Micro-credentials are certifications that evaluate knowledge and skills acquired through specific learning experiences. This research explores the perceptions of education and industry leaders in Mauritius regarding recognition, ease of application, and value of micro-credentials in higher education. Interviews were conducted with 10 education and four industry leaders. The findings indicated that while the respondents lacked a deep understanding of micro-credentials as an educational model, they recognised the need to formalise its adoption within frameworks such as the National Qualification Framework (NQF) and a National Credit System. Additionally, there is a pressing need for reliable, competency-based assessments and structured pathways to map micro-credentials to university credits, leading to recognised qualifications. These insights from Mauritius can provide valuable lessons for other developing nations seeking to integrate micro-credentials into their higher education systems, helping to address skills gaps, promote lifelong learning, and create flexible educational pathways that align with local and global workforce demands.
1 October 2020 in International Journal of Distance Education Technologies
This paper reports the findings of a research using marks of students in learning activities of an online module to build a predictive model of performance for the final assessment of the module. The objectives were (1) to compare the performances of students of two cohorts in terms of continuous learning assessment marks and final learning activity marks and (2) to model their final performances from their learning activities forming the continuous assessment using predictive analytics and regression analysis. The findings of this study combined with other findings as reported in the literature demonstrate that the learning design is an important factor to consider with respect to application of learning analytics to improve teaching interventions and students' experiences. Furthermore, to maximise the efficiency of learning analytics in eLearning environments, there is a need to review the way offline activities are to be pedagogically conceived so as to ensure that the engagement of the learner throughout the duration of the activity is effectively monitored.
1 June 2006 in Educational Technology Research and Development