Micro-credentials: more research is (really) needed

Policy and practise is happening ahead of how they can be applied nation-wide. Ratna Selvaratnam (Edith Cowan U) and Michael Sankey (Griffith U) identify the issues

“Although there is  no  shortage  of  opinion  pieces  published  on  the  internet,  many  of these  lack  the  required  level  of  academic  rigour  for  an  integrative  literature  review  such  as  this,” they write in the Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability.

So, they set out what the existing research provides as the basis for a micro-credential “technical ecosystem” and identify big issues where more research is (for once) needed, including,

* integrating micro-credentials with employability

* accessibility and credibility issues, such as validation

* student-record keeping by institutions

* representation of credentials for “professional consumption.”

And it all has to happen fast. “At a very practical level, the recent review of the Australian Qualifications Framework recommends the recognition of  micro-credentials  and  presumably it  is  only  a  matter  of  time  before  the government  moves  to  implement  this  recommendation.”