Microcredentials at HETI Higher Education
Case study
The brave new world of microcredentials
“If you are a busy health professional who wants to build your applied mental health knowledge, this option has never been more accessible. Enter the brave new world of microcredentials – stackable, five-week long study units either for your own professional development or to take you all the way towards a full degree. ”
Dr Kerry-Ann Grant, Academic Lead - Perinatal and Infant, not only explains how this applied learning works; but also, why it works so well.
Our students are innately curious, and their perspectives directly benefit one another. If we add our unique microcredential offering to this mix, it sets the stage for a very different learning experience; one which is thoroughly stimulating.
The art of of modular brick building
Microcredentials remind me a little of modular brick building. These five-week long study units replace the old way of doing things; making study more accessible.
Instead of the traditional university approach, where you might choose a single subject to study over a semester, our complete curriculum is built upon these stackable microcredentials. Each 50-hour long microcredential relates to a particular life stage, from perinatal to child/youth, through to adult and older persons. These short courses are all targeted around mental health, ready for the student to take back into their workplace.
Our students are very motivated, which results in a totally different calibre of cohort. It's very inspiring. They are doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, educators and so on. Generally working full-time, or close to full-time, these students study microcredentials because they want to deepen their mental health knowledge at work.
This mindset makes a world of difference. Our students really care, they're invested.
A new way to learn
With our entire higher education curriculum in mental health studies now structured around these microcredentials, busy healthcare professionals can choose a microcredential to suit them.
No longer do students have to wait a semester or two for the next student intake. Instead, they can stack their microcredentials into an award pathway that leads to a formal degree, or apply a single microcredential to inform their own practice. It's incredibly encouraging when I hear how a microcredential has made a difference in a student’s workplace.
Build a professional community
We are all about applied learning. If you are a GP in a regional clinic, or a child and family health nurse in a community setting – you will incorporate these learnings very differently. The opportunity for shared learning lies within these differences. It really is a community of practice. I’ve noticed that our students often share their learnings with their colleagues, creating a positive ripple effect.
The more we can keep our higher education offerings flexible through stackable microcredentials, the more we can attract healthcare professionals who may have previously been too busy to consider mental health education. And so, our community of practice grows larger.
Network without boundaries
Networking and interprofessional development opportunities are deliberately built into these microcredentials.
We offer interactive online forums, and many units feature guest speakers who are specialists in their field. Drop-in sessions, with a focus on assessment planning and preparation, are available to support students. These can be attended virtually or accessed as recordings.
Through digital enablement I've set up a professional network across all perinatal units and courses so that students can come together, share resources, and invite each other to local or online events. Our students constantly learn from each other as they exchange ideas, and share their different work experiences.
Flexibility is key
If I had to sum it up, I think flexibility is a key point within our microcredential offering. Not just in terms of delivery, but in terms of tailoring this to our student’s knowledge, skills and availability.
For example, our microcredentials are categorised into three types of learning experiences – Foundation, Knowledge or Enhance. Each experience reflects how much time the student may have available, so they can more easily build mental health competencies into any of the life stage specialisations.
It could work like this in practice: A student who is short on time may opt for a Knowledge unit. This online, self-directed study option offers more flexible start and finish periods and involves no written assessments – instead, basing itself on multiple choice quizzes. Alternatively, if a student has a window of time coming up, they can choose a Foundation or Enhance unit. These offerings usually involve only one written assessment each and are each contained across a five-week teaching period.
Regardless of whether a student opts for a Knowledge, Foundation or Enhance unit, each microcredential represents a welcome step away from the traditional university model.
This difference is vast. The traditional university model usually centres around at least three assessment tasks across a 15-week time period. If someone fails a unit and wants to resit it, they typically have to wait a full year or six months until the unit becomes available again. Yet now there are far more opportunities to learn. This represents a more contemporary approach to higher education, and the student feedback has been very positive.
Workplaces at the centre
We do present theory in our microcredentials, of course, but it's in the context of thinking about how to apply this theory to each student’s workplace.
This is not always straightforward, given every workplace is different. It's not just about us saying as educators, "Oh, we've got this theory or this particular intervention, let's look at the efficacy studies."
Instead, we collectively review this knowledge together in the very real context of each student’s workplace barriers or challenges. This relevance often forms a key part of any assessment task. We care about best practice and applied learning – and for this knowledge to be shared directly between students, as should be the case in any meaningful learning experience.
Accordingly, I learn a lot from the students, and likewise they learn from me. It’s a privilege to teach our students, whether accessing study for PD or award study through the microcredentials.