especially in terms of wellbeing, accessibility, and mental health;examines innovative practices in assessment and feedback that address some of the challenges for microcredentials in these areas;explores the internal and external quality standards that may be applied, together with ways of evaluating and developing courses to meet these standards;looks ahead to possible futures for microcredentials, taking into account the different visions proposed by those developing them and those influencing that development.

Rebecca Ferguson is Professor of Learning Futures at The Open University, where she was academic lead of the University's microcredentials programme for two years. She has been actively involved in microcredential production, teaching, assessment, quality enhancement, and policy making - as well as completing a postgraduate microcredential as a learner. As lead academic of the FutureLearn Academic Network, she has also been involved in research, scholarship, and evaluation of this new type of credential.

Denise Whitelock is Director of the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University, overseeing a curriculum that includes a well-established set of stackable microcredentials. She is a Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning and has over 25 years' experience of designing, researching, and evaluating online and computer-based learning in Higher Education. Her work has received international recognition, including visiting chairs at the Autonoma University Barcelona, and the British University in Dubai. She is currently Vice President of Research for the European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) and holds a Commonwealth of Learning Chair.