Phases of Microcredential Development
Click each header to learn about each phase. Click again to close.
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- What is the business case?
- To drive revenue, volume, or other?
- Who are your stakeholders and how do you plan to get their input?
- What is the value proposition?
- What are the advantages of developing a microcredential?
- What are the disadvantages of developing a microcredential?
- What barriers and obstacles might you encounter when developing a microcredential?
- What's the market need?
- What’s the gap that microcredential will fill?
- Who are your competitors in this space, and how you will "win" in this space?
- Who are you targeting for this microcredential? How is that audience the same or different from your other audiences?
- How will microcredentials fit into your overall program?
- What are the key differentiators that the microcredential will add to your program? How is it different from your other credentials?
- What are the consequences to your program if you add a microcredential?
- Will candidates be shifted from another credential to this one? Are you targeting the same candidates as you are with another credential? If so, what do you want candidates to do? Will they?
- What is the candidate experience?
- Will candidates be confused? How will you explain how this is different from other credentials already in place?
- What is the indicator of accomplishment (e.g., badge) that someone will earn or use after earning the microcredential?
- How will you determine how to price the program or microcredential?
- What is the cost to the individual or to organizations? Will there be member pricing and non-member pricing? Will there be early adopter pricing?
- What is the pricing model?
- Will licensing be part of the model? Will individual sales be part of the model?
- How will you determine ROI?
- How will you sell the program?
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- What is the focus and primary messaging about the program?
- What communication strategies will you use?
- How will you explain any integration with, or differentiation among or between existing products?
- Who is your target audience or market segment(s)?
- Is this an expansion of your current market/audience?
- How will you reach beyond current audience? What methods or channels will you use?
- What is your plan to market to business/organizational users, end users/individuals, and any other decision-makers?
- What are your long-term marketing plans for the program?
- What metrics will you use to track and measure the success of the marketing?
- How will you assess organizational capability including, but not limited to these considerations:
- Who will pay for the program?
- Who are the key personnel who will manage and monitor the program?
- Will your certification management system need to be updated in some way so that microcredentials can be appropriately recognized and awarded to candidates?
- What is the impact on your learning management system?
- What accommodations may be required? How are you going to ensure these can be provided? What is the process for requesting accomodations?
- How do you incorporate a DEI perspective?
- Do you need to/are you trying to attract a more diverse audience to your program with this initiative? Should you be? How can you be?
- Will candidates need to stay current to maintain the microcredential? If so, how will they do this?
- Consider how the answers to each of these questions may impact the learn experience, where the answers may create confusion with other elements of your program, and what actions may be needed to mitigate any unintended consequences.
- What is the model for microcredential program?
- ABC model
- Stackable
- Certificate
- Other
- How does someone earn the microcredential?
- If you have a stackable credential, what are the specific requirements?
- What is the learning journey to earn the microcredential? Self-taught? Provided?
- Will your program provide learning?
- What are the different learning models and methods to be used?
- What are the delivery modalities? Will you have asynchronous and synchronous options, or just one or the other?
- Who will develop the instructional material?
- What media will be included? Videos, instructor materials, online modules?
- What form will the assessment take? How will it be scored? How will it be developed?
- What does mastery mean in this context? Is is the same or different than how mastery is defined in other parts of your program?
- How will you assess “mastery” of content (e.g., summative, module-based, multiple choice, or performance, etc.)?
- How are you ensuring your content is accessible?
- Consider how the answers to each of these questions may impact the candidate or person who is going through this experience, where the answers may create confusion with other elements of your program, and what actions may be needed to mitigate any unintended consequences.
- Will your assessment require proctoring or some other type of monitoring? How will it be delivered? How will it be scored?
- How will you deliver learning content? Is it virtual or face-to-face? How will you train your trainers?
- What platforms will be used?
- Candidate management, learning management and delivery, and testing platforms all must operate together harmoniously. Will they with the introduction of a microcredential?
- Consider how the answers to each of these questions may impact the assessment experience, where the answers may create confusion with other elements of your program, and what actions may be needed to mitigate any unintended consequences.
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- What is required to maintain the program?
- How will you monitor the impact of the credential on your overall program? How will you ensure that the microcredential has not negatively impacted your program in some way?
- How will you incorporate advancements, emerging concepts, and information into your microcredential?
- How will you update and maintain the assessment and learning content? How often will you do this?
- What metrics will you track, and how will you ensure that the stakeholders have access to those metrics? How often will they be updated?
- What is your approach to psychometrics as it relates to your microcredential? How often will you review them? Which statistics make sense and are most appropriate?
- Consider how the answers to each of these questions may impact the experience of those maintaining the microcredential, where the answers may create confusion with other elements of your program, and what actions may be needed to mitigate any unintended consequences.
