In recent years, higher education has found itself under a microscope, with many questioning and losing trust in its value and offerings (Brenan, 2023; Mintz, 2023; Jones, 2024) and some beginning to doubt the importance of a traditional four-year degree (Sealey-Morris, 2024). While the focus on quality and trust remains constant as higher education continues to evolve, a key element of that evolution is an increase in both the awareness and proliferation of microcredential offerings (Welding, 2024). While these alternative forms of credentialing have surged in popularity over recent years, the emphasis on ensuring their quality is not a new phenomenon. In fact, this consideration has its roots in earlier developments in education technology, notably in online learning and digital badge standards. One organization leading the way in these efforts is 1EdTech, which has long recognized the importance of demonstrating the value and quality of educational digital credentials through standards and best practices.
1EdTech’s Pioneering Work in Digital Badge Metadata
In 2015, alongside Dr. MJ Bishop, I had the honor of coleading 1EdTech’s (formerly the IMS Global Learning Consortium) Open Badge Extensions for Education (OBEE) Task Force, responsible for identifying extensions for education that would transform these digital badges into more comprehensive and informative credentials. The resulting open badge extensions signal critical information about both the issuing institutions’ accrediting body and, if applicable, any related endorsements by external organizations. Additionally, newly defined extensions enabled the inclusion of fields that captured the assessment requirements completed and the evidence associated with those assessments. This enhancement meant badges could carry richer metadata, allowing recipients and employers to see the specific skills validated, the criteria used for evaluation and the actual artifacts or evidence demonstrating mastery. These changes set the stage for microcredentials to go beyond superficial acknowledgments of participation and become authentic representations of skills and competencies.
This shift was significant because it established a technological framework that grounded microcredentials in the transparency and rigor of the underlying learning processes. By embedding assessment details and evidence into badge metadata, we created a mechanism to ensure microcredentials had substance and credibility. This focus on verifiable quality has been crucial in establishing microcredentials as valuable tools for education and workforce development.
Quality Assurance Lessons From Online Learning
The need to demonstrate that quality in microcredentials is not an isolated challenge; it mirrors the educators’ experience when online courses first emerged. In the early days of online learning, there was skepticism about the effectiveness and rigor of courses delivered outside traditional classroom settings. To address these concerns, educators and institutions needed a way to ensure online courses met a high standard of quality and were designed with the same level of rigor as traditionally delivered, face-to-face courses.
This is where Quality Matters (QM) and its QM Rubric as well as the Online Learning Consortium’s (OLC) Quality Scorecards have played transformative roles. It was in the early 2000s when Quality Matters developed its widely recognized rubric and review process to evaluate and certify the design quality of online courses. The QM Rubric focuses on critical elements like course alignment, assessment integrity, accessibility and learner engagement, providing educators with a structured framework to ensure online courses meet an agreed-upon level of quality. This approach helped build trust in the value of online education, making it a legitimate and accepted mode of learning.
The Trusted Microcredential Initiative: Setting the Standard for Digital Credentials
Just as Quality Matters established benchmarks for quality online course design, the 1EdTech TrustEd Microcredential Coalition strives to create a similar barometer for microcredentials and digital badges. The goal is to provide “clarity on the rigor behind the credentials and empower learners to have agency over their credentials” (1EdTech, 2024). Recognizing the need for transparency, rigor and evidence in digital credentialing, the TrustEd Microcredential initiative aims to ensure microcredentials reflect learning participation, verifiable skill acquisition and assessment integrity.
The coalition, composed of higher education institutions, higher-ed-adjacent organizations and edtech industry partners, has created a framework that integrates essential elements of quality, including assessment criteria and evidence of learning. The framework “builds on the Open Badges data standard by defining a set of minimum and recommended data requirements” (1EdTech, 2024) to include in the digital badge metadata. By setting these standards, 1EdTech aims to standardize microcredential components that employers, educators and learners can trust. This framework mirrors the role that Quality Matters plays for online courses, offering a benchmark that signals a microcredential’s credibility and reliability.
The Need for a Quality Rubric in Microcredentials
As microcredentials gain momentum, practitioners must have access to a clear and effective quality rubric grounded in the principles of the TrustEd Microcredential initiative and the resulting microcredential metadata framework. Such a rubric would provide a roadmap for designing microcredential programs that align with effective practices and meet industry standards, ensuring they are not only meaningful but also trustworthy and valuable in the eyes of earners, employers and other consumers.
Practitioners designing microcredential programs must be able to demonstrate the quality of their offerings through well-defined criteria, including assessment validity, evidence collection and alignment with in-demand skills in the workforce and beyond. A standardized rubric, similar to the QM Rubric for online courses, would help institutions and educators establish these programs confidently, knowing they are adhering to a framework that ensures credibility and effectiveness and will result in quality outcomes that yield trust.
Conclusion
Quality and trust are foundational elements of practical education, whether in traditional classrooms, online courses or microcredential programs. The efforts of organizations like 1EdTech and Quality Matters highlight the ongoing need to set standards that assure the quality and credibility of new educational innovations. As microcredentialing continues to grow, grounding it in a quality rubric that initiatives like the TrustEd Microcredential Coalition’s work will be essential. By doing so, we can ensure microcredentials are not just convenient or novel but truly reflect meaningful learning experiences that hold value in the marketplace and throughout the learning journey.
References:
1EdTech, Badge Extensions for Education. Retrieved October 24, 2024, https://www.imsglobal.org/1edtech-badge-extensions-education
1EdTech (2024) Coalition of Education and Edtech Leaders Releases Framework for Trusted Digital Credentials, March 5, 2024, from https://www.1edtech.org/1edtech-article/coalition-of-education-and-edtech-leaders-releases-framework-for-trusted-digital
1EdTech, Open Badges. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://openbadges.org/
1EdTech, TrustEd Microcredential Coalition. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://www.1edtech.org/program/tmc
Brenan, Megan (2023, July 11). Americans’ Confidence in Higher Education Down Sharply. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://news.gallup.com/poll/508352/americans-confidence-higher-education-down-sharply.aspx
Jones, Jeffrey (2024, July 8). U.S. Confidence in Higher Education Now Closely Divided. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://news.gallup.com/poll/646880/confidence-higher-education-closely-divided.aspx
Mintz, Steven (2024, June 3). Higher Education’s Trust Deficit. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/2024/06/03/colleges-and-universities-new-mandate-rebuild-public-trust
Online Learning Consortium, OLC Quality Scorecards. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/consult/olc-quality-scorecard-suite/
Quality Matters, QM Rubrics and Standards. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/rubric-standards
Sealey-Morris, Gabriel (2024, September 11). America’s Changing Faith in Higher Education: A College Consensus Poll. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://www.collegeconsensus.com/research/trust-in-higher-education/
Welding, Lyss (2024, July 11). The Rise and Future of Microcredentials in Higher Education. Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/microcredentials-rise-in-higher-education/
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