MOOCS and Micro-Credentials as Launch Pads to Further Education: Challenges and Experiences

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are often framed as providing affordable, flexible ways to deliver education on a global scale. However, opportunities for further study are often neither massive nor open. This leads to questions about how MOOCs fit within the broader landscape of online education. The particular focus of this chapter is the role of accredited micro-credentials in the evolution of MOOCs and their potential to offer a pathway from the open online course to further study that leads to credentialed and stackable higher qualifications. These reflections stem from the experience of a higher education institution in New Zealand delivering both free short courses and accredited micro-credentials on a MOOC platform. Data gathered from end-of-course surveys is used to reflect on the motivation of students to engage in further study. While the data reinforce known motivational factors for learners, they reveal limited motivation to progress to micro-credentials from shorter, free courses, despite these micro-credentials successfully recruiting from other pathways. This suggests that perhaps MOOC platforms need to make a greater effort to standardize their definitions and presentation of micro-credentials, while providers need to be aware that potential students are looking for institutional credibility, affordability, content quality, and relevant topics.

1. Introduction

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have transformed the global educational landscape. It is now common for learners to study online, self-paced, with international providers, picking and choosing their own learning pathways from a huge range of options. As a result, hundreds of millions of people have learned using MOOC platforms [1]. In the early days of MOOC enthusiasm, particularly around 2012, they seemed to present a major disruption to traditional models of education, but more than a decade on this does not seem to have been the case. Many MOOC courses are offered by traditional universities taking advantage of online platforms, and many learners still want recognition for their learning and structured pathways towards recognized qualifications. The MOOC has therefore found itself no more than a new niche in the online learning delivery of higher education institutions that continue largely unaffected [2]. This is not to say that they have not had an important influence on contemporary higher education. Rather, their role has become not so much as a separate competitor to the traditional academy, but rather as a provider of new routes into and through it.

This chapter seeks to explore how MOOCs offer a launchpad to further education as an informal, self-paced, affordable, and anonymous pathway to learning for anyone with access to the internet. For many, it has provided a first step to further study and more formal qualifications. This picture has emerged slowly as institutions have responded to student demands for larger courses of study on their online platforms, and more widely recognized means of credentialing. In particular, a key evolution of MOOCs has been the development of micro-credentials. Despite a rather complex and ill-defined beginning, the micro-credential has increasingly become a significant component of the MOOC ecosystem that links it strongly to more well-established and formal academic learning pathways.

1.1 Outline of the chapter

This chapter outlines the experience of one institution in New Zealand that began offering MOOC courses on a global platform in early 2021. Some of these courses were the usual free short courses for anyone to enroll in but, taking advantage of New Zealand’s global leadership in the development of micro-credentials as stackable, internationally credentialed qualifications, the institution also began to offer related postgraduate micro-credentials. These micro-credentials also offer pathways to other qualifications such as postgraduate certificates and master’s degrees. This chapter is therefore based on data gathered for this institution by the MOOC platform based on end-of-course surveys that we believe offer some useful insights into the challenges of integrating both MOOCs and micro-credentials into effective learning pathways.

The chapter is structured as follows. First, reviewing the literature, the background to MOOCs is briefly outlined, followed by a discussion on what motivates learners to enroll on, and complete, MOOCs. Taking the perspective that a key motivating factor is a progression towards other formal and credentialed studies, the chapter then explores aspects of credentialing of MOOCs, and the emergence and role of micro-credentials.

The specifics of the experiences of the New Zealand institution are then explored, along with some student data related to the MOOC experience. The chapter concludes with some discussion of related work and reflections on the future role of MOOCs and micro-credentials.

2. Background: what is a MOOC?

MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses. In order to qualify as a MOOC, a course must be a free, web-based distance learning program that is designed for large numbers of geographically dispersed students [3]. These characteristics are strengths but also weaknesses since they undermine student motivation to enroll in, and complete, MOOCs that are defined in this narrow way.

Although MOOCs first appeared around 2008, specifically with the work of Stephen Downes and George Siemens in creating the first connectivist MOOC (cMOOC), they began to emerge at scale in 2011 from Ivy League universities such as Stanford University offering a few open online versions of their on-campus courses and making them accessible to the world, with over 100,000 people signing up to learn technical topics involving relevant modern skills such as data science [4]. Since then, the number of MOOC providers has grown significantly, with MOOCs now available from a wide range of providers including Coursera, Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Esme Learning, and FutureLearn, among many others.

