Micro-Credentials as Evidence of College Readiness: Report of an NSF Workshop

In May, 2017, the University of Michigan School of Information hosted an NSF-funded workshop on the promise and pitfalls of using digital micro-credentials, also known as digital badges, in the college admission process. Micro-credentials are digital artifacts that can be used to recognize, display, and transmit information about an individual student’s skills, abilities, and knowledge. Modeled on the physical badges used by organizations such as the Boy/Girl Scouts of America, and websites such as Stack Overflow, micro-credentials offer learners a mechanism for displaying and sharing a wider variety of achievements than grade-point averages or typical transcripts. Digital micro-credentials represent an opportunity for innovating the admission process by providing indicators of college potential that arise from students’ experiences both inside and outside of the classroom.

Participants in the workshop included leaders from informal STEM organizations that award microcredentials, college admissions officers, and experts in the assessment of learning. The goal was to explore and make progress towards answering the following questions: (1) Can micro-credentials serve as valid and reliable evidence of prior learning and future potential?; (2) What “gap” in current admissions practices can be filled by micro-credentials?; and (3) What is required for micro-credentials to be useful for college admission?