Empowering Innovators and Lifelong Learners
Boost your skills and earn a free digital badge! Northern’s self-paced micro-credentials let you develop real-world expertise without committing to a full course or degree. Earn badges like the Ambassador Badge to showcase your dedication and leadership.
Northern Micro-Credential Program At-A-Glance
- 35 (and counting!) micro-credentials offered for free
- Over 3,000 badges awarded to Northern students, staff and faculty
- Over 1,500 unique earners
- 1-3 hours average time to complete a micro-credential and earn a badge
Micro-Credential Topics
- Generative AI
- Art and Design
- Resilience and Decision-making
- Lean Six Sigma
- Faculty Training
- Networking and Resume Building
Any Northern student or faculty member can take a micro-credential—and they’re completely free! Professors can also integrate them into their courses as they see fit.
Through Credly, the world’s leading digital badging platform, Northern offers verified skills
training for students, employees, and the community.
What is a Digital Badge?
A digital badge is a modern, shareable credential that showcases your skills and
expertise. It’s:
- A micro-credential for in-demand skills and experience
- Self-paced and non-credit-bearing
- Hands-on learning, based on a "learn-by-doing" model
- A digital replacement for traditional paper certificates
- Easily shareable on LinkedIn and other platforms, with built-in metadata to verify your achievement to employers
FACULTY/STAFF: HAVE AN IDEA FOR A MICRO-CREDENTIAL?
You could be compensated for your idea! Learn more:
Skill Badges
Writing Ethically with AI
Explore the ethical implications of AI-assisted writing, examining whether tools like ChatGPT enhance writing skills or contribute to academic dishonesty. It challenges learners to consider AI’s role in writing and its impact on creativity and originality.
Cite it Right - Essential Skills for Academic Integrity
This micro-credential will help you understand why citation matters, how to cite your sources properly, and how to use tools like citation managers and AI responsibly and ethically in your academic work. You'll build confidence, avoid common mistakes, and learn practical skills to support your success in college and beyond.
Practical Chat GPT Prompts and Study Agents
Learn how to write prompts to engage with Chat GPT as a tool for various courses including creating a study agent to not only practice course work, but have Chat explain “what went wrong” step by step as needed. Includes prompt writing framework(s), ethical prompt validation tool, output format tools, and reusable prompt formats for idea generation, help with revisions and a customizable study agent.
Pitch Perfect Build and Deliver Successful Proposal
Master the art of persuasive business proposals in today’s competitive landscape. This micro-credential teaches strategic storytelling, audience analysis, visual design, and presentation skills to help students and professionals craft compelling, results-driven proposals. By course end, participants will have a polished proposal and the confidence to present it effectively.
Intro to Design Thinking: Ideation, Evaluation, and Visual Literacy
Design Thinking is a user-focused approach that enhances creativity and problem-solving, giving designers and businesses a competitive edge. By mastering this process, individuals can refine their research, ideation, and solution development in an increasingly automated world.
Continuous Improvement: Lean Six Sigma Methodology
This micro-credential explores the powerful, data-driven concept that merges Lean (waste elimination and efficiency) with Six Sigma (defect reduction and variation control) to improve business processes, boost quality, cut costs, and increase customer satisfaction by creating a culture of continuous, team-based improvement.
Strategic Thinking Under Pressure
Think Straight Under Stress. Fast decisions shouldn’t mean sloppy thinking. In this course, you’ll learn how to assess complex situations, spot mental shortcuts and biases, and apply clear, strategic logic whether the stakes are academic, professional, or personal.
Critical Conversations and Ethical Leadership
Lead the Hard Talk: At its core, leadership is about making ethical decisions when the answers aren’t clear. This course explores how ethics guide decision-making in high-stakes situations and how communication becomes the tool to put those values into action.
Emotional Resilience for Decision-Making
In this course, we'll uncover how emotions sneak into your decision-making process, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. You'll pick up powerful techniques to keep your cool when the stakes are high and discover how to channel emotional resilience into confident, clear-headed choices. By the end, you'll feel ready to tackle life's pressure cookers with the poise of someone who's been there, done that, and made it look easy.
Civil Discourse
This micro-credential will give you a solid foundation in what civil discourse really means and equips you with strategies to handle challenging conversations with respect and confidence. By the end, you'll know how to communicate effectively, even when opinions differ, and foster dialogue that builds understanding rather than division.
Understanding Others: Social Thinking and Influence
People constantly form impressions to understand others and predict their behavior. This course examines how those impressions form, why they can be wrong, and how social cognition relates to prejudice. It also explores how beliefs and actions are shaped by persuasion, conformity, and obedience, showing how social influence affects everyday life.
Foundations of Bias: Understanding How Bias Forms and Functions
Develop critical thinking and self-awareness by exploring how stories, assumptions, and social identities shape our perceptions. Through engaging sources you'll examine your own unconscious biases and understand how ingroup/outgroup dynamics influence decision-making. This micro-credential builds your ability to recognize bias patterns in yourself and others, while strengthening your reasoning and problem-solving abilities through reflective analysis.
The Science of Bias: Neural Pathways, Cognitive Shortcuts, and Real-World Impacts
Deepen your understanding of how the brain processes information and creates mental shortcuts through an exploration of neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Identify how cognitive biases affect everything from personal decisions to systemic outcomes. This micro-credential enhances your critical and creative thinking by teaching you to recognize when mental shortcuts compromise judgement, while building reasoning and problem-solving skills essential for making informed decisions in complex situations.
