- July 27, 2021
- Ed Timke
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Micro-credentials may just be the future of competency-based professional learning in K-12 education. Why? Wherever you are in your understanding of a particular topic, micro-credentialing allows you to move toward concept mastery and the practical application of skills.
Micro-credentials are a relatively new concept in education. They are a form of certification — typically symbolically represented as a digital badge — that operate as a stamp of approval for mastery of a particular skill.
Micro-credentials follow the paradigm of competency-based professional learning by allowing educators to focus on a discrete skill related to their practice — for instance, checking for student understanding — and collect the evidence — such as classroom videos or student work — to demonstrate ability in that specific skill.
Just as SCECHs operate as Michigan’s reward system for honoring teachers for the time they spend on their professional development, micro-credentials operate as a reward system for honoring educators for the competencies they have mastered
Together with the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators (MASA), we’ve designed courses and micro-credential learning experiences that prepare administrators and superintendents with training to address key issues within their districts.
| Courses | |
|---|---|
| Communications Micro-Credential | |
| Communications Micro-Credential: Developing a Communications Plan — Coming soon! | |
| Communications Micro-Credential: Developing a Crisis Communication Plan — Coming soon! | |
| District Leadership Team Micro-Credential | |
| HR Best Practices Micro-Credential: District Framework | |
| HR Discipline Micro-Credential — Coming soon! | |
| HR Evaluation Micro-Credential — Coming soon! | |
| HR Hiring Micro-Credential — Coming soon! | |
Together with the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association (MEMSPA), we’ve designed micro-credential courses that prepare middle and elementary school principals with the training on topics that help them best support their students.
| Leadership & literacy micro-credentials | |
|---|---|
| Leadership & Literacy Part 1 – Action Plan | |
| Leadership & Literacy Part 2 – Resources & Alignment | |
| Leadership & Literacy Part 3 – Reflection | |
| Social emotional learning micro-credentials | |
|---|---|
| Embedding SEL Schoolwide | |
| SEL & Whole Child | |
| Braiding MTSS & SEL | |
| SEL & Family Engagement | |
| Comprehensive Staff Well-Being | |
If you’d like to receive notifications when new micro-credentials are available from MEMSPA, please sign up for email notifications using the form below.
Micro-credentials are an innovative way for you to demonstrate and share your educational competencies. You can explore all of the micro-credential courses in our catalog using the link below!
Want us to let you know when new micro-credentials are available? Sign up below, and we’ll send you email notifications when they’re ready for enrollment!
We’re sorry to inform you that we have reached capacity for several of our Semester 1 and Trimester 1 courses. You’ll notice when attempting to enroll students in our Student Learning Portal that some courses are unavailable. While we are no longer accepting new enrollments for these courses at this time, many courses continue to remain open for enrollment.
With many students across the state 100% remote, demand for our online courses is greater than ever before. Because every course we offer is taught by a Michigan-certified teacher, this high volume of enrollments has created capacity issues for our teachers who provide each and every student with individual feedback.
While the Michigan Virtual team anticipated and planned for significant increases in student enrollments this Fall, the increased demand we’ve experienced has been unprecedented. As a result, we are taking steps to hire even more part-and full-time teachers to support larger numbers of student enrollments for Semester 2 as well as for Trimester 2 and 3.
For schools that still need online learning options this year, please fill out the form at the bottom of our virtual pathways page to meet with someone to discuss other solutions. While some of our teacher-led courses are full, we may still have the capacity to help you in upcoming terms or can discuss timing to implement a whole-school or collaborative program in which local teachers from your school/district use our online course content to teach students. We also have free course content and resources available for you to use.
We know this is an incredibly stressful time for all, and we’re sorry if the courses you’re looking for are unavailable. We never want to turn away a student who wants to learn from us. Our top concern, however, is student success, and we have a policy to not take on additional enrollments if we cannot guarantee that all students will have a quality online learning experience.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate the unusually high volume of enrollments we are receiving.