Micro-Credentials: A Critical Exposé
Keywords:
Micro-credentials, Massive Open Online Courses, Traditional education, Quality assuranceAbstract
Micro-credentials, one of the non-traditional ways of learning, are gaining ground based on the opportunities inherent in them. However, confusion arises regarding its amorphous nature, particularly when one tries to understand the nature, components, and constituents of micro-credentials and their relationship with the Massive Open Online courses (MOOCs) and traditional education. Hence, the questions this paper addresses are: what are micro-credentials, and how are they like or different from MOOCs? How should we understand micro-credentials and traditional degrees? This paper, thus, attempts a conceptual clarification of micro-credentials, discusses the merits to include the ability to bridge skill gap, promote growth of employees and collaboration between employees, and the challenges to include the need for standardisation and quality assurance, knowledge fragmentation, and credential inflation, among others. The paper recommends that micro-credentials be conceived and deployed as a subset of conventional education, complementing traditional degrees; and a regulation of the micro-credentials landscape to ensure quality and help them deliver on their opportunities while dousing their challenges.
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