Micro and Alternative Credentials – Webinar 2

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Webinar on Micro and Alternative Credentials – this session provides an overview of HolonIQ’s comprehensive analysis of the micro-credentials market globally, including definition and segmentation of the micro-credentials market, the emerging infrastructure to support micro-credential ecosystems, and analysis of the likely future role of micro-credentials in the post-secondary landscape.

Micro-credentials have emerged over the past five years in response to the increasing need for smaller, more frequent and more focused learning opportunities that attract academic or industry recognition. However, the micro-credential space is still in a formative state with no universally agreed format or definition, and with many participating actors and emerging models.

This session provides an overview of HolonIQ’s comprehensive analysis of the micro-credentials market globally, including definition and segmentation of the micro-credentials market, the emerging infrastructure to support micro-credential ecosystems, and analysis of the likely future role of micro-credentials in the post-secondary landscape.

The webinar dives into micro-credentials trends.

Higher Education Digital Capability Framework

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The 2020 Higher Education Digital Capability (HEDC) Framework builds on the earlier model and adds a deeper focus on digital capabilities across the whole learner lifecycle. Institutional capabilities have been mapped to four connected dimensions across the lifecycle, from Demand & Discovery (DD) to Learning Design (LD), Learner Experience (LX) and Work & Lifelong Learning (WL). The framework encompasses current capabilities such as recruitment, curriculum design, assessment and career planning, but also looks ahead to future and emerging capabilities for successful digital learning.

Informed by academic research and with input from higher education leaders globally, the HEDC Framework offers an overarching view for institutions to map and measure digital capabilities across the learner lifecycle, ultimately to support practical and sustainable approaches to digital services and online learning.

The HEDC Framework is a learner-focused, practical and flexible approach to mapping and measuring digital capability in higher education institutions. The framework acknowledges educational literature on digital capability and grounds these in current practice using ongoing consultation, research and analysis with higher education leaders around the world. The Higher Education Digital Capability Framework benefits from a continuous and iterative feedback cycle informed by an engaged community of Higher Education professionals. The Higher Education Digital Capability framework identifies four core dimensions along the learner lifecycle: Demand & Discovery (DD), Learning Design (LD), Learner Experience (LX) and Work & Lifelong Learning (WL). Within these are sixteen capability groups or ‘domains’, with more than 70 capability blocks adding a further level of detail. Overall, the framework is designed to allow flexibility and interpretation in context; some institutions will find almost every capability block relevant to their organisational structure, activities and aspirations, whilst others will focus on a more specific set of capabilities applicable to their individual context.

The HEDC Framework looks at digital capability through a learner lifecycle perspective. The 4 Dimensions, 16 Domains and 70+ Capability Blocks help to consider how a digitally capable organisation can support and enhance learning and student experience at each stage of the lifecycle, from Demand and Discovery through to Work and Lifelong Learning.

Interactive formative assessment

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Videos themselves are not usually interactive but the new tools that have emerged in the past decade allow teachers to easily embed custom questions into videos making them interactive.

When reviewing the different tools they must support formative instructional strategies. Students should be able to receive feedback while watching and answering questions in the video. Both the teachers and students should be able to take an active role in using them but the teacher will need to be a facilitator or creator in the beginning.

Teachers have been using film and video in their classrooms for decades to engage students. Videos themselves are not usually interactive but the new tools that have emerged in the past decade allow teachers to easily embed custom questions into videos making them interactive.

When reviewing the different tools they must support formative instructional strategies. Students should be able to receive feedback while watching and answering questions in the video. Both the teachers and students should be able to take an active role in using them but the teacher will need to be a facilitator or creator in the beginning.

Students love video and more and more learn via video with tools like YouTube, Khan Academy, and Vimeo. Between them, there are millions of videos available. As a teacher, you can use these videos to make them interactive and provide thoughtful questions and feedback as the students watch them.

After completing this unit, the educator will:
1. Know about the variety of digital assessment tools available online
2. Understand how to assess students with digital tools
3. Be able to create and use quiz and polling tools with students
4. Be able to create and use interactive and video assessments with students
5. Understand that course management systems have built-in formative assessments
6. Be able to create online interactive lessons
7. Be able to use online bulletin boards
8. Make connections with technology standards and best practice
9. Transfer the learning to professional practice by applying these resources to assess students in the classroom

Training material on application of digital badges

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Training material focus on teacher and trainer competence development to apply digital badges in open learning to plan recognition and credentialization of open learning processes in formal learning and by employer organizations. Training material include theoretical references and presentations, as well as practical task for trainees. It will be based on concrete skill and competence definition and practical tasks will be based on group work and trainee collaboration in order to foster teacher and trainer open collaboration approach and matching open learning with formal learning and employer organizations requirements and settings.

Using learning analytics to engage students: Improving teaching practices through informed interactions

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This research addresses the need to explore new ways of improving teaching practices to better engage students with the help of learning analytics. The paper investigates how university teachers use the data from learning analytics to observe learners and to engage them in online learning.