Ethics and Mitigation: From Awareness to Action
Transform awareness into ethical action by exploring the moral responsibility we hold for our biases and developing concrete strategies to mitigate them. Through examining cognitive dissonance and intervention techniques, you'll create a personalized bias mitigation plan that demonstrates civic engagement and social responsibility. This capstone micro-credential emphasizes professionalism and interpersonal skills as you commit to making more equitable decisions in your personal and professional life, while strengthening your ability to lead with integrity and create inclusive environments.
Basic Science Lab Safety
This course will teach individuals the dangers associated with working in a science lab and instill basic safety principals that will be used through out the career of a scientist.
NSU Autoclave Basics
This short micro-credential will introduce NSU faculty, staff, and students to the basics of the autoclave. We have two autoclaves on campus for faculty, staff, and student researcher use. They are complex machines that require training to operate. After completing this course, each person will understand the machine and will have the opportunity to be checked off to operate the autoclave independently.
Basic Microscopy
This course will introduce you to the fundamentals of microscopy, including its components, proper use and maintenance, troubleshooting common issues, and making a wet mount slide. This course should help prepare individuals for lab work by providing visual examples of microscopy techniques before starting the hands-on portion during lab or research.
TEP Basics and Application Process
This course is designed to help you gain a clear, working understanding of the key policies, processes, and expectations that guide your journey through the TEP at Northern State University.
Teacher Education Dispositions (Students)
This micro-credential will prepare you to understand Teacher Education Program dispositions, in detail.
Northern Apps 101
In a step-by-step model, learn the basics of the apps you will need to use to be successful at Northern.
Growing Your LinkedIn Network
You will update and professionalize your LinkedIn profile in a step-by-step learn-by-doing model. You will familiarize yourself with the core aspects of the app, learn the importance of network cultivation, engage with peers, companies and causes all while building your personal, professional profile to make you and your career goals stand out.
McNair Made Simple- A Beginners Guide
This micro-credential provides students with an introduction to the opportunities offered by the McNair Program at NSU, such as goal setting, research, and mentorship. By participating, students will develop a deeper understanding of the TRIO McNair Program and be better prepared to determine if pursuing graduate studies and applying to the program is the right path for them.
Micro-Credential Ambassador
By taking this quick micro-credential, you will become a student champion in promoting the Empowering Innovator Micro-Credential Program at NSU! Whether you simply communicate to others what they are or take it a step further and develop your Digital Wallet of badges from NSU- you are helping to promote this exciting initiative on campus!
Building Your First Micro-Credential
(Faculty/Staff Only)
The earner of this credential has learned the process of developing a Northern micro-credential. They have gained skills in understanding the purpose of the micro-credential program, the necessary steps and requirements to build a micro-credential, including reviewing the Request for Proposal (RFP) and understanding the obligations for promoting and championing their micro-credential once it is released.
Teaching & Learning with AI (Faculty only)
This training course will help NSU faculty learn the knowledge and skills to use AI responsibly in teaching & learning. Participants learn AI fundamentals, explore ethics and policy, and design AI-integrated learning activities that promote accessibility, engagement, and innovation.
Online Instructor Certification (Faculty Only)
Learners will enhance their teaching philosophy with research-based principles, develop expertise in using D2L for course organization, and design inclusive, accessible online courses aligned with the UbD framework and ADA standards.
HyFlex Certification (Faculty Only)
Learners will gain expertise in HyFlex course design, evaluating its effectiveness, creating syllabi and lesson plans, implementing best practices, and reflecting on their teaching strengths and areas for growth.
Adjunct Onboarding Certification (Faculty only)
Adjuncts are an important aspect to the Northern Student experience. Often, you are hired on as a subject matter expert due to your professional experience. Adjuncts hold the same professional expectations as full-time faculty. This micro-credential is designed to help you learn about Northern, our processes, instructional technology, and who to contact on campus when you have questions.
Recognition Badges
Study Abroad Vietnam
Participants of the study abroad program acquired significant personal, academic, and professional competencies that transcend conventional classroom learning. They cultivated a profound appreciation of global cultures, refined their problem-solving capabilities, and experienced growth in adaptability. Participants returned with a broader worldview and developed attributes that persistently serve to enhance their careers, involvement in communities, and personal development.
President's List Fall
The Presidents List is awarded twice yearly at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters. President’s List is for full and part time students with a 4.0 GPA.
Dean's List Fall
The Dean's List is awarded twice yearly at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters. Dean's List is for full and part time students with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.99.
Northern Edge Grant Recipient
Created in 2020, the purpose of the Northern Edge Award is to augment existing funding sources for undergraduate scholarship at Northern State University. It is intended to aid student scholarship in under-represented disciplines and/or projects that may not be eligible/competitive for other funding opportunities on campus.
President's List Spring
The Presidents List is awarded twice yearly at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters. President’s List is for full and part time students with a 4.0 GPA.
Dean's List Spring
The Dean's List is awarded twice yearly at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters. Dean's List is for full and part time students with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.99.
Pitch Competition Winner
The badge earner was a winner in the Northern State University Idea Pitch Competition, which promotes entrepreneurial and creative thinking. The competition also fosters collaboration by pairing students with faculty from diverse disciplines for meaningful engagement.
Pitch Competition Finalist
The badge earner was a finalist in the Northern State University Idea Pitch Competition, which promotes entrepreneurial and creative thinking. The competition also fosters collaboration by pairing students with faculty from diverse disciplines for meaningful engagement.
Pitch Competition Honorable Mention
The badge earner was an honorable mention in the Northern State University Idea Pitch Competition, which promotes entrepreneurial and creative thinking. The competition also fosters collaboration by pairing students with faculty from diverse disciplines for meaningful engagement.
Questions/Comments?
Phone: 605-626-2108
Email: empowering.innovators@northern.edu