Many professional, continuing, and online (PCO) units develop microcredentials as a way to generate revenue and increase access for non-traditional learners. While these are laudable goals, without enrollment at scale, it is difficult for units to achieve positive margins, or simply break even, on their microcredential offerings.
This resource center brings together EAB’s research on microcredentials to provide PCO leaders with best practices for building microcredentials that are financially sustainable and aligned to institutional priorities. Explore our range of tools, briefings, and recorded presentations below.
What is a microcredential?
A microcredential is a codification of a package of learning smaller than the amount required for a traditional credential and designed around a specific skill or competency (rather than an entire body of knowledge).
Understand the Microcredential Landscape
Microcredentials are on the minds of almost everyone in the PCO space. According to a study from Strada education, 67% of adults think that getting a microcredential would be worth the cost, and 81% of executives say that employees who hold microcredentials gain credibility.
Despite this excitement, there is no universal microcredential definition or consensus on what role microcredentials play in a successful portfolio. PCO leaders need to understand the microcredential landscape to determine where they fit into this diverse ecosystem.
Blog: To design microcredentials that meet student needs, follow these 3 steps
Don’t build microcredentials simply to follow the trend. These practices will help your institution build microcredentials that enhance student learning and career outcomes.
On-Demand Webinar: Achieving Smart Growth in Microcredential Programs
This two-part webinar series provides in-depth discussion on microcredential finances, applying stackability and credit for prior learning to microcredentials, and using B2B partnerships to achieve scale with microcredential programs.
Create Financially Viable Microcredentials
Microcredentials are often viewed as a way to offset declining enrollment in traditional degree programs. However, microcredential programs almost always cost more to build than institutions anticipate. To avoid losing money on microcredential offerings, PCO units should implement practices to ensure their microcredentials are financially viable.
Research Report: How to Build a Financially Sustainable Microcredential Portfolio
This report shares tactics that will help your unit ensure the viability of new programs across the microcredential lifecycle.
Blog: Scaling microcredential programs through employer partnerships? Minimize risk with these 3 practices
One of the best ways to achieve scale and financial success with microcredentials is through employer partnerships. EAB identified three practices that minimize risk in these partnerships.
Blog: 4 practices to reduce financial risk of microcredentials
Microcredentials can be financially risky because they are costly to build but offered at a low price point to students. Use these practices to ensure you don’t lose money on microcredential programs.
Tools for Implementing Microcredentials at Your Institution
Building microcredential offerings aligned to market need involves many moving parts. Institutions need to gather proposals for microcredentials that appeal to both students and employers. They need to decide if they want to develop options for students to count microcredential courses toward full degrees. And they need to navigate how admissions standards for microcredential programs might need to differ from traditional programs’ standards. Preemptively building plans to address these challenges can preserve resources and build institutional buy-in for microcredentials.
Microcredential Proposal and Evaluation Template
Use this tool to ensure that faculty microcredential proposals align with student and market need. By assessing whether proposed programs align with these needs up front, your team can reduce proposal rejections and spend more time supporting promising proposals.
Custom Report: Request a Microcredential Feasibility Study
EAB’s Market Insights team can assess the feasibility of a microcredential that your unit is interested in launching. The report will include information on workforce demand, student demand, and competitive landscape. View an example here. Request your own here.