Archive of ‘badges’ category

microcredentials Australia

Stacks on: Get the max from micro-credentials

https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/shift-to-short-courses-and-online-learning-to-expand-careers-20210322-p57cvl.html

“This measure will provide additional options for students and the recently unemployed to engage with higher education across a wider range of fields, which will help further the position of the nation and our workforce to move out of the economic downturn,” a department spokesman said.

“There is some crossover between the terms ‘micro-credential’ and ‘short course’; both are generally something shorter than a full qualification. The short courses are a type of micro-credential. The short course is a credit-bearing micro-credential, meaning that it can be used to ‘stack’ into a full qualification at a later time.”

” The Australian Cyber Security Growth Network said the cyber security workforce had grown by 4000 to 26,500 since 2017. The sector grew by 6 per cent a year, compared with overall national growth of 2 per cent a year.”

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more on microcredentials in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredential

Badging Blockchain

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/badging-blockchain-documenting-skills-learned

LinkedIn’s 2020 list of skills in most demand includes these soft skills at the very top:

  • Creativity
  • Persuasion
  • Collaboration
  • Adaptability

And these hard skills at the very top:

  • Blockchain
  • Cloud computing
  • Analytical reasoning
  • Artificial intelligence

Further steps have been taken independently by universities that are utilizing blockchain technology to disseminate transcripts containing rich detail and documentation not available in the traditional paper document.

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more on blockchain in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=blockchain

more on microcredentialing in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredential

Google’s New Career Certificates

How Google’s New Career Certificates Could Disrupt the College Degree

https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/inside-googles-plan-to-disrupt-college-degree-exclusive.html

Each of the new certificate programs is available on the online course platform Coursera, which works with universities and organizations like Google to offer courses, certifications, and degrees in various subjects. Students will need to enroll with Coursera to take the new certificate programs.

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more on microcredentialing in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredential

student-centered learning

Report: Most educators aren’t equipped for student-centered learning

https://www.educationdive.com/news/report-most-educators-arent-equipped-for-student-centered-learning/585012/

“the perfect combination of catalysts for a rapid conversion to student-centered schooling,” according to a new report from the Christensen Institute.

most K-12 educators aren’t equipped with the skill sets needed to run student-centered schools. For student-centered learning to be adopted, educators must be trained for student-centered competencies,

the report suggests school and district leaders:

  • Work toward a more modular professional development system, which includes specific, verifiable and predictable microcredentials.
  • Specify competencies needed for student-centered educators.
  • Compensate educators with bonuses for microcredentials to incentivize earning them.
  • Purchase bulk licenses to allow teachers the opportunity to earn microcredentials.
  • Demand and pay for mastery of skills rather than a one-time workshop.
  • Vet microcredential issuers’ verification processes, like rubrics and evaluation systems.

While testing could help with personalized instruction, a report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education stressed the need for professional development so teachers can interpret the resulting data and let it guide instruction this year.micr

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more on microcredentials in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredential

alternative credentials

Alternative Credentials on the Rise

Interest is growing in short-term, online credentials amid the pandemic. Will they become viable alternative pathways to well-paying jobs?

Paul Fain August 27, 2020

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/08/27/interest-spikes-short-term-online-credentials-will-it-be-sustained

A growing body of evidence has found strong consumer interest in recent months in skills-based, online credentials that are clearly tied to careers, particularly among adult learners from diverse and lower-income backgrounds, whom four-year colleges often have struggled to attract and graduate.

For years the demographics of higher education have been shifting away from traditional-age, full-paying college students while online education has become more sophisticated and accepted.

That has amplified interest in recent months among employers, students, workers and policy makers in online certificates, industry certifications, apprenticeships, microcredentials, boot camps and even lower-cost online master’s degrees.

Moody’s, the credit ratings firm, on Wednesday said online and nondegree programs are growing at a rapid pace.

Google will fund 100,000 need-based scholarships for the certificates, and said it will consider them the “equivalent of a four-year degree” for related roles.

Google isn’t alone in this push. IBMFacebookSalesforce and Microsoft are creating their own short-term, skills-based credentials. Several tech companies also are dropping degree requirements for some jobs, as is the federal government, while the White House, employers and some higher education groups have collaborated on an Ad Council campaign to tout alternatives to the college degree.

One of the most consistent findings in a nationally representative poll conducted by the Strada Education Network’s Center for Consumer Insights over the last five months has been a preference for nondegree and skills training options.

Despite growing skepticism about the value of a college degree, it remains the best ticket to a well-paying job and career. And data have shown that college degrees have been a cushion amid the pandemic and recession.

Experts had long speculated that employer interest in alternative credential pathways would wither when low employment rates went away,….  Yet some big employers, including Amazon, are paying to retrain workers for jobs outside the company as it restructures.

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more on badges, microcredentialing in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredential

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