 Okay, so I think that's my cue, and thanks very much to everyone for being here into this session on micro-credentials and micro-credentialing approaches. My name is Cora McLaughlin, and I work at TCU, and I'll be speaking to you all on behalf of my colleagues, and Professor Mark Brown was meant to give this talk, but he senses apologies, he's actually engaged in another meeting at the same time, so he got me to do the organisers presentation instead, and hopefully it'll be enjoyable, and we have about a half hour here, and so I'm going to go through my slides fairly slow, and I know for the session in general, we were talking there to Tim and he was pointing out the chat box, the chat box is there, so make sure to use it if there's any questions you have during, I don't mind stopping as well, and if you have any specific questions. So the first thing I'm going to do is share my screen, and maybe if someone could just indicate once they can see, maybe don't know how to handle them, and I'm assuming it's now shared, I will go to my current slide. So as I say, my name is Cora McLaughlin, and it's going to be here, the pleasure of being presenting to you all on micro-credentials at Dublin City University, and to give a kind of overview of this talk before I commence, we've got three really lines of inquiry we want to use to frame this session. The first is to talk a little bit about TCU itself as an institution, some of you are probably quite familiar with TCU, and what we're going to do in context, and talk about maybe our story when it comes to micro-credentials also. Secondly, we're going to look at current research, and we're actually involved in several projects at the minute that we think would be interesting for showing some of the trends that are occurring within this research context and research space as well. And then third, we want to kind of help frame the rest of this discussion by looking to the future, and talking about some of the core questions that we see on our side as very important strategically that people keep on mind and consider. So as I put it, it's a lovely slide because it's a very important point in so many things in life, particularly when we're talking about education. The idea that micro-credentials are not in and of themselves a big idea, they should be in the service of big ideas. We can see behind there the sustainable development goals, which is obviously a roadmap for humanity in the 21st century, but important, it is important that we take the framing from the very start when we're talking about credentialing approaches, qualifications. We want to actually talk about what these big ideas are, not only what is it shaping and how it's being shaped, but why is it being shaped in that specific way? So these are all very important contextual issues to discuss first of all. And now to talk about the DCU story, as I say, some of you are probably quite familiar with DCU. It's in Dublin City, that's our main course, Dublin City University, and this is a picture of our campus, which we are all very much missing, I must say, for three or four months since we've been face-to-face on our campus. But it's on the north side of Dublin, quite near the airport, and another thing that's probably important to know about DCU is that it's quite a young university. We're actually celebrating our 40th year and this year. But from inception, DCU was very much a strategic university, and in addition to that, we've always been at the forefront of what we're talking about, digital distance learning. And the university has never been afraid of actually talking about these issues and really driving forward with a lot of these changes, trying to get in a lot of senses. So one example here is our DCU Connected program, and you can see this advertisement, but it's a very well-regarded distance education program with students learning from all over Ireland and some students from all over the world. We're actually doing under-project degrees at the minute and online. So you can see that this is a space we were already in long before discussions about microclinicals, for example, and came into being. We were always talking about distance education. In addition to this, something that's probably somewhat newer and something that I've been privileged to actually work on is we've also been able to introduce as well that infrastructure for future learning, which I'll discuss in a moment. And I was lucky enough to work on this project, Irish 101, and it's a series of Irish language minks. They're actually available right now on the future learning platform, and many of them are available. And we have over 80,000 learners from around the world who have registered to do this course from January 2018 onwards, and sometimes people are flabbergasted when they hear this because they think the Irish language, like how on earth, like I didn't know there was an Irish language. But it's an example of how DCU have really tried to climb air into this space. We saw that there is actually a huge market for people to learn about the Irish language and culture around the world. And in addition to that, this is a really transformative opportunity as well. So we've already with a whole research agenda in that sphere, too. But MOOCs have been something that we've been looking at and working very closely on. Now I mentioned future learning, and this slide just highlights the nature of our strategic partnership with future learning. So we're one of a handful of universities out here around the world, which have this sort of status with future learning, where we're actually offering master's level qualifications through the platform. So this is used to kind of sketch out the context of information we're talking about in an existing relationship, but very much a strategic one. Now this slide, and Mac described it as eye candy, but it's actually to illustrate something important also, which is when we're talking about DCU or when we're talking about institutions, I think