Zooming in on micro-credential "Grain Size" Part 2
Thanks for joining me for the second part of a two-part series on the concept of "grain size" and how it relates to developing high-quality micro-credentials. Previously I discussed the idea of grain size, what it means, where it came from, and a quick litmus test to get you started.
In this edition of the newsletter, I'll elaborate on how I came up with my original "stress test" for what is and is not micro-credentialable. This initial process resulted in the "five key questions" section of this white paper, published by Digital Promise, so check that out if you haven't already seen it!
Check out the slide deck for this post
These companion slides are designed to help you understand the concepts explored in this article and help you win buy in from your team.
Key Components for Determining Grain Size
After advising organizations, companies, institutions, and governments for over a decade, I've narrowed this conversation down to three high-level components that will likely influence the granularity of the skills and competencies recognized by your micro-credentials. Depending on your region, your team might make different or additional considerations.
For example, suppose you are developing micro-credentials in Europe. In that case, you will should consider NQF, EQF, EQ-EHEA levels, and the equivalent number of notional learning hours associated with your micro-credential content.
🌍 Learn more about the European Commission micro-credential definition.
Currency
When achieving the right "grain size" for your micro-credentials, you'll want to consider their "currency." In other words, what is the market value of the skills and competencies recognized by your micro-credentials? Like dollars, most earners exchange micro-credentials for career advancement and access to employer-based opportunities and outcomes.
Adjusting the grain size of the skills and competencies recognized by your micro-credentials will result in each award being more or less valuable to external "recognizers," like prospective employers. Furthermore, this exercise may help your organization identify and prioritize the skills and competencies with the most significant (and measurable) impact.
Generally, I like to think of micro-credential stakeholders in three categories:
Learners (who earn the micro-credentials)
Issuers (who award the micro-credentials), and
Recognizers (who accept micro-credentials in exchange for opportunities)
Consider how these stakeholders contribute to the "currency" of your micro-credentials when determining your not too big, not too small "grain size." In addition to "external" recognizers like employers, "internal" recognizers should also be considered.
External recognizers (like employers) may recognize the value of your earners' micro-credential but is that credential aligned with the needs of your earners' internal recognizers? For example, if you wanted to introduce a micro-credential as an internal professional development program for a manufacturing company, you wouldn't want to leverage a skill granularity that has little to no immediate market value to that individual's employer.
I'll go into more detail about award currency in future articles
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Clarity
Now that you have one or more granular skills in mind, we'll discuss how you can clarify those skills instructionally and pedagogically in a relevant, valuable, and rigorous way.
First, try to ground micro-credential skill descriptions in your unique learner's needs. Defining learner needs early on (likely through a "buyer persona" or similar document) in your micro-credential development process will uncover skill signals that,
Increase the likelihood that micro-credentials will be shared (WIIFM), and
Once micro-credentials are shared, they will benefit the learner.
Although this process can be easier said than done, it's worth the investment to continuously improve the precision of your skills definitions. Making your micro-credential skills outcomes crystal clear from the beginning of your program will benefit other teams within your organization. For example, your organization's marketing and communication teams will have a better chance of reducing marketing and/or communications costs over time if they have a clear picture of who the program benefits.
Furthermore, leveraging sector-specific or career-relevant terminology will add inherent value and clarity to the skill descriptions. Be sure to include descriptions of:
How each skill is leveraged in practice
How the micro-credential was earned
The assessment methodology, and
The quality assurance process
Another way you can add meaningful clarity to the skills your micro-credential recognizes is by using rich skill descriptors aligned with open skills taxonomies. Investing time into this process at the onset of your project will yield long-term dividends and give your ecosystem the ability to bridge learning outcomes between awards and award issuers. For example, if you want to enhance your micro-credentials by making them "career-relevant," you might consider leveraging EMSI's skills taxonomy. This powerful taxonomy connects directly with real-time labor market data. Using a taxonomy like this makes it easier for employers to understand what skills your micro-credentials represent.
Your team may also choose to enhance the clarity of your micro-credentials by carefully considering the assessment methods used to validate demonstrations of skill and competence. Traditional assessments like multiple choice quizzes are the most popular approach to scalable assessment. But, those methods generally are not considered rigorous by education and industry stakeholders. Micro-credentials that are considered more "rigorous" and inherently more valuable are those that are project-based (PBL) or competency-based (CBL). These enhanced assessments are generally scored against a rubric and assessed by trained assessors to ensure inter-rater reliability.
The granularity of your micro-credential also links with the assessment you choose for your micro-credential. Without going down the rabbit hole on "stakes," I generally recommend an assessment rubric based on industry-relevant research. Research-based assessments allow your team to measure (assess) those elements of the skill that directly contribute to improved outcomes for that particular sector or field. Finally, when learners share micro-credentials with outside recognizers, their awards will communicate an observable scope of what the learner has demonstrated more accurately.
I'll detail rigor in future articles
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Connections
While considering the "granularity" of your micro-credentials, I suggest evaluating the connection between your micro-credentials various skills and competencies. For example, if we go back to our classroom management example, it's clear that the "grain size" for this micro-credential alleges to certify a relatively dubiously general competence. However, digging a little deeper into how you might create a classroom management micro-credential reveals two ways of connecting the skills that signal a broad "stack" of related skills and competencies.
First, connect your granular micro-credentials into packages of greater meaning (sometimes called "stacks" or "micro pathways") by aligning the skills recognized by your micro-credentials against a common framework or using the outcomes of research studies. This strategy can be a powerful way to substantiate the efficacy and relevance of the skill in question while also providing your team with a defensible scope for how those skills ultimately come together.
Since I mentioned pathways, I suggest thinking about how your micro-credentials come together in terms of their technical architecture. Don't worry; you won't have to #learntocode before you can create portable, interoperable, and independently verifiable micro-credential awards. For the uninitiated, micro-credentials generally come together in what most folks call "pathways." There is some conjecture about the term "pathway," but I like how Remake Learning defines it.
Learning Pathways are the routes learners take to discover new ideas, pursue their interests, and develop their skills.
Think of it this way; if you were planning on going to the bank to withdraw money (methodology) so you can pay your rent (outcome), you might complete the following pathway:
Leave the house
Get in your car
Drive to the bank
Withdraw money
Hand the money to your landlord
There are steps between these high-level instructions, but each step in this sequence serves as a prerequisite to achieving the desired outcome. The nice thing about this example is that we can achieve the same outcome using different steps:
Get out your phone
Open the banking app
Send money to your landlord
The key takeaway here is that your pathways will likely align with the needs of your learners and the intended outcome. Like micro-credentials, the granularity of your pathways will contribute to your micro-credentialing ecosystem's overall success and value.
I'll go into more detail about pathways and research-backed frameworks in future articles, so be sure to subscribe if you want to learn more about this valuable component of your micro-credentialing ecosystem.
Wrapping up
When discussing the topic of granularity, it's critical to consider these three strategies. Carefully evaluating the currency of your micro-credentials will imbue each of your awards with real market value. Enhancing the clarity of your micro-credentials will help your team increase the rigor and relevance of awards. And coherently connecting each of your awards into pathways or aligned with common research-backed frameworks will reward learners with learning journeys greater than the sum of their parts.
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I hope these strategies will help you create rewarding experiences for your learners as the world does its best to get back to work.
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