MOOCs have undoubtedly opened access to learning to a mass population who would otherwise not be able to benefit from traditional forms of learning. Being able to learn at any time, from anywhere, to fit with one’s schedule and with a reduced cost has driven the uptake of this learning format remarkably. In 2021, enrolment across MOOC-based platforms totaled 220 million learners (not including China). At the same time, the number of MOOC courses reached approximately 19,400 and these were developed by 950 universities worldwide [1].

2.1 MOOCs and learner motivation

Motivations for enrolling into a MOOC can range from personal interest or curiosity to learning a specific skill set for a promotion or career pivot, or even general marketability in the modern competitive professional landscape. Student perceptions of the value of micro-credentials vary widely, from valuing the evidence of learning, or the skills developed, to building interpersonal relationships [5].

There are two main groups of people who enroll in these courses, and their socio-economic background appears to play a significant role in their intention to learn and finish a programme [6]. Those who have a higher socioeconomic position and education, and those who already have a high-skilled job, are likely to benefit most from up-skilling to improve within their current job role and gain general career benefits. Those from lower socio-economic groups and education, or who do not have a highly skilled job, are more likely to benefit from re-skilling to transition to a new job, gaining tangible career benefits. A literature review looking at the perceived value of MOOCs in Australia noted three major themes as; flexibility for learning, on-demand, lifelong learning in a rapidly changing workplace, and credentialing towards a formal qualification [7]. In the Indian context, motivating factors to complete MOOCs were enjoyment (“hedonic motivation”), habit, and the course content [8]. These various perspectives suggest that learner motivation in MOOCs can involve many factors and these may vary between contexts.

2.2 Factors in non-completion of MOOCs

Although MOOCs consistently have a significant uptake in terms of student numbers, their extremely low completion rate in comparison to the number of students enrolled brings into question the true value of the MOOC. Specifically, if so many people are signing up, why do so few end up finishing?

There may be many reasons why learners do not complete a MOOC. One limitation is they are not interactive enough - there is no one to hold learners accountable or to provide an opportunity to talk through the learning process. According to a study of recently graduated occupational therapists adopting MOOCs for their growth, a lack of synchronous learning stood out as a key criticism by these healthcare professionals, suggesting that it should be included to provide a better learning experience [9]. Other reasons for not completing MOOCs include lack of time, finding them less effective than traditional learning, technical barriers, and monotony [8].

2.3 Motivations to complete MOOCs

By making sense of why students hesitate to complete a MOOC we can begin looking at whether providing solutions to the current problems with MOOCs would lead to higher completion rates. One way in which MOOCs have been addressing this question is by integrating them with more formalized courses as pathways to accredited academic programmes. This has seen an evolution of the MOOC into something that can sit within the same framework as traditional education programmes as a cost-effective and low investment steppingstone towards pursuing a new area of study with a lower level of commitment through self-paced learning. The focus of the next section is connecting MOOCs to related programmes at academic institutions by applying meaningful credentialing frameworks.

3. Credentialing and MOOCs

When MOOCs first began, Coursera was one of the pioneers, developed by Stanford computer scientists in 2012 [5]. While their courses were modeled after the existing for-credit and on-campus courses in the university computer science programmes, it was clear that at the time, learners who completed the MOOC courses were not awarded any university credit [10]. Since then, there have been two distinct approaches to credentialing on MOOCs: one is moving further away from formal credentialing systems to offer a clear alternative, but the other is the formalization of digital credentialing. The former direction has driven the vast range of diverse topics and content of courses in an attempt to differentiate themselves from traditional institutions’ accredited courses. The latter initiative means that learners can earn academic credits granted by associated institutions if they satisfactorily meet the course requirements. According to [1], the first online master’s degree offered on a MOOC platform was in 2013 by Georgia Tech. Since then, more tertiary institutions around the world have continued to add a range of credentialled MOOC-based courses including master’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and micro-credentials. In addition, there has been a collaboration among universities in digital credentials. 2019 saw nine universities in Europe, the US, Canada and Mexico working together to create a standardized system for sharing and verifying academic credentials issued by participating institutions [11]. Later that year, the European MOOC Consortium developed the Common Microcredential Framework, aiming to “create a new kind of international and portable credential in the area of lifelong learning” [11].

3.1 Micro-credentials and MOOCs

In a world in which education providers and national administrations are constantly looking for new ways to meet the needs of both students and wider society, the concept of micro-credentials has been widely embraced in recent years, alongside other potentially disruptive forms of credentialing such as nano degrees, digital and open badges [12, 13]. Micro-credentials emerged from the large MOOCs established in the 2010s, along with the later moves towards digital badging, a move to credentialise collections of MOOC learning units, and subsequent interest from formal higher education [14, 15]. This somewhat untidy emergence of different terms and offerings has led to a “chaotic landscape of unbundled credentials” [16], so it is helpful to explore the various definitions of micro-credentials and identify their key characteristics.

