A cross-curricular microcredential program creates a learning pathway built from smaller and stackable course groupings. Microcredentials provide students with recognition of success through awards along the journey to a certificate, minor, or major. Earning microcredentials contributes to motivating students to complete their degrees and ties curriculum to skills sought by employers.
Building microcredentials across current institutional curriculum provides an opportunity for faculty to engage in their program curriculum to achieve a range of engagement and motivation goals—from attracting students and awarding smaller units of course accomplishment to satisfying local employability needs.
Drawing on my completed work, I provide a range of principles to guide preparing microcredentials from current curricular strengths, as well strategies to assist in institution-level microcredentialing. The goal is to increase student opportunity to showcase academic accomplishments as well as motivate and engage students in a way that increases retention and degree completion.
