This systematic review examines academic literature published between 2012 and 2022 on micro-credential research and practices in higher education. A deductive analysis of empirical evidence from the 29 included articles offers insights into awareness, benefits, challenges, effectiveness, and factors influencing effectiveness of micro-credentials in the sector. The results suggest that there are potential benefits for including micro-credentials in higher education. The findings also highlight that micro-credentials are not a micro task for students to complete or for higher education providers to successfully implement. Micro-credentials in higher education, however, are still at the early stage of development, and further research is required to evaluate their viability and effectiveness in the long term. The review carries implications for micro-credential research and practices.

Physical practice is the cornerstone of acquiring and developing movement skills in physical education and sport. However, research has suggested that psychological tools, such as mental imagery (M...

Video-based training is a commonly used method to develop decision-making in athletes and officials. This method typically uses match broadcast footage, yet technological advancements have made 360° Virtual Reality (360°VR) a possible effective tool to investigate. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of both 360°VR and match broadcast footage on improving decision-making. Amateur Australian football umpires (N = 32) participated in a randomised control trial. Participants completed a 5-week training intervention in either a 360°VR, match broadcast or control group. Decision-making was assessed at pre-training, 1-week post-training and 4-week retention points using reliable and valid 360°VR and match broadcast decision-making tests. Participants completed a short questionnaire detailing their perceptions of psychological fidelity, enjoyment, relevance, concentration and effort for each video mode. The 360°VR performed significantly better (p < 0.05) than the control group in the 360°VR retention test. No groups statistically improved over the intervention. Remaining pairwise comparisons for this test and the match broadcast test were not significantly different. 360°VR was rated significantly higher (p < 0.05) than match broadcast footage for psychological fidelity, enjoyment and relevance. 360°VR appears to be a beneficial training tool compared to a control, with stronger engagement from the participants than previously used match broadcast footage.

This study investigated the effects of imagery training on reactive agility and whether reacting to unpredictable stimuli could be improved using imagery. Forty-seven female athletes (M_age = 21.51, SD = 2.32) were randomly assigned to either a three-week physical training, imagery training, or control condition. Physical training condition involved physically rehearsing the reactive agility task, whereas the imagery training condition involved imagining the presenting stimulus and performing the reactive agility task. The control condition did no reactive agility training. A 3 (training conditions) x 7 (reactive agility performance components) mixed-model MANOVA was conducted to examine changes in reactive agility performance from the training interventions. Physical training improved decision time components and overall reactive agility performance. Imagery training improved Stimulus-Decision Time and Stimulus-Foot performance, but not overall reactive agility performance. No performance improvements occurred for the control condition. Findings support imagery use for the decision time variables associated with light-stimulus reactive agility performance. The lack of overall reactive performance improvement may indicate that imagery training is not effective for all components of perceptual-motor performance. Performance change inconsistencies appear to indicate that participants may not have generated unpredictable stimuli during imagery. Future investigation as to whether imagery improvements translate to sport-specific reactive tasks is needed.

Purpose: This study explores the perceptions of Australian employers regarding the benefits and challenges of micro-credentials within higher education and enablers of their effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach that included 11 semi-structured interviews with employers affiliated with an Australian university was used. A deductive thematic approach was employed to analyse the data.Findings: Micro-credentials were generally seen to be beneficial for an array of people, including employees, employers, customers and communities – stakeholders in all environmental layers of micro-credentials’ ecological system. Findings also indicated that both challenges of micro-credentials and enablers of their effectiveness depended heavily on attributes of learners, employers and higher education providers. The conclusion is that, based on the evidence of this study, micro-credentials within higher education are worth trialling.Originality/value: Although research interest in micro-credentials is growing, few empirical studies have investigated micro-credentials’ benefits, challenges and enablers of effectiveness, especially from the perspective of employers. The study carries practical and policy implications for those involved with micro-credential research and development.

This study aimed to assess the level of transfer of two reliable and valid video modes to in-game decision-making performance. Two video-based tests of 25 clips each (360°VR and match broadcast vision) assessed off-field decision-making accuracy in elite Australian football umpires (n=21). Game performance was assessed across four games for each participant, classified into two groups based on this measure; “highly skilled” or ‘skilled’. Decision-making was assessed for correct, missed and unwarranted decisions in video-based tests and in-game assessments. Independent t-tests analysed differences between highly skilled and skilled in-game decision-makers for each test. Correlations also compared experience and in-game with video-based test decision-making performance. For both video-based tests, there were no significant differences between highly skilled and skilled in-game decision-makers, nor any significant correlations. Officials who made less unwarranted decisions in-game (highly skilled) made significantly less unwarranted decisions in the match broadcast test. There was a significant correlation between experience and 360°VR correct decision-making. Neither video-based test had the sensitivity to discriminate between elite officials, potentially due to the third-person perspective (match broadcast task) or sub-elite players presented (360°VR). Optimising the representativeness of off-field tasks through including similar constraints to performance environments is an important consideration for researchers and practitioners.