Learning is happening all of the time, everywhere. People test and share ideas, navigate complex relationships, and communicate with multiple audiences throughout their lives. Even my 10-month-old baby, who is experimenting with walking while vocally dodging her older sister, demonstrates new skills daily. But the way that we formally recognize learning remains limited and inaccessible. Currently, the signals used by educators, education institutions, and employers to determine an individual’s skills focus more on knowledge recall in a dominant cultural context rather than the application of learning in a culturally relevant context. What if we had a way to recognize the many different skills, competencies, and ways of knowing that people develop throughout their lives?
Competency-based micro-credentials could serve an important role in making learning that takes place inside and outside of school more visible to education institutions and employers. For example, during the pandemic, many students experienced setbacks in terms of curricular gains as measured by benchmark and high-stakes assessments. The gaps were particularly pronounced among historically and systematically excluded learners. However, over the same period of time those same learners may have gained a multitude of skills that were not formally recognized, such as tutoring a sibling, teaching an adult to navigate services and support online, solving a problem using YouTube, and managing multiple tasks and deadlines. If learners had a way to demonstrate all they can do by earning competency-based micro-credentials, they might be able to flip the narrative from one of learning loss to one of learning gains.
Where a learner stores their digital badges presents another exciting possibility for flipping narratives. The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC), which currently serves 200 private and 185 public high schools, recently published a learning record for students to keep track of their competencies and skills over time. While MTC’s tool may not be characterized as such yet, gradual shifts towards Learning and Employment Records (LERs)—interoperable digital wallets to carry skills and learning accomplishments—begin to shift control of learning data from institutions to learners themselves. Imagine a learner having validated proof of their knowledge and skills to share with a registrar for advanced standing, or with an employer for a salary negotiation conversation. When learners have the ability to manage and curate their own verified credential data—including from learning that happens outside formal schooling—without needing to pay institutions for copies of transcripts and degrees, a world of possibilities opens up.
It all comes back to recognition. Increasingly, we expect learners to ask and answer their own questions and pursue self-directed learning opportunities to explore their curiosities and develop skills. Therefore, learners need to feel confident that the effort they put into learning in all corners of their life will be meaningfully recognized by those who control their access to future learning and employment opportunities.
As we explore pathways for students to earn competency-based micro-credentials and manage their learning data in digital wallets, we must simultaneously collaborate with and achieve commitments from employers and education institutions to meaningfully recognize the skills and competencies each badge holds. Without recognition, none of these shifts will matter.
Do you have a great story of how micro-credentials have supported your personal goals? Please contact us to learn how you can share your story. If you are interested in learning more about micro-credentials, check out our current offerings on the Micro-credential Platform or sign up for our quarterly newsletter to stay updated on micro-credentials.
