Microdentials, AnyFlip

Dr. Deborah Wahlstrom February 2019

A new principal begins his job in an urban
school setting. It’s a Title I school and the
principal wants to learn everything he
can. He knows he has to lead a school
improvement team – and he has certainly
served on one. But he never led one.

The school where he taught was not a
Title I school, so all of the requirements
related to Title I are new to him.

The district wants a data culture in each
of their schools. He’s getting nervous. He’s
not sure what a data culture looks like.

He goes online to see if there is anything
that can help him. He finds a set of these
things called microcredentials that are
supposed to help him do his job. That
sounds pretty good.

He notices as he scrolls through
thousands of microcredentials, that
what is currently available is mostly for
teachers.

He does see something that piques his
interest – a set of microcredentials in
this thing called a stack and its titled,
Comprehensive Needs Assessment.

He recalls that the Comprehensive
Needs Assessment is a requirement of
his this year, and something he wanted
to study up on over the summer.

He looks through the microcredentials in
the stack and sees that it is laid out to
follow the actions steps he would be
taking during the school year.

He looks through the materials and sees
the array of content, lessons, and
performance tasks.

Huh?

He thinks he doesn’t have time for this
mess, but since he didn’t quite yet move
from the explanation about the
microcredentials in the stack, he notices
something quite interesting.

The microcredentials actually look like
the jobs he has to do with his first
Comprehensive Needs Assessment.

There’s a microcredential to get him
thinking about the Comprehensive
Needs Assessment and everything that is
involved.

There’s one that shows him what data to
get and how to bring it all together so he
and his team can begin to work with it.

By gosh, there are even labels for folders
that will hold the hard copies of data!

He likes the one about putting
everything onto a calendar and then
how to use the calendar throughout the
year.

He likes the one that teaches him how to
set up a data room – a secure place for
him to work with his teachers. There are
lists of things to have on hand and
templates for anything he might need.

All inside the microcredentials within the
stack

He figured out that when he does a
performance task, he uses his own data
– so everything he works on is actually
helping him get his job done. He really
likes that.

He’s still nervous.

But then he looks through one of the
microcredential to see the kinds of
lessons that are included.

He likes how they are set up and how
easy they are to follow. He can imagine
himself completing the lessons.

A lot.

He uses Title I funds to purchase the
stack for the Comprehensive Needs
Assessment.

Within a minute, he’s got his stack. He
opens it.

And he’s nervous again.

There is so much there.

He decides to review the welcome
tutorial – something that takes just a few
minutes.

He’s okay again.

He plans to start on his first
microcredential in the afternoon, after
the custodial team has finished polishing
the floors in the office.

He thinks to himself, “Those floors are
going to shine, and so am I.”

Wayne,

I’d like to share three concepts with you today.

Why?

I hope you will find me to be a worthy partner
of some type – even if it’s as simple as a thought
partner.

I am applying for grant funding and want to get
to know and work with people who are a whole
lot smarter than me.

That would be you.

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

–

Concept 1: Comprehensive Sets of Microcredentials

✔ Content for stacks has been
created and reviewed by 57
educators.

✔ The content hits the “must
knows” and “must-know-
how-to-do’s” for principals
and other school-level
administrators.

✔ In process of designing high-
quality, engaging lessons for
microcredentials.

Pathways & Interoperability – An Example From a Stack

14 Foundational Microcredentials 3 Goal: Become expert
at data analysis skills
Required of all learners. Badges awarded when learner meets competency expectation. needed to improve
schools and make
1 decisions based on
data.
Micros 1, 2,
and 3 must be After the first 3 micros, a principal can
complete the rest in any order. All required
completed stacks should be completed before moving
before the on.

other
required

micros.

Differentiated

2 Microcredentials Awarded with a
Principals then choose any 4 Stack Badge when

(not labeled with “R” to meet all conditions are

the specific data needs of his met.

or her school. An elementary

principal might choose DIBELS,

PAST, NWEA, and a writing

assessment. A secondary

school might choose SAT,

Argument writing, PSAT, and a

common assessment.

Pathways of Interoperability Within a Stack

A learner having a challenge in one microcredential, can be
directed to another stack for support. For example, a learner is
in the Enrollment Data microcredential wants some reminders
for how to set up a disaggregation table for two variables. He or
she can be automatically taken back to the How to Disaggregate
Data microcredential for a quick reminder of how to do this. The
principal also knows a template is also there to do this if he
wants to organize the data differently than how it is presented in
the Enrollment Data microcredential.

We already know the typical knowledge and
skill areas principals need reinforcement in their
learning. Over a decade’s worth of experience
working with principals and there data has
given us a very good insight. Prototype testing
will reveal additional areas.

Each microcredential has a
performance task and
corresponding rubric.

That is not so unique.

The performance task and
rubric are part of
competency-based
education.

Concept #2: Using Rubrics in Microcredentials

But here’s what is unique.

When the performance
assessment is scored, the
learner either earns a badge
or doesn’t.