in general, it's important to contextualize where we sit and something that we've been looking at within micro credentials, very strongly is the fact that this is the national framework of qualifications in Ireland. So you can see it's quite detailed and it lists some structures, different types of qualifications. We've always placed huge emphasis on anything that we do being potentially credit bearing. So, for example, we've been in that space, there's a lot of discourse around digital badges, micro credentials. I'll discuss this towards the end, but in addition to that, we've always wanted to do whatever work we can in the national framework. And then in addition to this, to sketch probably something that my colleagues are only talking about as well, is the European level also. So really interesting development recently was about the European common micro-prudential framework, which has been launched. You can see some of the parties that are involved in this towards the bottom. And what's super interesting about this, of course, is that I think this is the direction that all these discussions are heading in towards standardisation, towards actually defining and looking at what specific contextual factors that we're going to be talking about. You can see here, for example, when we're looking at the common micro-prudential framework and the study time involved, for example, is very much specified in 100 and 150 hours and where they sit within a European qualification framework as well, what specific levels they're at, how they link to ECTS credits. So these are bigger discussions. And it's something that we want to reflect on towards the end also. Is this concept of the trends that are pushing it? Not only nationally, but internationally as well, as elements linked here. And I would say this is an example of one of our really innovative qualifications that have just actually been launched. This is our FinTech master qualification, which is now available on the FutureLearn platform launched in February, but you have students from around the world who are actually undertaking this qualification. So again, this is an example of a specific subject that we felt was extremely interesting and extremely important and pertinent. And if you go to the FutureLearn website, you'll see examples of master's qualifications that are available now. And you'll notice that there's only a handful of universities up there in Queensland University also. So we can see straight away that there's really a handful of organisations that are involved at this strategic level. Another element we mentioned, because when we're talking about not only platforms and what we're talking about, strategic partnerships, we also need to talk about the means through which micro credentials are delivered. So we know digitary is a very important platform to DCU and such based here in Dublin may have a strategic partnership, but this actually providers now and I think it's a fair provider in Canada. And it's also very large in Australasia. So we need to think about this as very much a weave. We have on the one hand the institutional actors, universities, but we also have MOOC providers, platform providers. And then we also have digital solution providers. So these are all contextual elements that are really important to account for. And that kind of finishes me up on DCU's story, for example, or our sort of narrative of where we've come from and where we've come to. But in addition to that, of course, we do want to discuss the current research agenda, which is pretty extensive and a lot of the kind of projects that we've been looking at and very much cross pollinating. So we've been making sure that there's a lot of like transfer between the different projects that we're involved in. And many of them fit into the Michael Credential space. So I'm going to mention a few. The first one here is the DGHE project. And this is a project which is actually run by the European University Association. And it's a very close strategic partner of DCU. DCU is an active member and there's a chief in a survey, which I think finishes up this week and has had respondents from all over Europe. And it has been, it has many questions on the survey relate to Michael Credentials and Michael Credentialing approaches also. The third important is skill net. So whenever we're talking about these discussions, an interesting voice that sometimes absent is actually that of employers. So this is an important partnership. We've had received some funding recently to actually query employers and employees, show some of the examples and from students or some of the examples of questions that we have had so far. And skill net is a really important partnership for DCU because it looks into this in an applied sense and as an applied example. So this is an example of research that actually is really critical and it was undertaken as part of the Quality and Qualifications Ireland framework, with kind of remarkable results in a sense. Now, you'll know the question is phrased, how important are digital badges during the recruitment process? And what you'll see that the overwhelming majority of recruiters said, they're not important and the quarter said that they were important. Now, the reason that this is quite interesting as well is we could ask what would it be like if it were phrased in the future tense, for example, and would it be somewhat different? How important will it be in the future? There were items relating to that on the survey. But it's an important issue where the discussion is the employer voice as well and also employees. So these are the kind of topics of the survey that we've launched as part of skill net and you can see that there are separate sections for employers and employees. And we really wanted to get into the weeds and understand not only how familiar employers are, say, with micro credentials, but in addition to that, we wanted to look at what are the potential uses they see, what are the factors that