| Abstract: |
Micro-credentials have received renewed attention by universities as a potential pathway to highdemand careers. The goals of this study were to understand the prevalence of micro-credentials offered by universities, the characteristics of universities offering micro-credentials generally and information systems (IS) micro-credentials specifically, and the content of IS micro-credentials. To this end, this study found that only very few universities are currently offering micro-credentials. Specifically, of all 1,860 universities listed on US News & World Report, only 127 (6.8%) offer micro-credentials on Credly, which is one of the largest digital credentialing platforms. However, once universities offer microcredentials, they do so prolifically. In fact, the 127 universities offer a total of 2,308 micro-credentials, with 114 (89.9%) universities offering more than one micro-credential for an average of 53 microcredentials offered per university. Moreover, this study found that universities offering micro-credentials or IS micro-credentials are more likely to be tier 1, public universities located in a city, urban, or suburban setting with a higher starting salary of graduates. Lastly, of the 2,308 micro-credentials offered by universities, only 195 (8.4%) are IS micro-credentials addressing competency realms defined in the IS2020 curriculum. The top IS2020 competency realms are technology, data, and development. The most frequently associated skills among IS micro-credentials are cybersecurity, Excel, AI/ML, SQL and HTML, CSS, JS. Future research is needed to understand the longitudinal development of microcredential offerings among universities (including international universities), on various digital credentialing platforms, possibly leveraging automatic data collection and analysis methods. |