This blog is part of a series exploring how to design micro-credentials for equity and inclusion throughout the year.
Traditional credentials consist of college and university degrees, diplomas, certificates, endorsements. Digital credentials are the digital versions of previously mentioned credentials, like digital badges and micro-credentials.
Digital badges are electronic symbolic representations sometimes used as micro-credentials to recognize competency in a skill (Stefaniak & Carey, 2019). Post University (2022) adds that a digital badge “acts as a visual representation of the micro-credential” for sharing purposes. Digital badges are competency-based recognition which require learners to demonstrate their competence of a specific skill through implementation and evidence of such implementation. The evidence allows the employer to see the learner’s ability to implement the skill, paving the way for authentic accountability.
Earning a digital badge is “a way to demonstrate skills to potential employers, build identity and reputation within learning communities, and create pathways for continued learning and leadership roles” (Digital Promise, 2014). Digital badges are a way to recognize, display, and share information about a learner’s skills and knowledge. They recognize informal and formal learning experiences. They provide a customizable learning experience, allowing the learner to choose what to pursue based on their career needs. Also, digital badges provide the opportunity to bridge the gap in career development, allowing individuals to acquire skills to stay up to date in their current position or prepare for a career change, displaying marketable skill sets to prospective employers. Digital badges can be issued for a variety of reasons and they are not always connected to a micro-credential.
Tinsley et al. (2022) states that micro-credentials are “digital certifications that verify competence of a skill or set of skills.” By recognizing and verifying a skill or set of skills, a learner is able to stand out amongst others. The Council of Chief State School Officers (2020) adds “a micro-credential is a competency-based certification of a discrete skill.” A micro-credential is earned when the learner successfully demonstrates competency via an assessment of the specific skill. This assessment requires the learner to implement the new skills in a workplace setting and show evidence of this implementation. Micro-credentials use the representation of a digital badge to provide details about the learning experience.
Micro-credentials are usually offered online and can be earned asynchronously. A micro-credential can be standalone or sometimes stacked with others to demonstrate a higher level of understanding, depending on the offerings. Micro-credentials are offered and adopted by educational institutions, organizations, and companies. A micro-credential that is associated with a higher education institution is better vetted than one not associated (Post University, 2022).
Micro-credentials “are held to more rigorous standards than digital badges” and issued by an educational institution or organization (Post University, 2022). The terms digital badge and micro-credential are used interchangeably, especially since a digital badge is used to represent earning a micro-credential. This provides flexibility in how a program that awards digital badges and/or micro-credentials is designed. Some organizations award just digital badges, while others award just micro-credentials, and others award both. For example, digital badges for certifications are offered by Google and Amazon, both multinational technology companies. On the other hand, micro-credentials are offered by educational institutions like the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the Project Management Institute, the University of Colorado Boulder, and many others. An example of both digital badges and micro-credentials being offered is at the Institute of Excellence in Early Care and Education at Palm Beach State College, where learners complete intentional pathways to earn competency-based digital badges and then the competency-based micro-credential, as a capstone. Lastly, some micro-credentials support the earning of college or graduate credit. For example, Wichita Public Schools offers micro-credentials to their educators that are connected to graduate credit from Friends University.
At Digital Promise, we offer micro-credentials that require evidence of practice or implementation of a skill. Our micro-credential offerings represent a wide array of options such as standalone badges, stackable credentials towards a certificate, college credit, and a multitude of other purposes.
The micro-credentials earned on Digital Promise’s Micro-credential Platform are all Open Badges. To be considered an Open Badge, a digital badge must be portable, shareable, and controllable and verifiable by the issuer and earner. A digital badge is portable if it can be transferred between any Open Badge standard-compliant system without the loss of achievement data. A digital badge is shareable, allowing the learner to share via social media, such as LinkedIn, as well as display it on their resume and email signature. Aside from the digital badge being portable, the earner can also control who sees it and which platform it lives on. Digital badges that are Open Badges carry metadata about the learning experience which includes but is not limited to the badge name, badge criteria, badge image, issuer, issue data, recipient, tags, alignment/standards, expiration date, and evidence URL. The metadata “connects evidence and criteria” to provide “a wealth of information beyond what current educational credentials communicate” (Young, West, & Nylon, 2019, p.106). Lastly, the metadata verifies the authenticity of the digital badge.
Micro-credentials use digital badges as representation and share metadata about the learning experience. They harness the technology of digital badges to create a professional learning currency (Cator, 2016). Hence, digital badges and micro-credentials go together.
If you are interested in learning more about micro-credentials, check out Digital Promise’s current offerings on the Micro-credential Platform or visit our website to learn more about our services.
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Digital Promise. (2014). Micro-credentials: Empowering lifelong learners. https://digitalpromise.org/2014/04/14/micro-credentials-empowering-lifelong-learners/
Post University. (2022). Badges and micro-credentials – What’s the difference? https://post.edu/blog/badges-and-microcredentials-whats-the-difference/
Stefaniak, J. & Carey, K. (2019). Instilling purpose and value in the implementation of digital badges in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 16(44).
Tinsley, B., Cacicio, S., Shah, Z., Parker, D., Younge, O., & Luke Luna, C. (2022). Micro-credentials for social mobility in rural postsecondary communities: A landscape report. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12265/151
Young, D., West, R. E., & Nylon, T. A. (2019). Value of open microcredentials to earners and issuers: A case study of national instruments Open Badges. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 20(5) 104-121.