would actually influence whether or not they'd adopt those within their specific context. And then on an employee side also, something that was obviously a little bit different and was to talk about how much they understood or were familiar with micro credentials and then engage with the CDD. Also very important issues. And so these are all kind of focusing on that element to that it's not purely academic, but in addition to that, we're focusing on the workplace and actually seeing a how much awareness there is of these topics will then be when we move beyond that, what are the kind of drivers at that level too. So I know that our colleagues here from Finland, who are involved in our ECIU project, the European Consortium of Innovative Universities are probably going to mention this, but this is a really interesting project that we've been involved in with about 12 partners all across Europe. And this is a really transformative project. Essentially, we're all coming together and we're going to be implementing hopefully micro credentials, perhaps innovative new learning approaches as well. And but within the ECIU University, we have a fairly strategic role also, which is that we're actually looking and surveying at attitudes and approaches to micro credentials. So this is a survey that's just not live, actually. And we have about 90 responses from all across our universities, our primary universities within the project. And an example of a question here, one of the first questions in the survey is about based on your own knowledge of micro credentials. And we wanted to understand how different persons in different roles would articulate and describe their own understanding of micro credentials, what they are, what they aren't as well. And to share maybe some very preliminary analysis on this question. And he did not sponsor us that a lot of confusion is present at different levels of academia in terms of what a micro credential is, what distinguishes it from a short course. I'm going to talk very briefly about definitions towards the end. But these are critical questions because we're often finding that lecturers, support staff, administrative staff are coming back and saying that they're not sure what a micro credential is. And if they're not sure what a micro credential is, a knock-on question will be how sure of people that we want to take micro credentials actually being of what a micro credential is also. So that's a very strategic project that we're involved in. And all of the projects that we've illustrated is I'm sure you can all see the common trends in between each different strand and each different project that's involved there. And but it also leads back to our narrative about our institution and our institution is very much a kind of strategic one that's looking at specific opportunities. And to do that, a really important element is to actually look towards the future and to see the future as well as not just something that occurs, but it's also something that is shaped and that we play really a central role in shaping also. So mindful of the fact that there are going to be other speakers in this session, too, we wanted to actually discuss this to look to the future, a lot of the kind of core questions that exist right now regarding the future of micro credential approaches. And we have three sorts of major issues here. The first is definitions and the second are drivers and tractors and Mark had a lovely point yesterday because he noted that, you know, when we're talking about drivers, push factors, the reasons people do things, tractors, pull factors, you know, the reasons people want to do things as well are also important. But then a critical third aspect is the language we use and the types of metaphors we use. So often metaphors when we're using them reveal an awful lot about how we think about things and obviously there are different types of metaphors as well. So this is a really critical question and that comes up all the time. I mean, how exactly are we going to discuss and micro credentials and where do they fit in within this wider space and what kinds of metaphors do we use to talk about them with an awareness that no metaphor is neutral, all metaphors are grounded in some sort of assumption, sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit, sometimes both, but that it's important to think about it in that in that kind of base or frame framework and the sort of thinking process as well. So this is a really useful subject in the park as well. Then it's a very useful way of thinking about. When we're talking about nations, they're two active. One has the bundle versus bundle access. And then on the other hand, he has the credit bearing versus non credit bearing access. So you can see up there that in the upper left hand corner, formal degrees, for example, and a traditional third level degree and would fit into that space. So it's bundled on its credit bearing. And then if we head down, we might see structured short courses which are bundled. They're all together, but they're also non credit bearing. So many of them don't actually yield credit. Then in the upper right hand corner, we'll see where there's really quite a bit of potential here about stackable micro credentials. So they're unbundled. You can do one, you know, or you can do two as many as you want and that they are credit bearing. So they're actually, as we say, woven into our qualification frameworks. That's a really important point. And then down in the lower right hand corner, you'll see non formal badges and certificates. So these are things that are both unbundled. So they're not, you know, college degree, but they're also non credit bearing. So you can see that they're, you know, maybe within that framework, they just in a different space. And the reason that it's important to talk about it in this light is that we really need to understand what we mean when we mean a micro credential because, you know, and this is again, something that has come