Document Type
White Paper
Publication Date
4-2023
Place of Publication
Melbourne, Australia
Inclusive pages
1-35
Abstract
This white paper details the findings of a research study conducted in 2022 over a six month period, in collaboration with a group of international cross-sector partners, as part of a Global Victoria EdTech Innovation Alliance initiative. Edalex’s Innovation Sprint aimed to increase learners’ confidence in the expression of their workplace skills by issuing a Personal Evidence Record of the skills they had developed in their studies. This evidence could then be shared with employers, sending a "signal to hire" by demonstrating workplace readiness or "signal of recognition" in the workplace of upskilling. This research validated the proof of concept of the expected efficacy of our Credentialate platform. But what we didn’t expect was the extent of the effectiveness of our solution on increasing learner confidence. The research results show that learners readily embraced the more detailed information included in the credential - such as a detailed description of the credential components, how learners were assessed and the links out to Rich Skill Descriptors (RSDs) that provided job market context. Credentialate’s Personal Evidence Record gave learners next-level understanding of what they had learnt and how they could apply it in their careers.
They felt informed and empowered, which for the University of Dayton cohort had a positive impact on 76% of learner confidence levels. Employers, too, were very open to the deeper story the evidence records told. They told us that it gave them insight into the learner’s level of human capability. This is particularly valuable in graduate hiring, as it provides independent validation that they’re ready for the workplace, setting them apart from other candidates.
The research project provided the opportunity to share knowledge and practice across providers and EdTech organizations and generate new ways of working in the emerging areas of micro-credential and skills ecosystems. The insights from the research should inform future policy and practice around skill transparency and personal evidence of learning, and their benefits to participants in the digital credentialing and skills ecosystems as well as the learner/earner ecosystem.
Keywords
micro-credentials, skills ecosystems, rich skills descriptions, upskilling, 21st Century skills
Disciplines
Curriculum and Instruction | Educational Leadership | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Vocational Education
Sponsoring Agency
Edalex and Global Victoria EdTech Innovation Alliance
eCommons Citation
LaDuca, Brian; Lang, Josephine; O'Halloran, Melinda; Boyer, Naomi; and Griffith, Margo, "Digital Micro-Credential Efficacy and Impact on Learner Confidence" (2023). IACT Reports, Publications and Resources. 2.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/iact_documents/2
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Vocational Education Commons
Comments
This white paper is made available with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0).