ASX-listed education company moves into non-accredited micro-credentials

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The Challenge

iCollege Limited's mission is to provide students with innovative courses, great learning experiences, and industry-aligned educational outcomes. To further support this mission, iCollege Limited wanted to extend its offering through online non-accredited micro-credentials.

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iCollege needed a turnkey solution that enabled a seamless enrolment process, a learning experience designed for adult learners with a focus on fostering a community of practice; as well as enabling them to reach a global marketplace. They were also keen to partner with an organisation that was experienced in designing and delivering engaging non-accredited micro-credentials.

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"It’s all about opportunity, to learn new ways of doing things, penetrate new markets, trial new strategies and product packages," says Eve Ollerenshaw, Pro Vice Chancellor and General Manager, Group Quality, Accreditation & Compliance.

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With the goal to diversify its revenue stream and increase enrolments in online micro-credentials, the challenge was how to successfully launch and deliver online non-accredited micro-credentials based on effective online learning principles.

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Furthermore, iCollege Limited soon realised how very different the consumer of short non-accredited micro-credentials is to their traditional markets. This presented another challenge in terms of marketing and designing the program that would suit learners' learning needs and career goals.

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The Solution

iCollege Limited launched its online offering, AIT Online, bringing together a range of quality micro-credentials from a group of specialist colleges and brands, each with established expertise and experience in delivering high quality education. iCollege Limited's goal was to expand into new markets online.

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Within 4 months of launching their 3 courses on OpenLearning, they received 103 enrolments from students in 15 countries and a 160% return on investment with their courses on OpenLearning, making their non-accredited, online micro-credentials delivery a profitable and viable new arm of their business.

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Furthermore, within this period, iCollege's Limited's courses generated a total of 1,359 total comments and 1,105 total likes; with an average of 13 comments and 11 likes per student. This indicates that students are highly engaged in the learning experience as a result of high quality learning design.

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Through AIT Online, iCollege Limited was able to:
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• Build an additional income stream and increase enrolments through micro-credentials;
• Access new audiences via the OpenLearning global marketplace, extending its reach to international students offshore as well as domestic lifelong learners; and
• Leverage OpenLearning’s learning design expertise to build exceptional micro-credentials based on research-backed, student-centred, project-based learning approach.

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Together with OpenLearning, iCollege Limited developed 5 different non-accredited micro-credentials that are of the highest quality and contain best practice learning design fundamentals. iCollege Limited offers a comprehensive range of design micro-credentials to help learners stay on top of their lifelong learning goals and equipping them with the necessary skills to advance in their careers.

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iCollege Limited partnered with OpenLearning in the following ways:

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Premium Institution Portal Plan:

• OpenLearning created a iCollege Limited branded institution portal, where micro-credentials were able to be created using OpenLearning’s course authoring tools

Learning Services:

• OpenLearning’s Learning Services team designed 5 micro-credentials for iCollege Limited, using learning design best practices;
• Throughout the learning design process, OpenLearning’s Learning Services team worked closely with iCollege Limited’s subject matter experts in a collaborative design process;
• Each micro-credentials was approximately 18 hours induration; and
• OpenLearning’s learning designers took 6 days per course to design, over a total design timeline of 8 weeks (this includes client feedback and review).
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The Results

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Since launching its five Design and Information Technology micro-credentials, iCollege Limited has been able to deliver online education to a range of corporate and public learners globally.
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In the past 12 months in 2021, iCollege Limited has achieved an ROI of 364% with non-accredited, online short micro-credentials on OpenLearning.
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iCollege Limited is continuing to expand its micro-credential offering to meet the needs of today's lifelong learners. In 2020, iCollege took part in the OpenCred OpenLearning Investment Fund (OIF) in which a series of micro-credential short courses were created and is available for learners to enrol via the OpenLearning marketplace.

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Looking to engage lifelong learners by offering micro-credentials? OpenLearning can help. Get in touch today.