across our research agenda has been the number of times people will say, you mean a digital badge, you mean it. And the answer is that it might mean a digital badge, but it's unclear, you know, so the actual target demographic, we might say of a stackable micro credential might be extremely different to a non formal badge and certificates base, but they're often adding the kind of use of the word again, but they're often bundled together in a way that's probably not quite appropriate. So we need more conceptual clarity about different types of qualifications for different types of purposes for different types of experiences as well, and within lifelong learning and reskilling for the job market, that these are all different or differing, perhaps slightly differing spaces that really need to be clarified in more detail. Now, when it comes to these questions and important note, as well as the fact that none of this exists in a vacuum, and I think this is probably one of the critical points. This is a recent paper by Shane Ralston, the micro credentials and the neoliberal learning economy. So the fact that when we're talking about unbundling, we often have to consider what are we unbundling, what are we unbundling it for, and who are we unbundling it for, and perhaps also for what purpose. So this is a really provocative and very good paper that talks about this in detail, and a lot of these questions, and as we say, these implicit assumptions really need to be questioned when we're talking about them, and within the academic sphere, and when we're talking about different stakeholders within the sphere as well, these are critical questions and critical elements. So we have a few questions and metaphors to finish up with this first one. In Ireland, we call this a shopping trolley. I'm sure it's called a lot of things around Europe. We really need to ask, do we want to see students essentially become consumers? And what I mean by that is that students will walk down the shelves, they'll pick this credential, they'll pick that credential, they'll put it all in their trolley, and they'll head to the checkout, because that itself is a metaphor that's based very much on a particular economic logic. And it's also based quite strongly on a consumeristic way of looking at the world that students will pick and choose, that they'll develop, and their own repertoires. These are not bad things, but what's important to consider when we're talking about them is that they're also not neutral things. And as Ralston argues, and many other would argue, when we're talking about education, sometimes there's actually an extra level to that. It's not necessarily a consumer product. So we need to be careful when we're talking about these metaphors also. A second issue is one that's actually come up in some of the projects with working on this concept of a wallet, you know, backpack, and these are interesting metaphors as well, because they actually have a certain logic taken into them. So, you know, for example, a wallet implies currency, it implies capital, it implies movement. There's nothing wrong with the metaphor. That's an important point, but we do need to talk about these assumptions, and particularly again, if we go back to that schematic that Mark developed, where our different qualification frameworks are fitting in and for what purpose. This is a critical question, and it's going to confront us as we move further down this path. And then the last common metaphor is the passport, you know, and again, really nothing wrong with it, really nice one, but something we should ask is, you know, millions of people around the world don't have a passport, they don't have citizenship. And the vast majority of human beings have never been on an airplane. So when we're talking about travel, when we're talking about transport movement, we have to bring these questions in. They're not neutral, we have to talk about who's going where and for what purpose. So these are big questions, but as you saw at the start when we're talking about these big ideas, we need to put micro-credentials like any other concept within that specific space. It's very important to do this and to talk and to challenge some of these questions and confront them openly also. So essentially in conclusion, I've only got a couple of slides here. And the first one is about being around the table. So this is an important point Mark was making, is the fact that you really do want to be around these tables. You want to be in these discussions, talking to your colleagues. It's the only way that any of us learn. He also has a proverb, he claims it's a Irish proverb, I'm not sure if it really is, but about that if you're not around the table, you might be on the menu. So there's a little bit of that involved also that as an institution, we want to be part of these conversations. But in addition to that, I'm not only we want to be part of these conversations, we also want to shape them. And then given this context as well, the context that we're in, it's important to note this also, that we are European, all of us are European here, but that we actually, a lot of these questions, these big issues are going to be dealt with at a European level. I'm not only dealt with because that sounds a little bit simplistic. It's not that they're going to be dealt with, but they're going to be shaped. So we have to move beyond our national boundaries, while also being aware of the context that we exist in. So we exist in our national framework, our European framework also. So what I will say is thank you, or I'll also use my native Irish as well, Guermakalive, at the same time. And I apologize as well because I know my camera went off during, and what I will do is I will stop sharing. And hopefully, there will be time for questions to apologies again, if you want to, I'm not sure what might go on there. And thank you very much. Thank you, Conor. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask before we move on to our next presentation. Hi, may I speak? This is Karine. Yes, please go ahead. Hi, I really appreciate your presentation and in particular, I loved in the future section that you had this whole critical issue around language and metaphors. My question to you is, what are some of the current language and metaphors that you are conceptualizing when you're thinking about micro-credential? And I'm speaking of this, I mean, I'm not a European, I'm actually a Canadian. And I'm kind of interested in knowing what is any thinking, any initial thinking around these questions, because I think it's clearly for me from attending other presentations on micro-credential today, it might look a bit rigid looking from the outside, looking at the way that Europeans are trying to codify micro-credential. So I'm kind of curious to see if you have any initial thoughts about metaphors that might be useful going forward. Thanks very much for the question. And I mean, I think one that's bringing straight to mind and it is, I think it's a nice one, is that this idea of an ecology and particularly the idea that we might be talking about very different, it's not necessarily going to be a jungle, but sometimes when you hear people talk about it, it does seem a bit like a jungle. I'm just catching up with the chats there and I noticed that there's a lot of questions about exactly how would you define it? Is it a badge or micro-credential? And part of the issue that comes up there definitely is having those metaphors that can actually reflect the diversity that's involved in this issue. While also being coherent enough, I think, to constitute a metaphor because I think that would be an issue, I think, that arises. But that's why I think an ecological approach is a nice way to put it because we can think about it, different institutions are involved in different spaces, doing different things that will be perhaps comparable, but at the same time, they might not be equivalent or they may not be identical. So I would go for the ecology metaphor. I think it's a nice one. It gives enough flexibility for people to talk about it individually and also as well comparably. I think that's a really important thing is, because it strikes me that confusion that's definitely emerging is, well, if I take a micro-credential at this institution, what does that mean at that institution? So even when we're talking about unbundled, stackable things like this, we need to have some metric of stacking them. We're maybe not a metric, but we need to have some sort of understood definition. So I think, as you say, it's a critical question and language and metaphor are really the center of it as well. But I would go for the, not the law of the jungle, but I do think that viewing it almost as a space with many different types of qualification that can then somehow be related to each other. I think that's probably the future. Thank you very much. Yeah, you answered my question. Thank you. No problem. Thank you for the question. Ira, may I ask something? Of course. Just under what conditions do you regard digital badges as also micro-credentials? What do you just request to have, to make it a digital credential? Yes, I mean, this is a really interesting question. In a sense, I guess a line that could be drawn, and I think it's drawn in the schematic, is the idea of is it credit bearing? So for example, one could imagine, I'm sure everyone on this call has gotten a digital badge for one thing or another. Digital badge could be contributing. It can be asking a question, answering a question. A digital badge can fit into that space. But perhaps then if we're taking that approach, then a way to think of a micro-credential might be that it's credit bearing or credit yielding, so that it fits within a framework where it can be essentially not only validated, but also that it represents specific sort of outcome. So that might be a fine distinction. But I think that it's an important sort of line there, is the concept of credentialing, because I think badges, and it's part of, we actually conducted a literature review at the start of our project with ECIU. We were very surprised how much more prevalent the phrase digital badge was than micro-credential. And I think that the reason for that is because a digital badge is essentially kind of the danger of what we were just talking about. It's a catch-all term, and everything and anything can be a digital badge. So then the question becomes, well then what is a micro-credential? And I would say that the credit yielding aspect could be the distinction, that it's more structured perhaps and more formal. So I don't know, does that answer the question or? I think it's the best expression I heard until now, credit-bearing, because it has got the EC test unit, it has got the assessment, it has got the same metadata as the credential should possess. So the digital metadata make it accredential and the credit-bearing just express everything which is necessary. It's a very good idea. Thank you. It's having no problem. And are there any other questions? Okay, great. Thank you everyone. Now we can move to George from the EDTU. We'll be talking to us about the consortium as well. So George, please take the stage. Yeah, thanks for the introduction. I'm going to share my screen now in one moment. Let's see if it works like that. Okay, so I hope that you can hear me well. Otherwise, please notify me that I put the camera off as well. I would have talked about what already was introduced in the form of presentation, what the Common Micro Credential Springwork that is being developed by our European MOOC Consortium. And to give you first the context of the development of CMF, the MOOC Consortium was established by EDTU in 2017, as we felt the need for a better representation of European MOOCs and expertise in that field then was currently the case because Europe was very much divided by language and offerings of MOOCs by country. And therefore didn't have a very strong voice also not towards