Micro-credentials - the way of the future?
Micro-credentials – the way of the future? Humans have lots of reasons for learning. We may want to reduce the deficit in our knowledge because we are curious, or think that if we know more, we can be more independent, and perhaps improve how we do things. It may be that, in a competitive job market, we want to give ourselves the “edge” over others in the recruitment race. In a time of rapid change, it feels like every week in our professional - and personal lives- we encounter areas that are new to us! When frontline services and agencies face emerging issues, such as adolescent to parent violence, they grapple with how best to respond. Learning more about the topic is a means to build confidence in deciding how best to act – in this case, intervention options with families. There are many ways to learn. You could sit at your desk and access reputable websites for hours, but having invested the time and energy in seeking out knowledge, how is your learning effort recognised? Another way to learn at your desk is through accessing an online option through an education provider. The benefit of undertaking this approach is that your time and energy may be recognised through the completion of, for example, a micro-credential.
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For the more ambitious, of course, there are study options that require more of your time and energy – such as studying an individual unit, or a number of units that constitute a course. In this article, we’ll explore more of the former and learn about micro-credentials available at CQUniversity (as at February 2021).
Get to know micro-credentials at CQUniversity 01
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Micro-credentials vary to meet the wide variety of professional development needs of students, employers, industry, and business. In August 2019, Emeritus Professor Beverley Oliver (p. 18) wrote that “there is as yet no universally agreed definition (or spelling) of ‘micro-credential’. A casual search of Google Scholar suggests the term first appeared in about 2013, often in connection with digital badges, and it… is now generally used to describe all manner of shorter form learning experiences, using a variety of names and brands, of all types, modes and sizes.”
