¶ Using the AI4AL Matching Tool in Building Micro-Credentials
In the scope of our project we want to encourage the use of the AI4AL matching tool for the consequent creation fo micro-credentials. In that we say that indeed, a micro-credential can be built with the help of the AI4AL Matching Tool, by extracting information, identifying skills and competences linked to learning process and of course facilitate the identification of the needs of the learners.. The process can be explained in three main steps which involve multiple features of the tool from both the educator’s and the learner’s side.
Step 1: Identifying the skills necessary for a specific career/in a specific field for their micro-credential
As an educator, you can use the AI4AL Matching Tool’s learner’s app to identify various skills that you want to include in a micro-credential. You can use the ESCO skills taxonomy employed in the tool as a source of inspiration. To do this, you have to log in to the tool as an educator, then access the learner’s application from the educator portal. You can do this by clicking on the “View Mobile App” button.
Once you reach the learner’s application site, you can access the “Careers” tab. Under this tab, you can explore different fields and careers, along with the corresponding relevant skills. This can serve as the first inspiration when deciding on the topic of a micro-credential that you want to build. In case you already have a specific field in mind, simply click on the field card to explore the relevant skills.
For example, if you want to build a micro-credential in the field of Software and ICT, you can click on the Software and ICT card.
It will open the Software and ICT field card page where you can explore various careers within the field. These careers can serve as subcategories to narrow down the skills selection when designing a micro-credential. The skills list is viewable by clicking on one of the career cards.
In the specific career card page, you can go to the Skills tab and browse through all the skills that are relevant for the specific career based on the ESCO taxonomy.
With the help of this list, you can select and note down some skills that you want to incorporate into the micro-credential curriculum. You can freely combine skills from various careers depending on the aim of the micro-credential. You can find the skills list by clicking on different career cards from various career fields.
Step 2: Assessing Learners’ Skills Using the Skills List
Once you have made your own skills list using the matching tool’s careers page as inspiration, you can refine it with the help of your learners. This way, you can narrow down the skills even more or determine which level you want the skills to be taught at in the micro-credential curriculum. To do this, ask the learners to do a skills assessment using the AI4AL Matching Tool’s learner’s application with the focus on the skills they have selected.
Give the skills list to the learner, then invite them to use the AI4AL Matching Tool. You can do this from the educator portal’s Invitation button. For the detailed steps on how to invite a learner, please refer to the step-by-step guide.
Once you invite the learner, they can create an account on the learner’s application and start the skills assessment by going to the Skills tab.
Then, the learner will have to add the skills from the list given by you according to which they have learned or used in any previous job, education, or other life experience. For the details of the skill assessment process, please see the step-by-step guide for learners.
Because the skills list is already specified by you, the learners are suggested to use the search function to find the skills instead of using the skills recommender.
To ensure that the learners’ skills data has good quality, it is important for you to remember the points below:
- The learners have to do the skills assessment with an empty profile. It means that the learners have not added any experience or skills to their profile prior to this task.
- The learners should only add the skills that they have. If they do not have the skills or have no experience using the skills, inform them that they cannot add it even if they put it on the lowest strength level.
- The learners should not add any skills that are not on the list that you want to assess. Consequently, due to the different flow of life experience in the skills assessment process, it is important to ask the learners to deselect any skills that are not mentioned in the list when reviewing their skills.
Step 3: Exporting Learners’ Skills Data and Building the Micro-Credential Curriculum
After the learners complete their skills assessment, you can download their skills data from the educator’s portal. This data will help you understand which skills can be prioritized and included in the micro-credential when building the curriculum.
To download the data, you should go to your portal and click the Data export button. Then, you have to select “Skills distribution” and download the file.
The skills distribution data file summarize all the skills added by the learners and their frequency in a table as shown below:
If you sort up the User column, you will be able to see the skills with the highest and the lowest frequency. The higher the frequency, the more learners possess this skill from any of their experiences.
You can use this data to help them narrow down the skills from the list to be focused on in the micro-credential curriculum. Some of the possible outcomes from this data are:
- Selecting the skills with the lowest frequency as the main skills taught in the micro-credential, so learners will benefit more from it or are more likely to sign up for the micro-credential course.
- Selecting the skills with the highest frequency as the main skills taught in the micro-credential on intermediate or advanced level, since it means that more learners already have a common or basic knowledge of the skills.
If you have a small number of learners, you can take an extra step of understanding each student’s skill level for an even better micro-credential curriculum. You can do this from the educator portal, by opening your learner’s profile one by one and exploring their Skills tab. You can see the strength of each skill in the Strength column.
Combining the data and the skill strength information will result in a specific set of skills in a specific field that can be used to build a micro-credential on the right level for the learners.