As an institution committed to the success of adult working students, Purdue University Global continues to explore and evaluate potential initiatives and programs that provide our students with both short- and long-term value. For the past several years, Purdue Global has been innovating and growing its incremental and digital credentialing efforts, including awarding microcredentials (micros) that can either stack into larger degree programs or serve as valuable standalone credentials.
In 2020, Purdue Global began offering its first set of microcredentials and has since expanded the list to include over 90 for-credit and noncredit offerings. To date, Purdue Global has awarded over 32,000 microcredentials. The vast majority of these went to current students who earned a micro while earning their degree at the university. However, we have seen instances where a learner, initially uncertain about pursuing a degree or lacking confidence in their ability to complete one begins with a microcredential. After successfully completing it, they gain confidence in their abilities and choose to continue toward a full degree program.
Individuals who earn micros are awarded a digital badge to represent their achievement. Whether current degree-seeking students or learners looking for a smaller, standalone credential to help them upskill, many microcredential earners have demonstrated that these incremental credentials are valuable to them, sharing them on social media platforms such as LinkedIn. This willingness to promote their micros, as well as the content of their social media posts, provide evidence that students see incremental credentialing as a motivator, source of pride and natural progression steps to their goals.
For example, when sharing the digital badge they received upon completing the micro, one student said in their LinkedIn post, “When I’m down, I look at things like this and tell myself that nothing is impossible to them that believe.” And another student posted, “I am getting closer to my goal!”
In 2022, we gathered and analyzed data of students who earned micros and examined their persistence to the next term compared to students who did not earn a one. We found that microcredential earners persisted to their next term at nearly 100% regardless of the term in which they enrolled. They also had higher GPAs and were more likely to have passed all the classes they attempted compared to students who had not earned a micro (85% vs. 64%). While earning a micro may not be the sole cause of these higher numbers, the data suggests that micros can play a role in student motivation and persistence in the short term, with other factors playing a role in the long term (e.g., support systems and financial stability).
In other areas of the institution, we are exploring the feasibility of expanding incremental credentialing efforts that leverage Purdue Global’s degree programs. This work involves developing policies and processes that allow the university to award smaller credentials or degrees to qualifying students as they progress toward their primary degree program. We refer to this initiative as Degree Along the Way. Sharing similarities with incremental or stackable credentials, awarding degrees along the way is becoming an increasingly common practice, and Purdue Global is well positioned to engage in this work. For example, our School of Business and Information Technology has recently updated its curriculum and program structure to allow students to earn additional credentials while working toward a bachelor’s degree. In the IT program, the bachelor’s degree requirements now include the coursework for the associate degree, enabling students to earn both credentials upon meeting all requirements.
Our students balance education with full-time work and family commitments, and we believe that offering quick wins and more academic milestones along the path could provide the motivational and confidence boost students need to stay engaged and persist to degree completion(1).
Moreover(2), the literature on the subject of goal attainment theory strongly supports that breaking goals into smaller, manageable steps provides clarity to individuals and makes the overall goal feel more achievable, with each small success building momentum, fostering a sense of progress.
Thus, the intended and anticipated benefits of Degree Along the Way include:
- Increased motivation and, in turn, improved persistence due to a sense of accomplishment of milestones achieved
- Enhanced potential for earlier (or even new) career advancement
- The university’s ability to award more degrees to students without needing to create or add any new programs
Purdue Global will begin Degree Along the Way with a pilot of one of its associate degree programs and a group of bachelor’s degree-seeking students who would be eligible for the associate degree in human services. The hope is for the pilot to show us how students respond, how it adds value and what necessary operational and administrative processes need to be in place to implement it, affording us more informed decision making as we look to enhance our current and pursue new incremental credentialing strategies.
References:
- Perea, B. (2020). Using smaller credentials to build flexible degree completion and career pathways. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2020 (189).
- Bandura, A., & Schunk, D. H. (1981). Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(3), 586–598.
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