1.1.1. OER, MOOCs, MCs in EU and globally

Concepts of MicroCredentials are certainly nothing new. Short-term courses and small learning units including certificates have been offered by different providers for years. Most of them did focus on outreach and continuing professional development (CPD) for the training of skilled professionals and workers. Several professions require continuous training and upskilling for quality and safety reasons (e.g. in medical careers). Compared to Macro-Credentials, such as full degree or qualification programmes, MicroCredentials can be a tool to downsize and shorten longer learning programmes for greater flexibility, agility and diversity.

In the European Union, ideas of digital teaching and learning evolved from the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) and also from the implementation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), both focusing on the huge potential of segmented digital learning opportunities in terms of non-stationary participation of learners.

Over the past few years, the idea of making use of these Micro-learning Units for attaining credentials has been elaborated. 2018 was already a year of MOOC-based degrees (e.g. displayed at platforms like Class Central https://www.classcentral.com/). However, the variation within credentials and between them was not satisfying the needs and ideas of learners, universities and the labour market.

Consequently, the European MOOC Consortium (EMC) developed a Common Micro Credential Framework (CMF), providing for a consistent standard to support life-long learning. This Bologna-compatible concept is integrated with the European Qualification Framework (EQF), valid for Higher Education (HE) as well as for professional and vocational training (VET). The shift of focus to learning outcomes supports a reasonable match between the needs of the labour market (for knowledge, skills and competences) and education and training provisions. With this broad approach, the CMF facilitates validation of MicroCredentials in non-formal and informal learning. It also fosters the transfer and use of qualifications across different national education and training systems to build competences according to the European Skills Agenda.

In other parts of the world, much more activities could be observed, possibly due to the fact that education is a highly important topic, not only societally, but also economically. The US and Australia are at the front end of the market. Many new developments were and still are piloted, accompanied and evaluated by academic studies.

Several EU-Projects discussed the use and the features of MicroCredentials. The Final report of ‘A European Approach to Micro-Credentials’ (2020) summarises the results: https://education.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document-library-docs/european-approach-micro-credentials-higher-education-consultation-group-output-final-report.pdf.

Transparency and quality became crucial aspects with regard to the aim of EU-wide recognition of MCs.