Microcredentials As effective Student Motivators to Enhance Academic Engagement and Progress of High School Students: A Scoping Review
Patrick Guggisberg
Marika Guggisberg
https://doi.org/10.37155/2972-4856-jei0302-1Abstract
This scoping review discusses findings in relation to the use of technology in the form of microcredentials for high school students. It found that students may benefit from rewards for their efforts with microcredentials as an extrinsic motivational factor that could positively enhance motivation to learn and engage in academic activities. Positive feedback using the award of microcredentials for personal individual achievement tend to lead to support student engagement and motivation and increase self-efficacy, which may result in increased motivation to learn and engage in learning activities. In this regard, evidence suggests that teachers play an important role in motivating students and support them in experiencing academic progress. However, some scholars indicated that the provision of microcredentials as extrinsic rewards may have a negative effect on students’ motivation to learn and be counterproductive for their intrinsic motivation. While the implementation of microcredentials is a relatively novel way in the secondary education context, some limited studies indicated that awarding them provides excellent opportunities to celebrate learning progress and create personalized educational experiences in the traditional classroom with the potential to positively influence self-efficacy and motivation to learn. In this regard, it was observed that studies frequently combined different technologies in the form of gamification and microcredentialing, an issue which required further elaboration by this scoping review along with the need for further research.
Keywords
Academic progress; Badges; Motivation; Microcredentials; Student engagement; Self-efficacyFull Text
PDFReferences
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[2] Ellis L E, Nunn, S G, Avella, JT. Digital badges and micro-credentials:
Historical overview, motivational aspects, issues and challenges. In Ifenthaler D, Bellin-Mularski N, Mah DK (editors). Foundation of digital badges and micro-credentials: Demonstrating and recognizing knowledge and competencies. New York: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 3 – 21 (p. 11).
[3] Kilag, OKT. Exploring the connection of school leadership, educational effectiveness and professional learning: A focus on school leader as researcher. International Multidisciplinary Journal of Research for Innovation, Sustainability, and Excellence, 2024; 1(2):57 - 63. https://risejournals.org/index.phpimjrise/article/view/43.
[4] Rimland EA and Raish V. Digital badges: How schools and libraries use them today. American Libraries, 2019; 50(5):49. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/05/01/digital-badges/. (p. 49)
[5] Gooch M, Chaktsiris M, Jae K, Patterson L, et al. The future is micro: Digital learning and micro-credentials for education, retraining, and lifelong learning. Ontario, Canada. Available from: https://fsc-ccf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/TheFutureisMicro-Report-ENG.pdf. [Last accessed on 04 April 2025]
[6] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Future of education and skills 2030/2040. Paris, France. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/attitudes-and-values/.
[7] Young D, West RE, Nylin TA. Value of open microcredentials to earners and issuers: A case study of national instruments open badges. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2019; 20(5): 104 - 121. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/4345/5241.
[8] Casilli C and Hickey D. Transcending conventional credentialing and assessment paradigms with information-rich digital badges. The Information Society, 2016; 32(2): 117 – 129. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2016.1130500.
[9] Hickey DT and Schenke K. Open digital badges and reward structures. In: Renninger KA and Hidi SE (editors). The Cambridge handbook of motivation and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2019. p. 209 – 237.
[10] Varadarajan S, Ling Koh JH, Daniel BK. A systematic review of the opportunities and challenges of micro-credentials for multiple stakeholders: Learners, employers, higher education institutions and government. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2023; 20(1): 1 - 24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00381-x.
[11] European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. Microcredentials for labour market education and training: Microcredentials and evolving qualifications systems. Thermi, Greece: Publications Office of the European Union, 2023. Available from: https://data.europa.eu/10.2801/566352
[12] Steinmayr R, Weidinger AF, Schwinger M, Spinath B. The importance of students’ motivation for their academic achievement – replicating and extending previous findings. Frontiers in Psychology, 2019; 10: 1730. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01730.
[13] Meylan N, Meylan J, Rodriguez M, Bonvin P, et al. What types of educational practices impact school burnout levels in adolescents? Open International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020; 17: 1152. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041152.
[14] Hickey SB. Conceptualizing goals in motivation and engagement. In: Renninger KA and Hidi SE (editors). The Cambridge handbook of motivation and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2019. p. 547 – 565.
[15] Pfeifer C, Schönfeld P, Wolters G, Aust F, et al. Well done! Effects of positive feedback on perceived self-efficacy. Frontiers in Psychology, 2020; 11: 1008. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01008.
[16] Young D, West RE, Nylin TA. Value of open microcredentials to earners and issuers: A case study of national instruments open badges. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2019; 20(5): 104 – 121. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/4345/5241.
[17] Dubuc M, Aubertin-Leheudre M, Kareli AD. Predictors of academic
performance in high school students: The longitudinal ASAP study. International Journal of Exercise Science, 2022; 15(4): 616 – 631. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9365103/pdf/ijes-15-4-616.pdf
[18] Peters MD, Marnie C, Tricco AC, Pollock D, et al. Updated methodological guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 2020; 18 (10), 2119 – 2126. https://doi.org/10.11124/BIES-20-00167.
[19] European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. Microcredentials for labour market education and training: Microcredentials and evolving qualifications systems. Thermi, Greece: Publications Office of the European Union, 2023. Available from: https://data.europa.eu/10.2801/566352 p. 25.
[20] Bell A and Davis K. Learning through participatory design: Designing digital badges for and with teens. Paper for the IDC ’16: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 218 – 229. Salford, UK, 2016 June 21 - 24. Salford, UK: IDC Interaction Design and Children. Available from: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2930674.2930705.
[21] Da Rocha Seixas L, Gomes AS, de Melo Filho IJ. Effectiveness of
gamification in the engagement of students. Computers in Human Behavior, 2016; 58, 48 – 63. https://2/dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.021
[22] Hennah N and Seery MK. Using badges for developing high school chemistry
laboratory skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 2017; 94, 844 – 848. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00175.
[23] Laubersheimer J, Ryan D, Champaign J. InfoSkills2Go: Using badges and
gamification to teach information literacy skills and concepts to college-bound high school students. Journal of Library Administration, 2016; 56(8), 924 – 938. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1123588.
[24] Rincon-Flores EG, Santos-Guevara BN, Martinez-Cardiel L, Rodriguez-Rodriguez NK et al. Gamit! Icing on the cake for mathematics gamification. Sustainability, 2023; 15, 1 - 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032334.
[25] Balci S, Secaur JM, Morris BJ. Comparing the effectiveness of badges and leaderboards on academic performance and motivation of students in fully versus partially gamified online physics classes. Education and Information Technologies, 2022; 27, 8669 – 8704. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-10983-z.
[26] Hensiek S, DeKorver BK, Harwood CJ, Fish J, et al. Improving and assessing student hands-on laboratory skills through digital badging. Journal of Chemistry Education, 2016; 93, 1847 – 1854. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs/jchemed.6b00234.
[27] Guiterrez A, Mills K, Scholes L, Rowe L, et al. What do secondary teachers think about digital games for learning: Stupid fixation or future education? Teaching and Teacher Education, 2023; 133, 1 – 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104278.
Copyright © 2025 Patrick Guggisberg, Marika Guggisberg
Publishing time:2025-05-30
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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