Category Archives: Microcredentials

Link: Micro Master’s Is Future of Online Learning

This interview with Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, covers the growth of edX and his ideas about where higher ed is headed.

We think universities will just get transformed. You still need the content and the course and the professors who provide them. What will be altered is the way it is delivered.

Bhargava, Anjuli. April 20, 2016. “Micro master’s is future of online learning: Anant Agarwal.” Business Standard.

Infographic: Nine Types of Millennial Students

This EAB infographic subdivides the millennial student market by personal and professional traits.

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/edtechknowledge/files/2016/05/30590_COEF_Infographic_Final-1uxs6hc.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

Link: 6 Universities Partner on Credentialing Initiative

Continuing education units at Wisconsin, Washington, Georgia Tech, UCLA, UC Davis, and UC Irvine are collaborating on low-cost micro credentials offered via a common storefront, the University Learning Store. Individual courses address topics common to the needs of many working professionals, cost between $50 and $150 apiece, include a digital badge as proof of competency, and can be stacked into certificates. Current certificates include:

  • Workplace Writing
  • Effective Business Writing Skills
  • Business Communications
  • Global Business Communication

Bolkan, Joshua. “6 Universities Partner on Credentialing Initiative.” Campus Technology, March 22, 2016.

Link: UMassOnline Launches Badge Program

UMassOnline, the University of Massachusetts’ online consortium, has announced the first non-credit badge program, in Project Risk Management, offered through the College of Advancing and Professional Studies (CAPS) at UMass Boston. …

The Project Risk Management badge is a self-paced online sequence of modules that covers the six steps of project risk management as prescribed by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

“UMassOnline Launches Badge Program,” eCampus News, March 31, 2016.

File: 7 Things You Should Know About The Evolution of the Transcript

A comprehensive overview of recent efforts to transcript digital badges, competencies, internships, and other non-traditional sources of educational experience.

Efforts are under way to capture a broader range of learning experiences and create frameworks to curate them, providing a more holistic view of student learning.

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/edtechknowledge/files/2016/01/eli7128-1uoh9dm.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

Udacity and Google Unveil Co-Developed Nanodegree

For-profit online education provider Udacity and Google today unveiled a new micro-credential program, the Senior Web Developer Nanodegree. The online program is designed to provide students with “the tools, frameworks, and techniques needed to write robust code for progressive Web applications that are secure and easy to use,” said Sarah Clark, program manager in Google’s Developer Training group, in a blog post.

 

Read full article here.

Link: Research Uncovers MOOC Cheating Strategy

This article addresses recent research of student behavior through an analysis of data from 1.9 million course participants in 115 MOOCs offered by HarvardX and MITx from fall 2012 to spring 2015. In a small number of cases, the researchers uncovered a unique from of cheating, that can be stopped by a few simple steps.

The researchers are ultimately hoping that course content creators will put some of the prevention strategies in place. “One of the most interesting lessons from the paper is that there are ways to mitigate cheating that are straightforward and implementable by the teams creating online course content,” Chuang said. “We also expect platform improvements, such as virtual proctoring, to help reduce cheating.”

Dian Schaffhauser, “Research Uncovers MOOC Cheating Strategy,” Campus Technology, August 26, 2015.

Link: Pairing E-Portfolios With Badges To Document Informal Learning

Lloyd, Med. “Pairing E-Portfolios With Badges to Document Informal Learning.” Campus Technology, July 29, 2015.

One of the greatest impacts of this initiative, added Ambrose, is the model it offers other campuses and institutions for collaborating with vendors to adjust technology to the education sector, rather than the other way around.

mendoza_career_ready

A summary of Notre Dame’s efforts to integrate digital badging into their student e-portfolio system. What began as an API hack is now a partnership with Credly and Digication to ensure student authentication and promote interconnected use of third-party services. They are investigating how to include the badges on transcripts.