Micro-credentials provide learning that is smaller in scope and duration than traditional vocational or higher education qualifications, focusing on specific in-demand subject areas. Being relatively short, they can provide rapid upskilling, particularly for mature learners already in the workforce [17]. They offer more options at lower costs to combine education and job training, providing employees with better skills and the capacity to learn [18]. Unlike traditional large-scale qualifications, they can be developed quickly to adapt to changing demands [19]. What constitutes a micro-credential is something that has been evolving and becoming more diverse over time. However, the key elements are identified by the name, in the sense that ‘micro’ implies a small learning component and ‘credential’ implies that unlike, for example, a commercial training course, the qualification carries accreditation from a recognized learning provider. Beyond that, there is little consistency. For example, the length of micro-credentials varies from 1 to 15 months, with prices from around $20 to around $20,000, and time commitments ranging from just 1 hour per week to 40 hours [20]. This diversity makes it difficult to talk about micro-credentials generically and raises many questions about their definition and role, as discussed in the next section.

3.2 Questions relating to micro-credentials

There is still limited academic research in the field of implementing and sustaining micro-credentials in higher education [13, 21] and there remain many questions about their character in practice and their overall philosophy. Areas of debate include what levels of education they should address, how many hours of learning they should be, how much they should cost, whether or not students may be able to seek scholarship or loan support to study, and whether these qualifications could be in some way ‘stackable’ to become components of a larger, and perhaps more traditional, type of qualification [13, 22, 23, 24].

National policies vary. The Australian National Microcredentials Framework recommends stackability [25] while the Irish Universities Association [26] takes a less specific line that some micro-credentials may be stacked into larger credentials over time, and in Ontario, the integration of ‘micro-certifications’ into larger qualifications is assumed [27]. The lack of standardization makes it difficult to compare the micro-credentials from different providers [20]. In an effort to provide a set of standards, the European Union has defined 10 principles for micro-credentials, that they should provide: Quality, transparency, relevance, valid assessment, learning pathways (including stackability), recognition, and portability, and be learner-centred, authenticated, and be supported by suitable information and guidance [28].

There are many reasons why potential students might want to study micro-credentials as opposed to other types of qualifications. These include wanting to increase income, apply skills to practice, and develop professionally using a rigorous framework for learning [22]. However, there is also an expectation that the topic of a micro-credential is one that serves an identified need in the marketplace from a stakeholder (e.g., employer) perspective, rather than just from a student perspective [17]. Micro-credentials meet the need for units of learning that are (1) very thematically focused, (2) updated frequently, and (3) provide an easily shareable, informationally transparent digital object [29]. There are also design considerations such that different micro-credentials might emphasize different design elements based on their content. They might be self-directed using online materials (the instructional design and online platform both need consideration), job-embedded, competency-based, and/or research-based, and they should not have a one-size-fits-all approach [22].

3.3 Micro-credentials and pathways

One perspective on micro-credentials is that they can bridge the gap between MOOCs and full online accredited programmes [30]. However, according to [20], who analyzed 450 micro-credentials, the range of courses on offer means that not all of them provide pathways to other academic credits. The main thing that differentiates MOOC micro-credentials that lead to other academic programmes is the hours of work required to complete them. In an attempt to provide a broad definition of such qualifications, [31] refers to ‘mesocredentials’ as certifications that provide academic credit for MOOC achievement from a recognized academic institution, with academic degree programmes being ‘macrocredentials’. In this model, ‘microcredentials’ are MOOC courses that just provide badges and certificates of completion. It is therefore important to note that this chapter focuses on micro-credentials that meet the EU criteria of stackability, recognition, and authentication [28].

3.4 Academic micro-credentials in New Zealand

Although micro-credentials did not originate in New Zealand, the New Zealand Ministry of Education has taken a lead in addressing alternative credentials in their policies [32], and was an early adopter of micro-credentials bearing academic credit. New Zealand micro-credentials must be approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and are therefore subject to the same requirements as other accredited training programs. They must be between 5 and 40 credits in size (one credit is 10 hours of study), meet a demonstrated need from employers, industry and/or community, not duplicate any learning already approved by NZQA and be reviewed annually to confirm they are meeting their purpose [33]. New Zealand’s definition of micro-credential is relatively broad, including both the definition widely used in the United States, of alternative credentials that consist of more than a single course but are less than a full degree, and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) definition of a micro-credential as a sub-unit of a larger credential with specified minimum credits [32].

