Micro-credentials are short, highly focused programs designed to provide in-demand skills that help students quickly advance their career, often in just a single semester. They have emerged as a way for students-many of whom are adult learners looking to change jobs-to acquire and demonstrate a core set of skills that can jumpstart their entry…

Changes in hiring requirements, in particular a bachelor's degree, is rapidly changing for many learners. In order to make these changes successfully, higher education must come to an agreement on the terms used to describe and characterize these new assertions of learning, along with adopting a common mode of transport for these credentials. One…

The University of North Georgia's division of Distance Education & Technology Integration, DETI, developed a series of self-paced workshops to assist faculty in professional development as a response to faculty inquiries and the pandemic. The pandemic changed the way we look at our professional development opportunities. DETI concluded that we…

Purpose: Biomedical engineering (BME) curricula are necessarily broad and it has been reported that BME students can experience substantial barriers to their career attainment compared to other engineering majors. Methods: Challenges and curricular innovations for addressing industry needs were discussed in workshops held at the BME Education…

Purpose: The global labor market has been upended and a new landscape has emerged. New models for ensuring the value and relevance of post-secondary education are needed. Learners need better understanding of the value and relevancy which the education provides and more immediate return on the educational investment. Education providers must…

The OER Universitas (OERu) is a consortium of more than 30 higher education institutions on five continents. It was founded in 2011 to provide learners everywhere with learning opportunities and pathways to official recognition or credit. The OERu maintains a very economical base with very low expenses. It supports a sustainable learning…

Professional development for teachers must evolve to provide a personalized approach to better meet the needs of the individual. Micro-credentialing is one way to provide teachers with personalized professional development. This case study explores the implementation of a micro-credentialing course in one school district. The district selected a…

Pell Grants are the cornerstone of federal financial aid for students with low income who are enrolled in postsecondary education. Currently, these grants are available only to those who seek an initial undergraduate degree or credential requiring at least a typical semester of instruction. Because these rules may restrict access to programs…

This appendix volume supplements report NCEE 2025-005r, describing the effects of two experimental Pell Grant expansions: the first allowed income-eligible students with a bachelor's degree to obtain this form of federal financial aid for short-term occupational training programs and the second allowed income-eligible students to obtain this aid…

This study explores the perceptions of employed MBA students regarding the value of optional micro-credentials and their impact on skill enhancement, career advancement, and personal growth. Utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the research involved semi-structured virtual interviews with 15 participants, complemented by…

The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) currently has two National Professional Development Program projects: Project PARA TODOS, which serves K-8 educators; and Project PARA NIÑOS, which serves PK-2 educators of English learners (ELs). Both projects provide professional development through an online microcredential program leading…

Micro-credentials are gaining traction as viable vehicles for rapid upskilling of the workforce in the twenty-first century and potential pathways for gaining employment for some students. The primary purpose of the current systematic review was to understand the current conceptions and discourses of micro-credentials in higher education and to…

The experience of the COVID-19 lockdown has suddenly accelerated the awareness process of the entire university faculty about the need to hybridise their teaching with digital tools (Trentin, Bocconi 2015; Perla, Scarinci, Amati 2021) transforming traditional scholarship of the Italian University in a gigantic field of experimentation of…

Purpose: Since new digital micro-credential technologies emerged a decade ago, there has been a rapid rise in micro-credentials in the education landscape. Much has been promised about these educational technologies, yet there is much confusion by key stakeholders in the digital micro-credential ecosystem. This confusion has led to significant…

Background: Micro-credentials are increasingly considered a key mechanism through which to empower learners by enabling flexible upskilling and reskilling. Despite their apparent importance for higher education institutions (HEIs) and learners, empirical research is limited. More needs to be understood, particularly about the ways in which…