Contact information
Sebastian Schöttler, sebastian.schoettler@tu-dresden.de; Karen Triquet, karen.triquet@vub.be
Overall goals
EUTOPIA is designed to bring innovation from within building on existing good practices and structures with the aim to overcome resilient divides between 1. Education and Research, 2. Academia and Society, 3. Learner and Teacher, and 4. Degree programmes and flexible learning. EUTOPIA’s educational model is unique focusing on empowering the existing core of its partner universities, combining innovation with pragmatism. Recognising the diversity and value of academic offerings and the constraints of varying rules and budgets, our model avoids lengthy harmonisation processes; instead, it enhances existing practices in challenge-based learning by fostering resource sharing and collaboration through thematic networks we have termed Connected Communities (CCs).
To enhance the sustainability and scalability of the approach, the priority has been to embed community activities in the standard offerings of our institutions with the support of quality/curriculum planning teams of all participating universities. We have developed two tools which we are rolling out1. These tools have been designed to recognise student and staff effort in transnational EUTOPIA activities: TheEUTOPIA Labelindicates the curriculum components that have been connected to cross-campus activities that emanate from CC partnerships, while theEUTOPIA Micro Credentialacknowledges the achievement of learning outcomes through activities designed and delivered by the EUTOPIA CCs.
One of our next steps is to further bridge the education and digital workstreams within the alliance and to digitalise the process of issuing the EUTOPIA micro-credentials – leveraging the developments in operational interoperability for greater technical interoperability. The aim is to move from an existing manual based process for creating and issuing transnational micro-credentials to a more technically interoperable solution using the European Digital Credentials for Learning (EDC). As part of the HEIF Early Adopter program, we seek to engage in self-assessment, peer learning and exchange to develop scenarios for greater cross-institutional recognition of micro learning components, to clarify roles, align data models, pilot and enable institutional visibility for digital credentials in EUTOPIA, whilst contributing to shaping the European Higher Education Interoperability Framework.
Use Cases
Earn a credential (Use Case 6)
Baseline:
The digitalisation of MCs in EUTOPIA can build on an already established active Connected Community ecosystem, the dedicated Community of Practice on the Recognition of Learning (composed of key administrators on curriculum development/quality assurance across each of the alliance institutions), and the existing EUTOPIA process guidelines for issuing Micro Credentials in EUTOPIA’s Connected Communities.
Over the last couple of years, we have been developing and testing tools for recognition, adhering to the EU Council regulation requirements for MCs and working on operational interoperability. Since December 2024 we have worked to further systematise the process and scale testing and adoption, developing clearer institutional processes, (guidelines and procedures), whilst accounting for the existing systemic needs and regulations for issuing MCs across the alliance partner institutions/local settings. Having an institutional network in place and continuous facilitation and monitoring of the educational activities taking place in the Connected Communities provides us with a solid foundation and means to test and roll-out greater technical interoperability in a step-by-step manner.
Goal:
We seek to now enhance the technical interoperability for the issuing of the EUTOPIA Micro Credential (MC), moving from the more experimental project context where a template was manually processed, recorded and issued (to first address key concerns on operational interoperability), to one that now ensures a more streamlined and digitally supported issuing approach. For this we aim to leverage the existing EDC Infrastructure (Online Credential Builder and Issuer).
The aim is to retain and build upon the foundational piloting work that has already taken place, recognising the autonomy of each institution in their awarding of credentials and respecting the unique local governance structures, procedures and credentialing regulations across the alliance’s member states.
Work plan:
Our key activities include:
Interoperability Self-assessment Tool - Use case 6 - Earn a credential
Clear description, mapping of responsibilities and processes in the digital issuing of the EUTOPIA MCs (issuing and rights, template building, data entry, ensuring visibility and portability).
Evaluate the EDCL Infrastructure (Online Credential Builder and Issuer) to understand its application in the context of a multi-institutional awarding approach
Create scenarios for ownership and issuance (alliance/institutional, bridging educational sensitivities with technical capabilities)
Create online accounts for key staff within Europass/EDC issuer
Prepare e-seal acquirement
Piloting of the digital issuing process with several EUTOPIA Connected Community activities that run throughout the year. Target is to test with 3-6 Connected Communities (collectively covering students from 3-10 alliance institutions). In first instance the aim would be to test when overlapping with communities existing activity timeline and with CCs that already use the EUTOPIA micro credential.
Further assessment of automation possibilities on a micro component level (identifying APIs for automated data transfer)
Time permitting
Assess processes and possible quality assurance requirements to integrate other types of credentials already in use within the alliance (such as OpenBadges)
Tackle / improve visibility of the credentials for students
Standards to be used:
EUTOPIA Micro credentials based on the EU Council Recommendations on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability (June 2022)
European Digital Credentials Infrastructure (EDCI, Verified Credentials (W3C) compatible)