ON- NOT If a learner lands
TARGET YET on this side, the
system directs the
Digital badge learner uses feedback learner to the
awarded for to review and refine exact support
meeting or work. The system needed to build
takes the learner to the skill.
exceeding the part of the micro
requirements of that supports the
exact skill areas that
the are weak.
microcredential.

Work is reviewed
again to determine if
the requirements of
the microcredential
have been met.

A goal is learner success and knowing what to do to
help learners see when they are on-target – and
know what to do when they are not is critical for
success of all learners.

To accomplish helping learners be
successful, even when it’s not on the
first try, the performance task must
have a high quality rubric.

The microcredentials all have one,
right?

A micro might
have a rubric,
but more
likely than not
– it is NOT
going to be a
high-quality
rubric.

Sometimes those who design rubrics
simply have not had training in how
to do so.

Anyway, this example was placed in
here because it is one of many
examples of rubrics that aren’t quite
ready for prime time.

Here’s the FIRST DRAFT rewrite
of the rubric.

It’s already so much better.

This rubric will lead a learner to
producing high-quality work,
which is the job of a rubric.

The rubric reflects what a
principal needs to know and be
able to do in his or her job.

This is the type of rubric needed
to support learners when they
don’t know something.

Behind the scenes, the
information in the cells
redirects the learner.

Of course for now, a human
has to identify all of this,
but it is not hard.

There is one other issue with rubrics.

Many people give students a score
based on 100 points.

Or a percentage of the points they
answered correctly.

Here’s why that typical method does
not always work.

When using points, this rubric is worth
32 points. (8 rows worth 4 points
each.)

In this scenario, a learner would likely
earn 70% (when rounded up) and the
corresponding letter grade would be a
“C.” (Where this student achieved on
the rubric is where you see the teal
box in each row.)

That’s a pass in most gradebooks, but
the goal is to show proficiency.

When looking at this learner’s results,
is the learner proficient?

You see, the learner has missed the
boat on some of the distinguishing
skills of being able to disaggregate.

The learner did not address gaps in
achievement – a critical part of
disaggregating data in our schools.

The learner used mean scores, and
does not yet understand that a
different score system should be used.

And, the learner did not attend to the
most important question: Is there
learning for all?

So a student “passes”, but is not yet
competent or proficient.

It is not just the points that matter, it’s
which points that matter.

IMS Global’s Competencies and Academic
Standards Exchange (CASE) has rubric fields set
up for only a point system. It is a very good start,
but this is an area where the field can be
strengthened.

There is a need to be able to use analytic
rubrics and assessment patterns – and to link
learning and resources to each cell on the
rubric.

The way the rubrics are designed for
microcredentials can positively
influence this by allowing the writer of
the microcredential to use assessment
patterns rather than points.

The assessment pattern to the right
shows the specific cells in the rubric
the learner has to achieve in order to
be proficient.

So now, we move the learner from
here’s how many points you have to
earn to here’s what you need to
achieve.

Concept #3: OneNote Integration

What if we organized the core content for a stack into one
container? The learner gets the all of the content for the
entire stack when signing up for the first microcredential.

Everything for a stack is kept by the learner in OneNote.
The learner has a “binder” with a tab for each
microcredential.

Elegant.

OneNote’s team notebooks
would be perfect. Its three
sections allow for holding
the content, allowing
groups to collaborate (say
all the principals from one
school district), and
providing a section for
scoring performance
assessments without
having to upload anything.

OneNote Integration

– ✔ OneNote holds the stack together for the learner.
–
✔ Scoring, using the rubric, happens directly in OneNote – in the individual
section which is available only to the learner and the microcredentialist.
There’s no emailing back and forth or downloading. Everything is there and
always available. The digital badge can be assigned directly to the competency
page with directions for posting it in the many other places a person might like
to post them.

✔ All of the pages within all of the stack can be coded to interact with one
another – in whichever way is needed.

✔ Lesson design is more impactful as everything, again, is in one place. Anything
can be integrated into a OneNote page.

✔ Anything can be embedded, including EXCEL and other types of file. The files
open directly in OneNote on the page where the learning is occurring.

✔ OneNote is web-based and works on all platforms – desktop and mobile.

✔ The collaboration component in OneNote lets you put like groups together –
say everyone from one school district or organization.

✔ If there is a change or an update to a lesson within a microcredential,
everyone’s microcredential pages are updated at the same time – even after
they’ve earned a badge. This allows us to provide a better service.

The Concept for a Powerful Pathway and Connections

Everything needed for lesson
development is referenced and
coded to at least the following for
maximum interoperability:

✔ Learning Forward’s Microcredentials for
Impact

✔ ESSA (Federal law)
✔ Competencies and Academic Standards

Exchange (CASE)
✔ Core vocabulary
✔ Professional Standards for Educational

Leaders
✔ Administrator Evaluation Systems (there

are four or five key systems)
✔ Question Sets
✔ Common Core State Standards
✔ College Board’s Skill Insights and Content

Domains
✔ Next-Generation Science Standards
✔ Anchors for performance assessment
✔ Levels of thinking
✔ Lesson plan elements
✔ Research citations
✔ And more!

So, there you have it.

Three concepts. Three
ideas.

Thank you for providing
me a chance to share
these ideas with you.