Micro-credentials provide districts an innovative way to recognize teachers’ exemplar skills while allowing teachers to show their mastery of teaching skills via a digital badge. However, many districts don’t pursue this professional learning approach because they think it is too complex to get started. Edthena has made it easy with its new micro-credential functionality.
“Micro-credentials are more than just a trendy word, they are an affirmation of educators’ ability to put teaching theory into practice,” said Adam Geller, founder and CEO of Edthena. “We built upon our powerful, evidence-based Explorations tool so districts can now easily design and implement a set of custom micro-credential experiences. These experiences provide educators with the ability to demonstrate their proficiency while engaging in active professional learning.”
Edthena brings together the key components of the micro-credential process in one place. Using Explorations within the platform, district leaders can define competencies and how educators will demonstrate skills as part of the learning cycle. Then teachers can gather video evidence and non-video artifacts of those skills and securely share them with a coach or mentor. Once coaches review and assess teachers’ progress, they can use Edthena to issue a micro-credential – and an accompanying badge – to the teacher in a way that’s easily tracked.
Edthena can additionally help district leaders define different micro-credentials, as well as designate specific individuals who will assess the evidence and issue badges on the district’s behalf.
“Gathering evidence of teaching and learning is at the core of the Edthena experience, so micro-credentials are a natural extension to the professional learning process already happening inside of the platform,” said Geller.
With the Edthena platform, teachers quickly and easily upload videos of their classroom instruction. They then share those videos with peers and coaches and receive time stamped comments categorized as questions, suggestions, strengths, and notes.
Edthena enables teachers and coaches to participate in collaborative professional learning. Reports and graphs, linked to the school’s or district’s associated professional standards, help identify teaching trends, determine if the professional development is improving teaching practices, and provide a basis for ongoing dialogue about instructional best practices.
Schools, districts, and teacher education programs in more than 30 states are using the Edthena platform to make video observation an integral part of teacher induction, teacher mentoring, professional learning communities (PLCs), and peer observation.
To further support district leaders with micro-credentials, Edthena also recently released “Action-Oriented PD: Micro-Credentials Empower Teachers to Earn Credit Using Evidence.” This free downloadable resource provides a comprehensive overview of micro-credentials and how they can be used to enhance the professional learning process.
To learn more about issuing micro-credentials using Edthena, visit Edthena’s blog.
The American Consortium for Equity in Education, publisher of the "Equity & Access" journal, celebrates and connects the educators, associations, community partners and industry leaders who are working to solve problems and create a more equitable environment for historically underserved pre K-12 students throughout the United States.