The first pilot courses were offered in 2017. Despite initial resistance to micro-credentials being able to count towards other qualifications by New Zealand universities [34], they have since become stackable into larger qualifications such as certificates, diplomas and master’s degrees. However, most of the micro-credentials approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority at the time of writing are offered at low levels of the qualifications framework (sub-degree) and mostly provide only a small number of credits. Currently, only a handful of institutions offer micro-credentials at the postgraduate level, but their potential to stack to larger postgraduate qualifications offers an opportunity for research that may inform future developments in this area.

4. Context of the study

The study context described in this chapter is a private graduate school in New Zealand that was established in 2014, initially in partnership with a publicly funded Polytechnic but, since 2018, operating as a private training establishment. The institution offers a range of qualifications, primarily at the postgraduate level, and consisting of postgraduate certificates and master’s degrees alongside a range of other courses that include those offered on MOOC platforms, which include free short courses alongside longer accredited micro-credentials, and these micro-credentials are stackable to larger qualifications. These micro-credentials are compatible with the European MOOC Consortium’s Common Microcredential Framework, with a total study time of 150 hours and equivalent to level 6 or 7 in the European Qualification Framework [32].

When the institution initially began offering micro-credentials in early 2020, these were at the undergraduate level, not stackable, and not offered on MOOC platforms, so only available to domestic students. However, conversations with a global MOOC platform led to a move towards offering free courses on that platform, as well as micro-credentials that were both postgraduate level and stackable. The free courses were designed as pathways into the micro-credentials, while the micro-credentials were also pathways into other studies.

In June 2021, the institution offered three short courses (open, and online) on the MOOC platform, aiming to provide learners with an introduction to future-focused thinking and practices in education, technology, and leadership in sustainability. The number of students taking these courses reached more than 1500 in each. The courses are free to enroll and learners have the option to receive a certificate from the MOOC platform provider when completing the end-of-course quiz and paying a small fee.

5. Study results and discussion

End-of-course surveys disseminated by the platform provider make some data available to gauge the value of the courses for learners and address some of the questions raised in this chapter about motivation and the role of credentialing in MOOCs.

The number of responses across the three courses so far varies, with the education course having 88 responses, the leadership in sustainability course 97, and the technologies course 197 responses. This course also had the highest number of joiners (more than 1900).

In terms of the value the courses bring to learners, more than 90% of the responses across the three courses found the course met their expectations or beyond. In particular, 94% of the respondents agreed that they gained new knowledge or skills and more than 50% indicated that they had applied what they had learned since starting the course.

Open-ended question responses also supported the quantitative data. For example, respondents considered the courses’ content and learning tasks were relevant to their practice and expanded their knowledge: “It’s very well-structured with interesting/valuable contents, the practical tasks helped me to apply immediately what I’ve learnt and this is awesome.” Learners also recognized that they had gained specific skills - “Best course, not only does it teach us the new way of learning, it also gives us the opportunity to enhance our skills and way of imparting education to the learners.” Learners were also in many cases inspired to continue related work after completing their courses - “this course was really informative and got me thinking about future renewable projects.”. These responses suggest that the MOOC courses are meeting several of the motivating factors previously identified in the literature, including course content [8], lifelong learning in a rapidly changing workplace [7] and valuing the skills developed [5].

Open-ended questions also provided insights into learners’ motivation to continue learning. Respondents expressed that they would like to expand their knowledge and dig deeper into the different topics introduced in the courses, for example, a “Deep dive in gathering information regarding rules and regulation that apply and are upcoming”. This links to the motivation to develop professionally using a rigorous framework for learning [22]. Additionally, being able to interact and collaborate within a community of learning drives their desire to learn more “… I’d love to be part of an international learning environment”; “I want to learn more activities that will relate to this topic and more collaboration with other students here”, “Hope there’s a chance to meet you again and interact online with you”. These comments suggest that students have the desire to build interpersonal relationships [5], something that is hard to do in large-scale MOOCs but is more realistic in micro-credentials that often have specific cohorts moving through their study at the same pace.

Credentialing is also a theme that emerges from the open-ended survey questions. Several respondents clearly value some form of certification that they have completed the courses. “Certificates should be available to all that complete the course”; “I answered one question wrong and did fail the certification? That is very unfair after I spent the time for the whole course…”. However, there is a financial barrier since several respondents indicated a lack of willingness to pay anything for certification. “I was expecting to be able to undertake a test and receive a token bit of recognition but getting to the end to find that to do this I need to spend money!“, and “I wish we could take the tests and get the certificates for free, paying online is a hassle.”

