This presentation, introducing the MicroHE and OEPass projects, was delivered in Madrid on the 23rd of November 2018 at the MOONLITE Multiplier Event

1. Open Education Passports
and MicroCredentials for
refugees and migrants
Ildiko Mazar
Education Quality Institute
MOONLITE Multiplier Event – 23 November 2018

2. Education is a PublicGood
This means
 Open Access to Educational Opportunities
 Use of Open Educational Resources
 Empowerement of Students through Open Educational Practices

3. MOONLITE’s mission
Improve educational offerings to refugees by boosting the
use of MOOCs to:
 widen and improve the HEIs teaching for registered HEI students
 create new educational pathways for refugees (serving society)
 build entrepreneurial and language skills among those two groups
MOOCs do not automatically imply a better
access to the higher education system

4. What do HEIs
think and do?
The results of the 2016/2017 „Comparing institutional
MOOC strategies” survey, by D. Jansen and L.
Konings, found that:
 40+% of European HEIs did (or is planning to) develop a
MOOC
 36% of the institutions are developing MOOCs to be re-used
and/or are re-using existing MOOCs
 74% (strongly) agree that HEIs should develop a policy to
open up their educational offer to those potentially left behind
 63% of the respondents (strongly) agrees that it is essential
to offer formal (ECTS) credits in addition to informal
certificates
 70% (strongly) agree that these formal (ECTS) credits should
be recognized in formal bachelor/master programmes

5. TheOEPass mission
Create a digital standard format for
documenting open education
credentials based on ECTS
https://oepass.eu

6. The MicroHE mission
Create a model blockchain
infrastructure for storing and
automatically verifying credentials
https://microcredentials.eu/

7. Educational
credentials are
documented
statements that
acknowledge a
person's learning
outcomes or
achievements

9. Examples of
non-formal
credentials
Non-
Qualification
Credentials
NANO-
DEGREES
MICRO-
MASTERS
CERTIFICATES
ENDORSEMENTS
LICENSES
BADGES

10. Who decides
about the
reputation of
a credential?
An
accreditation
agency
The (open)
education
provider
The learning
community
(through
endorsements)
The job
market and
employers

11. A typical
process model
forOpen
Education
Open
Educational
Resources
Open
Educational
Practices
?
Educational
Credentials
Input Process Output

12.  Credentials are still not digital
 Limited Access to Underlying Information
 Lack of (Technical) Standards for
Credential Information
 Closed Standards for Security &Verification
 No Aggregation of Credential Data
What’s
wrong with
(digital)
credentials?

13. LimitedAccess
toUnderlying
Information

14. The average
employer will
not research
applicants’
credentials
Source: Career Arc
If it costs an employer more to verify a credential then
to test the skills,
the credential is effectively worthless.

15. Lack of
Technical
Standards
leads to
exclusion
Source: Career Arc

16. Closed
Standards for
Security and
Verification

17. No
Aggregation of
Credential
Data

18. Closed
Credentials
 expensive and time consuming to
acquire
 hard to use and share
 hinder Open Education by failing to
evidence flexible learning pathways
in a transparent manner
 exclude the people who need them
most
 can be abused by networks of
intermediaries
 do not inform policy

19. The Road toOpen
Disrupting Credentials for the Public Good

20. Wehaveall the
piecesfor an
opencredential
system

21. Elements of aCredentialStatement
Certain elements of a credential statement are required for formal evaluation of open
educational opportunities and the underlying learning processes.
(Based on Nuffic, 2018 &Witthaus et al., 2016)

22. Credential
Quality
Distinct Authentic Accessible Exchangeable Portable
Quality
Principles for
Digital
Credentials
Quality of the
statement
Quality of the
medium

23. Quality of the Statement
The statement should:
Quality of the Medium
The medium should:
Distinct
● represent a specific and identifiable and measurable
experience, skill or fact
● be attributable to a single, identifiable person
● allow for the storage and display of the statement, as
well as any and all associated metadata
Authentic
contain enough information to:
● verify when, where and by whom it was issued
● trace and reproduce the conditions under which it was
issued
● be able to be issued for a limited period and be revocable
● only allow an issuer to create a certificate;
● not allow for any kind of tampering or editing
● be able to store or link to the information required to
verify
● display its validity status
Accessible
● be issued in a widely-spoken language or in a easy to read
graphical format
● be issued in a widely-used and/or open format
Exchangeable
● be modular, allowing for the credential to be subdivided
into smaller credentials or stacked into larger credentials
● be convertible into other types of credentials
● allow for relational links to be created between
credentials
● allow for credentials to be created out of other
credentials
Portable ● be owned by the learner
● allow for the user to physically possess the credential
in a place of their choosing
● easily shareable by the user

24. EUStandards
for
Qualifications
EU standards for qualifications
European Qualifications Framework: gives an indication as to
the level of various qualifications
European Diploma Supplement: provides a standardised
template to give additional information about a degree
European CreditTransfer System: allows for individual
learning units to be described in terms of knowledge, skills,
responsibility and autonomy
European Skill, Competences, Qualifications and
Occupations database provides a standard terminology

25. EUStandards
for
Qualifications
EU standards for qualifications
European Qualifications Framework: gives an indication as to
the level of various qualifications
Not for non-formal education or microcredentials
European Diploma Supplement: provides a standardised
template to give additional information about a degree
Only for degrees
European CreditTransfer System: allows for individual
learning units to be described in terms of knowledge, skills,
responsibility and autonomy
Only for Higher Education - not included fully in qualification
European Skill, Competences, Qualifications and
Occupations database provides a standard terminology
Not used by all the tools above

26. Technical
Standards:
OpenBadges
too open
to be useful

27. National ID
Systems
can replace
companies as
sources of trust
for signing
too complex to use
for the average person

28. AGlobal Platform forSkills alreadyexists…
should one company have
a monopoly on skills data?

29. WithBlockchainyoudon’tneedanintermediarytosigna
documentatall
the technology is still
extremely young

30. With open and
non-formal
learning the
education
landscape is
getting more
complex
Source: https://blockchain.open.ac.uk

31. A decentralised
ledger (and
distributed
database) can
eliminate
intermediary
party and
encourage
trust

32. Elements of a
System for
Open
Educational
Credentials
User-Held
Credentials
Open
Standards
OpenTech
Stack
Independent
Verification
Open
Aggregation

33. Annual Meeting
of the Danube
Rectors'
Conference 7-9
Nov 2018
DanubiusYoung
ScientistAward
2018

34. Open meta-data standard and
CredentialsClearinghouse

35. www.microcredentials.eu
Imagine a Future
where recognition is
universal
automatic
seamless

36. THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION
You can download this presentation at:
Ildiko Mazar
https://www.slideshare.net/ildikomazar

37. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the
contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use
which may be made of the information contained therein.
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