Student engagement is one of the most relevant topics within the academic and research community nowadays. Higher education curriculum, teaching and learning integrate new technology- supported learning solutions. New methods and tools enhance teacher and learner interactions and influence learner engagement positively. This research addresses the need to explore new ways of improving teaching practices to better engage students with the help of learning analytics. The paper investigates how university teachers use the data from learning analytics to observe learners and to engage them in online learning. Qualitative inquiry was chosen to approach the research problem, and semi-structured interviews with the teachers using (blended) online learning were conveyed to explore teacher practices in students’ behaviour and engagement observations online, disclosing teachers’ abilities to understand the challenging learner engagement process based on the data from learning analytics. The new evidence provided by this research highlights the successful practices in the use of learning analytics data to observe students’ behaviour and engagement and to inform teachers on the presence needed in order to develop learner–centred activities and to make curriculum changes. The limitation of this study lies in the fact that the different online teaching experiences that research participants had might have restricted their understanding of the use of LA data for curriculum development and learners’ engagement.

Reading and Critical Thinking

An interactive rubric for evaluating eLearning tools

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This rubric has been designed for instructors and staff as a formative tool to evaluate eLearning tools in higher education. eLearning tools are defined as any digital technology, mediated through the use of a computing device, deliberately selected to support student learning. The rubric supports a multi-dimensional evaluation of functional, technical, and pedagogical aspects of eLearning Tools.

The Rubric for E-Learning Tool Evaluation offers educators a framework, with criteria and levels of achievement, to assess the suitability of an e-learning tool for their learners’ needs and for their own learning outcomes and classroom context. The Rubric Categories addresses: (1) Functionality, (2) Accessibility, (3) Technical aspect, (4) Mobile Design, (5) Privacy, Data Protection, and Rights, (6) Social Presence, (7) Teaching Presence and (8) Cognitive Presence.

In this course learners will evaluate technologies for their appropriate fit to a course’s learning outcomes and classroom contexts. Rubric uses the standard design components of other analytical rubrics: categories, criteria, standards, and descriptors. Each of eight categories has a specific set of characteristics, or criteria, against which e-learning tools are evaluated, and each criterion is assessed against three standards: works well, minor concerns, or serious concerns. Finally, the rubric offers individual descriptions of the qualities an e-learning tool must have to achieve a standard.

Training material on recognition of non-formal open learning results in formal curricula

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The training material puts focus on theoretical references from current research, but also includes practical tasks for learners to elaborate individual approaches to be used in their working contexts. It gives insight to the contemporary state of art in this field and good practice examples of successful integration of open learning offers into formal curricula, as well as to existing recognition procedures already applied in Europe. Further it includes guidelines and checklists that shall support open learning providers in designing their offers so they meet the requirements for formal recognition of open learning offers and for negotiating them towards key stakeholders.

Training material on non-formal open learning curriculum designing

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Training material focus on teacher and trainer competence development to design open learning curriculum using digital online learning resources and to plan open learning processes and their recognition in formal learning and by employer organizations. Training material include theoretical references and presentations, as well as practical task for trainees. It based on concrete skill and competence definition and practical tasks are based on group work and trainee collaboration in order to foster teacher and trainer open collaboration approach and matching open learning with formal learning and employer organizations requirements and settings.

Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation. Instructions

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This rubric has been designed for instructors and staff as a formative tool to evaluate eLearning tools in higher education. eLearning tools are defined as any digital technology, mediated through the use of a computing device, deliberately selected to support student learning. The rubric supports a multi-dimensional evaluation of functional, technical, and pedagogical aspects of eLearning Tools.

Not all rubric criteria are necessarily applicable to all eLearning tools and those using the rubric are encouraged to assess irrelevant criterion as “not applicable”. The rubric does not identify a discrete threshold that an eLearning tool needs to cross before a tool should be used; the rubric is a formative tool intended to offer insight into the relative strengths and weaknesses of an eLearning Tool, as evaluated against a set of criteria.”

Rubric for E-Learning Tool Evaluation

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The Rubric for E-Learning Tool Evaluation offers educators a framework, with criteria and levels of achievement, to assess the suitability of an e-learning tool for their learners’ needs and for their own learning outcomes and classroom context.

Educators often use rubrics to articulate “”the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria or what counts, and describing level of quality.””2 We have adapted these broad aims to articulate the appropriate assessment criteria for e-learning tools using the standard design components of other analytical rubrics: categories, criteria, standards, and descriptors. We organized our rubric’s evaluation criteria into eight categories. Each category has a specific set of characteristics, or criteria, against which e-learning tools are evaluated, and each criterion is assessed against three standards: works well, minor concerns, or serious concerns. Finally, the rubric offers individual descriptions of the qualities an e-learning tool must have to achieve a standard. Although our rubric integrates a broad range of functional, technical, and pedagogical criteria, it is not intended to be overly
prescriptive. Our goal is for the framework to respond to an instructor’s needs and be adapted as appropriate. For example, when a rubric criterion is not relevant to the assessment of a particular tool, it can be excluded without impacting the overall quality of the assessment. The rubric reflects our belief that instructors should choose e-learning tools in the context of the learning experience. We therefore encourage an explicit alignment between the instructor’s intended outcomes and the tool, based on principles of constructive alignment.3 Given the diversity of outcomes across learning experiences, e-learning tools should be chosen on a case-by-case basis and should be tailored to each instructor’s intended learning outcomes and planned instructional activities. We designed the rubric with this intention in mind.