Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges: A Development Framework for Higher Education in Europe

Microcredentials are rapidly becoming an appropriate, easy and efficient way for educators and employers to exhibit and reward participants for the acquisition of skills in professional development or in formal and informal learning. Starting from 2011, the application and the studies on microcredits have had an exponential growth and have defined the contemporary perspectives of the research. Differently than one would expect, micro-credentials are having a wide use in initial training and in teaching career and in vocational training Micro-skills or visible and portable credentials in an online environment are learning strategies aimed at motivating students in their vocational training pathway. Involvement and motivational factors are only a part of the digital badge (or micro-credit); other important dimensions are the feedback and the value of the reinforcement it assumes. It will become clearer once its implementation in short non-awarding courses will take place. The purpose of this study is to track strengths and weaknesses of the use of the digital badge in online training and its present questions.