A key question in this chapter is to what extent completing a free MOOC course might motivate learners to enroll in a micro-credential. Many of the respondents identified topics that they wanted to study further, but these were typically focused areas of knowledge such as the circular economy, designing image-based materials, specific applications of the Internet of Things, and cloud computing. Suggestions like these indicate that our MOOC students tend to think of their next MOOC course as being highly topic based like the free samplers they had already experienced, and were not thinking about larger, certified courses. Broader concerns that might suit the scale of a micro-credential, with a few exceptions such as global sustainability and twenty first century pedagogy, were rarely mentioned. Only one respondent specifically expressed an intention to sign up for a micro-credential. “Build on this knowledge base by signing up for the Micro-Credential course. Excellent tutors - well done one and all!”

6. Related work

There is some related work that has looked at some aspects of MOOCs and micro-credentials and addressed similar questions about how learners see the role of micro-credentials as part of their education journey, particularly those who start from a MOOC context. As in our study, an unwillingness to pay was a significant barrier to credentialing. One survey indicated that fewer than half of the respondents indicated that they would be willing to pay for a certificate [1]. Factors that impact on the willingness to pay include course topics and the institution affiliation - learners are more willing to pay if the micro-credentials are offered by highly regarded institutions [32]. Of course, ability to pay is also a notable factor [35]. On the positive side, micro-credentials were seen as a helpful route into larger qualifications [36]. However, the pathway between MOOCs and these other qualifications is not one that is widely understood. Micro-credentials are still in a “persuasion” phase, where both the benefits and challenges are still being considered [37]. Our study noted that the quality of the course was a factor in students wishing to move on to further study, a factor noted in other recent studies [36].

7. Summary and conclusions

This chapter has briefly introduced the background to, and current status of, MOOCs, with a focus on what motivates learners to enroll in, and complete, MOOC courses. It then considered the emergence and potential role of micro-credentials in providing a pathway from traditional free, open MOOC courses to more substantial qualifications (in terms of hours and recognized credits) that are certified and may be stackable into other formal qualifications.

To explore student motivation in the context of MOOCs and micro-credential qualifications in a specific context, the chapter analyzed some data gathered by a New Zealand higher education institution that has offered both short open courses and micro-credentials on a global MOOC platform. Using anonymised student end-of-course survey data gathered by the MOOC platform, some specific issues identified in the literature related to learner motivation to enroll in, and complete, MOOCs have been reinforced by this data, in particular, the quality of the course content [8], finding value in the skills developed [5], the ability to apply lifelong learning in a rapidly changing workplace [7], developing professionally [22] and building interpersonal relationships [5].

However, while these factors may cause many learners to consider further study, few were considering micro-credentials or other larger-scale qualifications. Certification did not appear to be a significant factor, since even though learners seemed to value certification in principle, as a recognition of their work, they seemed reluctant to pay for it. There was no evidence from the data available that any of the respondents had considered stackability as a motivating factor in further study (though it should be noted that no specific questions were asked about this in the end-of-course survey). A further element to consider is that the institution involved in this study offers a range of micro-credentials that, since 2020, have recruited several hundred students. However, the number of these who have come via the MOOC pathway is very small indeed, suggesting that micro-credentials do offer a valuable learning opportunity to many students but then even though they have grown out of the MOOC context, there is currently a limited demand for micro-credentials as pathways for learners enrolled in short, free courses on MOOCs.

Although the data set available for this study was limited, it appears to suggest that despite the global move towards micro-credential certification as being an available progression from other MOOC courses, the level of interest and/or awareness from learners on MOOC platforms seems to be limited. This may be a factor of micro-credentials being a relatively recent innovation in education and one that suffers from vague definitions and many variations in implementation, coupled with other related terms being used in different contexts such as nano degrees, micro-certifications, alternative credentials, and mesocredentials. It would appear that MOOC platforms need to consider new ways of encouraging those enrolled in their courses to enroll in micro-credentials, perhaps by making learning pathways, including stackability, clearer. Ensuring that all micro-credentials have consistent terminology and approaches could perhaps assist here, perhaps by adopting the European Union’s criteria, the European MOOC Consortium’s Common Microcredential Framework, or a similar unified vision of what constitutes a micro-credential, and why a learner might choose to enroll in one. In addition, institutional providers cannot lose sight of the themes that consistently emerge from the literature, that potential students are looking for institutional credibility, affordability, content quality, and relevant topics in any progression from free MOOC courses to micro-credentials or other paid, credentialled programmes.

Overall, the results of our study reinforce findings from related work that an effective pathway from MOOCs to micro-credentials to higher qualifications relies on a range of factors including course quality, topic scope and relevance, institutional reputation, affordability, and awareness.