Learner-Generated Instruction and CBE Micro-Credentials

By Abbie Amadio

Comic. Three men under the banner “A public service message from the Society for the Preservation of Normal Looking Higher Education.” The man on right says, “Friends, please consider these two questions. 1) Are learners capable of creating quality instructional content? 2) Would a university ever validate learner-generated content by associating it with a credential?”

“In other words, if a student passes a course that contains learner-made content in its curriculum, should the student learn a university backed credential? The answer, of course, if NO!!! I mean, in what topsy-turvy universe does learner equal teacher? This spells one thing: TROUBLE!!” The man in the middle says, “It also spells mutiny.” The man on the left says, “Students aren’t qualified to teach. Their work contains inaccuracies and lacks substance. This has all been documented before. Now someone in the competency-based micro-credentialing world wants to rehash the idea of learner-generated, or worse, wiki-generated, instructional content and pretend it’s something new.” The man in the middle says, “Please, we thought of that and didn’t do it years ago!”

The man on the left says, “Frankly, it’s naïve to think that instructional content made on a wiki, whether by learners or interested professionals, could lead to any of the following… Curriculum that is up to date, transparent, and validated, a student experience improved by user testing, a way for industry to directly voice its needs, lower development costs (leading to more affordable credentials), or empowered learners.” The man in the middle says, “This is open-source constructivist nonsense at its worst—some real ds106-level malfeasance!” The man on the right sighs and says, “No one understands you when you talk like that.”

Call to Action

At the University of Wisconsin–Extension CEOEL, we are trying something new: a pilot course that uses learner and user-generated instructional content. The experimental pilot will be offered through our competency-based micro-credentialing platform the University Learning Store. You, along with students and other interested professionals, can help us build the course! The subject of the course is Human Resource Management: Creating a Training Plan. An unfinished draft of the course is available for editing now on Wikiversity (a sibling of Wikipedia). We sincerely hope you will take a look and contribute. https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Create_a_training_and_development_plan

Why Are We Doing This?

There are several reasons we believe learner- and user-generated content is worth investigating in the context of micro-credentialing. First and foremost, we want to offer learners affordable credentials that employers value. Instructional content that is user-generated yet also validated by experts might be a way to offer learners high-quality university-backed credentials at a price they can afford. A second reason has to do with giving industries and employers a voice in the education of potential future employees. Third, wouldn’t it be great if there was a sustainable way for higher education to create OERs (open educational resources)? Learner- and user-generated wiki content could do that!

What Is the University Learning Store?

A first in nonprofit higher education, the University Learning Store offers a practical and affordable way for learners to earn credentials that hold real value in today’s job market. The University Learning Store is a partnership among a prestigious group of universities to create a new kind of credential. ULS credentials…

Are competency-based and verified by employers
Use authentic assessments to prove learner proficiency
Can be completed in just days or weeks
Contain competency summaries that tell employers exactly what you know and can do

* For instance: Keen, A. (2007). The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.