European Commission as well as a voice as European MOOC providers in general. So we approached several bigger MOOC platforms with the idea of building this European MOOC Consortium and then we had the launch of EMC end of 2017 with inclusion of Futureland, Fund in France, Openabed, EDU Open and Meriada X. And together we formulated the objectives for this EMC, but most importantly also we are immediately representing more than 3,000 MOOCs in Europe and also more than 400 higher education institutions and using five different languages, European languages. So we have altogether the EMC a bigger impact and this is very important as EMC is the vehicle now for this European MOOC Consortium with 400 higher education institutions that are endorsing this CMF. And that is quite a distinctive factor in our initiative in relation to other smaller projects or initiatives. To relate this very strongly to the labor market we also involved employment agencies and companies in a project called European MOOC Consortium for the labor market. I'm going to talk about this in a second more. First of all, European MOOC Consortium has its main goal is to increase the awareness and use of digital education and MOOCs within Europe. That's our general goal. But we want also to increase the impact and the exposure of all the MOOC platforms together as well as separately by cooperation. So we bring them together to share expertise but also trying to find connections between the MOOC offerings and make them into programs together in consultation. Further, we want to make MOOCs a widely considered option for employers and employees as part of the educational system. So now it's just being used as an addition like taking a separate MOOC but it's not so much seen as the real offering for continued education. And therefore we want to make programs that are fit to the market and being in line with what is demand driven. And especially therefore that we have created this dialogue with social partners and civil society organizations and employment agencies within the EMC labor market project to make MOOCs fit for the labor market. Why is it so of great importance? Well, first of all, it was concluded in the EU Education Training Monitor in 2017 that life in learning, continued education and continued professional development are actually underdeveloped in large parts of the EU. Realizing also 40% of European employers face problems with recruiting employees having the right qualifications and right skills for the demands of the economy especially also the more digitalized economy. In that sense, we also have the feeling that continued education is actually becoming even bigger than campus education in a sense that careers are becoming longer and continued education is becoming more important. So to meet the needs of the labor market, we also have to think about complementary market mechanisms. You have to think about different than universities educating students separately. We are more thinking about clusters, sector-oriented education, which is more in line with the demands from the economy and therefore structural collaboration is needed with the stakeholders in the market. So therefore, we bring together platforms, universities, public employment services and in a structured, collaborative way to have offerings which are flexible and scalable for the continued education market. Here summarized, you see that we are developing this framework to defining the role of MOOC platforms, universities, employment services together. We bring them together to co-develop, co-deliver and using MOOCs and short-term programs for continuous education. And we have started with an analysis of the position of MOOCs for the labor market that was the first part of this EMC-LM project and next to that, we strengthened the European platform in sharing activities and collaboration. Yeah, what is actually missing at this moment to make the big step for MOOCs being considered as a value for educational resources for continuing education is the clarity of qualifications. So that is of utmost importance not only for the learners, the university, but also for employers to really accept MOOCs and short-term programs but to have an added value in the educational sector. At this moment, there is no consistency in these qualifications and actually leading to confusion. Here you have a table in which there is an analysis done about 450 MOOC-based micro-credentials and there you already see a big difference in the length of courses, also in the credentials in the courses and that is actually very much confusing and therefore the value is not as big. It is very difficult to see what the new employee is bringing to their company. So our ambition, therefore, of the European MOOC consortium in relation to micro-credentials is to lay the foundation for a new qualification to address the needs of employers and learners looking for smaller units in that and that develop relevant skills. We want to enable courses to be recognized and stackable. And here you see the overview, which was also mentioned or referred to in the first presentation. This is the model, the common micro-credential framework and this is not something that comes from one brainstorm. This has taken us quite some time to fix this framework and consultation with the high education institutions linked to the MOOC platforms. In summary, it is about 150 hours workload representing four to six ECTS, depending on the country. Important is the connection also with the European qualification, a framework level six to seven, but also eight PhD level and with the option of level five as long as there is a combination of ECTS, so at an academic level. The need is there to provide assessments, provide assessments enabling the award of an accredited reliability method of ID verification and the transcript setting of the learning outcomes. This all feeds in to really being able to assess the value of this program with that micro-credential. Next is that sort of