Different Approaches to Integrate Microcredentials into Undergraduate Degrees
Microcredentials are used to meet a variety of needs that range from rounding out and enriching a degree program, fostering persistence and retention, demonstrating competency in technical skills, to enhancing employability outcomes. Thus, they are well-suited to be responsive to skills needed in the labor market, able to be developed quickly, and can support innovation. As a result, many universities offer microcredentials as a way to highlight specific skills or expand graduates career opportunities. Workcred worked with The University of Texas System to document four approaches for developing or integrating microcredentials with undergraduate programs. By combining various types of credentials, students gain the deeper concepts from an academic degree and specific skills from a microcredential.
Project Management and Humanities
Humanities courses help students develop collaborative thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that are also critical to success in project management roles. The combination of increased demand for project management skills, along with humanities courses that cultivate skills relevant to project management, provides an opportunity for students to simultaneously gain academic course credit and a third-party, validated credential.
Dr. Jude Chudi Okpala, professor of instruction, philosophy, and classics at The University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), integrated the Google Project Management Professional Certificate with the Introduction to Humanities I (HUM 2023) course, which is part of the UTSA core curriculum and fulfills the requirement for the creative arts category. When students enroll in HUM 2023, they have the option to decide whether they also want to sign up to earn the Google Project Management Professional Certificate. Students who opt to pursue the Google Project Management Professional Certificate work at their own pace and on their own time. A student who completes the certificate within the same semester that they are enrolled in HUM 2023 has their final course grade increased by one letter scale (e.g., a final course grade of a C+ would become a B-).
Bridging the Gap in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity professionals continue to be in demand nationwide. Yet, many employers report that job applicants are not qualified for the open jobs. To help address this gap, Dr. Rita Mitra professor of practice in the department of information systems and cybersecurity at UTSA, integrated a variety of industry professional certificates, certifications, and training opportunities into information systems and cybersecurity courses. Each carefully selected workforce-focused credential serves a specific purpose in the curriculum.
For example, two courses within the Google Professional Cybersecurity Certificate are integrated into the course, Information Systems 1003, Unlocking Cyber. Modules from this certificate were selected because they provide the needed technical and conceptual background for students who might have little or no experience with the field, and help to establish a common baseline for all degree program students before they move on other courses in the sequence. Additionally, the students who are new to cyber gain confidence with the subject and a sense of belonging in the field. The more advanced students are given alternative Coursera Career Academy courses to complete that are customized to their background and interests.
The remainder of the Google certificate modules are mapped to other UTSA cybersecurity and information systems courses. Since not all of the instructors include the Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate courses as part of their academic course, a student can follow the course map to earn the certificate on their own.
Career-Focused Skills for Psychology and Cognitive Science Degrees
Many jobs involve data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning skills, so faculty, led by Dr. Richard Golden program head, undergraduate cognitive science program, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas, developed four microcredentials that provide students with opportunities to develop these skills while obtaining a bachelor’s degree. The four microcredentials developed include: Behavioral Research Methods, Biobehavioral Data Science, User Experience (UX) Research, and Neural Net Math.
Each microcredential varies in its intended audience, the required course prerequisites, the two required courses, and the skills taught. These microcredentials were developed to improve graduates’ short- and long-term earnings by enhancing their degrees with career-focused skills that are in demand in the labor market and expose students to career pathways that they might not have otherwise considered, yet which were potentially accessible to them already.
Co-curricular Microcredential for All Students
At The University of Texas at Arlington, they took a different approach and created a co-curricular program, Power Up + Tech Up, available to all undergraduate students. The Power Up part of the program requires students to complete a four-hour online, self-paced course about the National Association of Colleges and Employers career readiness competencies, which include 21st century power skills like career and self-development, communication, critical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork, and technology. To gain the technical skills, students selected from one of five Google Professional Certificates—Google Data Analytics, Google UX Design, Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce, Google IT Support, and Google Project Management.
Students complete the certificate course modules at their own pace. This allows students who have full-academic course loads and are also working to complete the modules when they have time in their schedules. Given this asynchronous approach, Dr. Robin Macaluso, provost faculty fellow, Power Up + Tech Up lead, and associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, discovered that students needed some additional support. As a result, coaching was added to more effectively support students in time management, encouragement to complete the professional certificate, and reinforcement of the integration of technical skills and the 21st century power skills.
