4 Using Micro-credentials to Assess Competency-Based Education
Learning is happening all of the time, everywhere. People test and share ideas, navigate complex relationships, and communicate with multiple audiences throughout their lives. Even a 10-month-old baby, experimenting with walking while vocally dodging her older sister, demonstrates new skills daily. But the way that we formally recognize learning remains limited and inaccessible. Currently, the signals used by educators, education institutions, and employers to determine an individual’s skills focus more on knowledge recall in a dominant cultural context rather than the application of learning in a culturally relevant context. What if there was a way to recognize the many different skills, competencies, and ways of knowing that people develop throughout their lives?
What Are Competency-Based Assessments?
Competency-based assessments are rooted in the pedagogical approach called competency-based education (CBE). CBE centers on a learner’s ability to obtain and demonstrate a specific skill, set of skills, or piece of knowledge (Digital Promise, 2014). To assess competencies accurately, it often takes a different methodology than a traditional summative assessment; some rightly describe competency-based assessments as performance or demonstration assessments, where the learner develops and creates a portfolio of materials to demonstrate a full picture of the skill or knowledge.
Digital Promise’s Competency-Based Assessment Framework
Early on, Digital Promise convened practitioners around the United States to come together and investigate the opportunities and challenges of micro-credentials. Out of that work came the first principles of the Digital Promise Micro-credential Framework: “built based on demonstrable skills, research-based rationale, multiple forms of evidence, and transparent and rigorous assessment and review” (Digital Promise, 2014). The framework—as it was meant to reflect continuous improvement, much like competency-based learning—has gained increased specificity regarding different learning contexts and types of skills that can be assessed via a micro-credential on the platform. In 2021, after conducting the first round of an internal content audit, Digital Promise iterated on the framework to ensure each micro-credential had exceeded principles in inclusiveness, equity, and accessibility (Younge & Franklin, 2022), on which most, if not all, micro-credentials on the platform are based on:
- Impact: Does this competency support all learners? Is there research that demonstrates how this competency or skill may negatively impact historically and systematically excluded learners?
- Equity: Does the micro-credential consider equity in how it asks for the competency to be demonstrated? Does it promote engagement with a diversity of learners? Are there options for the types of artifacts requested? If demographic data is requested, is it appropriate and relevant to the micro-credential?
- Access: Are content-specific words or jargon defined when necessary? Are the majority of links and resources free to access? If behind a paywall, are articles summarized or directed to locally available resources, such as a library?
- Language: Does the micro-credential use person-first, strength-based language instead of deficit language? Is there gender-neutral language used throughout?
- The “Big Picture”: Is the micro-credential still relevant? Does it reflect current best practices and research?
Julie Kasper, Refugee Educator Academy Program Manager at the Carey Institute for Global Good, described the [micro-credential] template as “constraining in a good way—and really rigorous.” The organization knew it was working from strong research on refugee populations and pedagogy for its Sustainable Learning Design for Refugee Educators micro-credential, but found the translation to a micro-credential format to be a constructive challenge. Kasper explained, “The template forced us to think about the language we were using and the research we were citing. We rewrote and revised to make sure we had clarity. It made us slow down. Also it challenged us to find and cite research that is openly available, since some of the key research for our work isn’t public. Doing those additional layers of research strengthened our work and our micro-credential.” (Brown, 2019)
All Digital Promise micro-credentials have been developed on the same research-backed framework. It has three major components:
- The first component is comprised of the Competency, Key Method, and Method Components. They are an overview of the competency: what are the skills and how the competency is demonstrated.
- The second component is comprised of Research and Resources. They are a series of helpful links and learning resources. Research is about what studies support this skill, and Resources are items to help, such as blog posts, videos, and templates–items that might be used in the submission or when demonstrating those skills.
- The third component is comprised of the Submission Criteria and Scoring Rubrics. This area will tell the learner specifically about what they need to answer, what evidence they need to submit, and what needs to be included in their response. It also has an assessment rubric, which the learner will see in advance, so they can use that as a guide to prepare their response. And it’ll also be the guide that assessors will follow when assessing the submission.
Recognizing Learning through Competency-based Micro-credentials
Why are micro-credentials based on competencies, not admissions tests like the SAT or standardized testing? Because micro-credentials reflect a person’s experience and skill, each person will submit something different. For example, below is the partial prompt for the Live Coding micro-credential:
Your video should capture the following:
- When you made a mistake and how you responded to it (debugging)
- How do you verbalize your thought processes
- How do you provide students with an opportunity to make a prediction or pose a question for them to discuss
The micro-credential does not ask about how much experience one might have, their other credentials, completed learning/training programs, or other privileged information—it only focuses on items related to the competency itself. This assessment approach is inclusive since people develop skills over time and at different paces.
Competency-based micro-credentials could be important in making skill acquisition that occurs inside and outside of school more visible to educational institutions and employers. For example, during the pandemic, many students experienced setbacks in terms of curricular gains as measured by benchmark and high-stakes assessments. The gaps were particularly pronounced among historically and systematically excluded learners. However, over the same period of time, those same learners may have gained a multitude of skills that were not formally recognized, such as tutoring a sibling, teaching an adult to navigate services and support online, solving a problem using YouTube, and managing multiple tasks and deadlines. If learners had a way to demonstrate all they can do by earning competency-based micro-credentials, they could flip the narrative from one of learning loss to one of learning gains. These types of skills are often referred to as durable skills and are highly desired by employers because they are transferable across a wide variety of settings and roles.
Collaborating for Meaningful Recognition
It all comes back to recognition. Increasingly, learners are expected to ask and answer their own questions and pursue self-directed learning opportunities to explore their curiosities and develop skills. Therefore, learners need to feel confident that the effort they put into learning in all corners of their lives will be meaningfully recognized by those who control their access to future learning and employment opportunities.
As we explore pathways for students to earn competency-based micro-credentials and manage their learning data in digital wallets, we must simultaneously collaborate with and achieve commitments from employers and education institutions to meaningfully recognize the skills and competencies each badge holds. With recognition, these shifts will matter.
Digital Promise’s Micro-credential Platform is a competency-based assessment platform. Learners explore and select micro-credentials of their choice, review the requirements, prepare evidence showing their competency of the skill they are pursuing, and submit it. The micro-credential is then assessed by assessors, who are subject matter experts in the content area. Then, if competency of the skill is demonstrated, the micro-credential is awarded by the issuing organization, and the learner receives meaningful recognition.
Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond
Traditional methods of measuring and assessing competence, such as standardized testing and formal degrees, have increased inequities in educational and workplace settings. While a many-pronged solution is necessary, one of the paths forward is through competency-based micro-credentials.
Micro-credentials acknowledge that individuals can obtain skills in many ways, whether through online learning, lived experience, self-directed study, or other learning pathways.
Fortunately, many employers have begun to recognize this opportunity and are implementing hiring practices that emphasize skills over degrees. Various higher education institutions are designing micro-credentials to meet the needs of their learners through the innovative, constructive, and specific learning experiences micro-credentials provide.
- Competency-based education (CBE) center learners’ ability to obtain and demonstrate their skills, set of skills, or knowledge; CBE assessments allow learners to experience authentic assessment aligned with the competency and method to describe or demonstrate the skill.
- Digital Promise’s Competency-Based Micro-credential Framework has been developed with the community of experts and practitioners in mind; from describing the what and how of the skill to a transparent and equitable method of assessment.
- Micro-credentials verify and honor skills built over time, both through formal and informal channels.
