All about Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges

The COVID-19 pandemic has only intensified the increasing trend towards skills-based, relatively brief, and alternative access to education. While you may see that your business needs to be in this sector to compete, figuring out where to begin with the skills and knowledge market, micro-credentials, and digital badges can be challenging.

For the past five years, digital badges, a form of micro-credential, have indeed been hailed as an important trend in education for providing competency-based learning pathways. Micro-credentials offer a novel approach to teaching pupils information literacy. 

Let’s take a closer look at each one:

A micro-credential is a credential of evaluated education that is separate from, in addition to, or in supplementary to a professional degree. A digital badge, on the other hand, is a visual depiction of earning a micro-credential that can be posted on numerous online platforms to demonstrate the earner’s accomplishment.

A micro-credential certifies that you have mastered a certain skill. A traditional credentialing program, such as a qualification, has a broader scope. Learners can acquire micro-credentials in a variety of methods, including after successfully passing a series of modules, demonstrating abilities, completing a standard assessment, or submitting work.

Digital badges, as opposed to more traditional curriculum evaluation elements, give a more straightforward and evidence-based demonstration of what abilities a student has learned and can use. Badging also allows students to showcase discrete abilities that they have acquired, which can help them stand out in the professional world.

How do Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges help?

Learning has changed drastically in recent years in terms of how it is conducted, accredited, and acknowledged. Employers look to recruit individuals with particular talents and abilities and up-to-date training as the due to rapid technological innovation continues to advance. Micro-credentials aid in bridging the skill shortage that has developed between employees and the fast-paced environment in which they work. As a result, digital badges are being used in a variety of disciplines, including online classes, business settings, interactive learning settings, and education programs.

To represent proficiency of a wider knowledge and skill set, micro-credentials could be accumulated or integrated. Along a learning pathway, learners can progress from one micro-credential to the next.

The learner’s mastery is verified by the metadata provided in the digital badge. It contains information about the learner, the credential, the awarding organization, the date the credential was issued, the criteria for earning the certificate, and a website with additional information.