Abstract:

Against the backdrop of the digital transformation, the established, traditional model of higher education is facing dynamic challenges at several levels: students' changing expectations and demands, the skills gap, the increasing competition for students and funding, to name but a few. At the same time, the state-owned access to higher education is increasingly challenged by international and private providers entering the market with innovative, digital offerings. Main drivers of this development are so-called "Massive Open Online Courses" (MOOCs) which are digital, scalable online courses usually offered free of charge. Already before the pandemic, more than 100 million people worldwide were learning through such digital formats per year, and these developments further accelerated in the wake of the pandemic (Shah, 2020). As a next step, global market leaders aggregated their MOOCs into stackable, modular, and flexible mini-degrees and started to sell them as "MicroCredentials" under different labels.

Responses to these developments are currently being sought at the European level. The European Commission (2020) conducted an extensive consultation for a European MicroCredential approach, which resulted in a recommendation for an implementation of MicroCredentials on member-state-level by the Council of the European Union (2021). Although these efforts led to a rather broad definition and a joint framework, many questions regarding the recognition, quality assurance, acceptance, transferability or stackability of MicroCredentials remain.

As the theoretical top-down approach at the political level lacks implementation experience at the practical level, this case study aims at analyzing the implementation of a specific MicroCredential approach to complement the theoretical perspective. MOOCs have been recognized to qualify as massive, open self-selection funnel (Friedl, 2021) and therefore, this MicroCredential applies a sequential methodological approach. It contains of an open, massive and digital introductory module (a MOOC), followed up by a Masterclass for MOOC alumni to allow a deep dive to the topic, which is dedicated to the emerging strand of “Co-Innovation” between institutions (Weiblen & Chesbrough, 2015). This open and bottom-up approach aims at attracting a large audience to the topic and at allowing learners to qualify for the deeper learning experience. From a didactical perspective, principles of connectivism (Siemens, 2005), e-moderation (Salomon, 2004) and design thinking are integrated. A toolbox complements the educational offerings with learning materials and supports the learners during the group work. The evaluation of this approach is done by using learning analytics (n = 2,370) as well as surveys among learners (n = 240; n = 43) and coaches (n = 10).

The evaluation of this approach demonstrates high enrollment numbers, above-average completion rates, a positive course evaluation and draws implications relevant for both for theory and practice for the design, implementation and evaluation of MicroCredentials. Other universities and researchers receive a blue print and the experiences gained feed into policy-making initiatives at the European and national level for advancement of a European response to the on-going disruption of higher education.

Keywords:

MOOC, MicroCredentials, technology-enhanced learning, Co-Innovation, entrepreneurship education.