purpose summarized of the common micro-credential is to encourage the development of qualification that will better meet the needs of modern learners. The framework helps you to gain knowledge, skills, have a high education level and smaller units and it allows you for learning to be recognized towards formal qualifications in a seamless way. Here you see where we just positioned them. So you have, they have short courses. There are many of these short courses that which receive certificates and badges. We see micro-credentials more as the platform of education always with ECTS connected. So these are academic, formal education, higher education and they are stackable towards degrees. I think it's even the same slide I was using. We here at FutureLearn already represents specifically programs and MOOCs that are awarded with the CMF. This is our ambition is to have a growing number of programs in line with this, becoming more of a qualification which for learners is really, well, kind of a benchmark so they know that this is, when I follow this course, this is recognized, this is stackable and quality controlled. It's not only on FutureLearn, also on our other platforms of fun, near the exit, we will have this list of CMF awarded. Programs, like also was introduced with the ECU program at FinTech. To further formalize and mainstream our ambition here on CMF is that we have also a name for this qualification which is called Cadeo. This is not the only name. This is the name for CMF awarded programs, Cadeo, which is adopted by, at this moment, by Mirjada X, Edu Open and Fun. This is not necessarily the name that also is being used by FutureLearn. This could be a different name. We are currently exploring this, but in the end, we will have a similar, like an ISO certification, CMF awarded programs under the name Cadeo for different names. So we are working at the moment at this, well, recognizing ability of these CMF programs and also discussing it with the commission and Europe funds. That is the state of affairs. And for us now, we are looking for further endorsement by more high education institutions to work, to recognize these programs, to develop programs in mind with CMF and for the commission to also include this in Europe funds. So thank you very much for your attention. And I'll give the floor back to the chair. Thank you, George. If anyone has any questions for George, please go ahead and ask. Just one question to George. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. Yeah. This is Jane, she wants to ask from Geneva. And I noticed that at last slide, you have mentioned that our fund, that this is the France University in Emery, right? So it's a French MOOC platform. So I'm curious to know why you chose from to start with this project. Thank you. Yeah, so actually we have looked for the bigger platforms in Europe, the MOOC providers. And these are typically more language bound. So we have French, Italian, Spanish and UK by Futureland. We do not exclude other platforms in Europe. So we are expecting also a German platform and MOOC to join soon. Fund has been very active in this field and they have really felt the need to, as one of the first of our platforms that we represent, felt the need to have this as a registered name, this qualification. And they've taken this initiative, or Cadeo, which is now being registered under the brand name. So, and then they asked also for the other platforms to join the name of Cadeo. And this is now done by the X and the open. And the more platforms that endorse this qualification under CMF and under the name Cadeo, the stronger, of course, the recognizability of CMF awarded programs. For now, for practical reasons, we only give CMF programs to the programs under CMF, under EMC platforms. So only for universities that are currently connected to these four platforms, five platforms including open web. And later on, we will expand this also to universities in Europe, in wider or even wider. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Offerank, you can go ahead and ask your question. Thank you. George, it was very, very mind-opening lecture. The previous presenter just mentioned that credit-bearing means that micro-cadential have the properties you just mentioned in your project also. So you just define the content of making it credit-bearing, I think. But I do not understood what did you mean that it is only for further education and not for degree courses, a part of a degree course, or may I misunderstand this? Yeah, no, that's correct. Because these programs for clean education often are coming from universities and they are often also part of the the Bachelor programs, the campus-based programs. The only thing is that we want to have, we actually install the micro-cadentials to serve the markets for clean education because there the qualification is missed. So we do the Bachelor Master's, the PhDs. Wow, that does have a lot of things. A qualification that is necessary and shows really the added value. There you have this micro-cadential education, you have certificates and Bachelor's. To solve that problem of recognizability and seeing the added value, we see a task for the micro-cadentials for having a new qualification like CMF. Then you could have the discussion like should we also give a CMF qualification for let's say a first or second year student at a university of 18, 19 years old? Then you have the discussion that could technically be possible, but then you are cutting up programs and the question then is, aren't you very much stimulating for students to just finish their Bachelor program as such or then giving incentives of breaking that up and making it a whole collection of these micro-cadentials? So therefore, at this moment, we think these micro-cadentials are mainly meant for formal higher education, continuing education, the Bachelor Master's system is already a well-functioning system and should stay as it is. The micro-cadentials CMF qualification is meant for the micro-cadential education where we are missing such qualifications. That is why we made that distinction. Thank you. Thank you, George. We also have a question in the chat from Corinne. Where is the validation coming for the EMC? Is it coming from the European universities or the EU Commission? Yeah, so you mean the validation of CMF then? So the European Commission is now being involved at further endorsement also from the European Commission and we also involved in this commissioners expert group on micro-cadentials. So we are talking to the commission on this. The validation is based on the endorsement by the universities connected to the European platforms, European platforms and the actual execution of the validation in certifying, so more or less the program that's being CMF, is then done by EDTU as the Coordination of European New Construction on behalf of the five MOOC platforms. So you have this layer. EDTU is providing this qualification on behalf of the five MOOC platforms representing more than 400 higher education institutions. So that is how the system works. But to keep it under control at this moment, we only apply CMF for those higher education institutions connected to EMC and also we have a short learning programs initiative with EDTU in which we have all the open universities connected within Europe. These programs are also applicable for CMF. Okay, thank you George. I hope that answered your question, Corrine. And if there are no more questions, we could proceed to the workshop part of this session. Okay, no more questions, I guess. So I know we've all had a lot of information overload today, but please bear with us for a few more minutes. Now I would like to welcome you all on behalf of the Micro-HE project. Sorry, I'm having trouble with my video, but anyways, we have heard a lot about micro-credentials today. And if you had the opportunity to attend some of the sessions this morning, I'm trusting that you are familiar with some of the terminology involved. So last year we conducted a discussion among a gathering of experts from all over Europe in Slovenia and the group was made up of some policy makers, some educators in the field and even some tech companies. The discussions revolved around estimating what kind of impact micro-credentials can have on various aspects of higher education institutions, such as changing learner paradigms and inter- and intra-institutional processes among others. The participants then also tried to identify what would be the driving factors for such kind of impacts. In other words, how could we use technology and sorry, just technology and policy making specifically as tools to drive those changes when it comes to micro-credentials. We collected this information and refined it over time and came up with some of these impact statements and driving forces that could enable these impacts. And now in this workshop, we'll try to analyze some of those with you. Coming back to the practicalities. Once you are assigned into groups, there will be four groups in total. You will be going to your own breakout sessions. And once you are there, you access this link that I'll just share with you, but I'll share my screen just to show you. Okay, so this is our workshop, whiteboard so to speak, and you can zoom in on every corner of this whiteboard. So there are four corners on this, each meant for different groups. So group one and two are on the top and group three and four are on the bottom. You'll see that there are three of these impact statements that every group will have. And some of these drivers that we identified over here on top, all you have to do is go one by one through each statement and figure out the top five driving factors that you think would enable that particular statement from these. And once you have figured that out, you can just drag them over here in an order of importance. So if you think that including micro credentials into Bologna process is the most important driving factor, then it goes to number one and just an example. And then you can just drag number two here. So it works like that. If you feel like some of the drivers here do not provide enough information, you can simply try to add a new note. All you have to do is go here or maybe select a square and just type your message and just showing how to do it. And it will be added here and then you can just simply drag it to where you think it's important. The main thing to remember here is to stick to your own corner of the group. We have enough space here for four groups. And please feel free to add any extra driving factors that you think are not mentioned in the list right next to remarks. I'll share the link for this in the chat. Just give me a second. Please feel free to access that link. And if you miss some instructions, they are on the board again, on the Flanger board. And now Timothy will divide you into groups and you'll be in your own breakout sessions for 20 minutes. Please, we encourage discussion and critical thinking. So please go ahead and start. Okay, so I was just waiting because one group was still there. Yeah. So I hope you guys had some good discussion when doing this activity. I heard there was some confusion in the beginning, but it's good to see that the board is quite filled up and everyone found their way around it. And all the impact statements were different for each group. So please feel free to have this link. And if you want to, the Flanger link I mean, and if you want to look at the statements that the other groups went through and the drivers that they thought were more important, then you can access it. The board will remain open indefinitely. Thank you so much for your contribution and thank you Conher and George for their presentations. And thank you to everyone who made it today and stayed with us till the end. It's quite late in the evening from work perspective, but we're very glad to have you. And thank you, Tim, for the technical support. I'll share the link to you again. Thanks guys. Thank you.