In this blog series, higher ed leaders from five states share insights from their human-centered design experience, which can drive systems change and align the fragmented learn+work ecosystem.
The Education Design Lab’s Community College Growth Engine Fellows Program (“CCGE Fellows”) brought together 13 higher education leaders from five states to explore the opportunities for transformation across state and institutional ecosystems through the Lab’s human-centered micro-pathway design process.
The states include Arkansas, Minnesota, Washington, Oklahoma, and North Carolina.
What are micro-pathways? Co-designed with learners and employers, micro-pathways are two or more stackable credentials, including durable skills micro-credentials, that are flexibly delivered to be achieved in less than a year and result in a job at or above the local median wage while putting learner-earners on the path to associate degree completion.
The Minnesota Fellows took a system-level approach to micro-pathway development. The team leveraged the Lab’s design process to guide the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Rather than developing a standalone, one-size-fits-all, micro-pathway for systemwide adoption, they focused on ways to build a flexible framework for institutions to design pathways that meet their unique needs.
About Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Minnesota State is the largest higher education system in Minnesota and the fourth largest in the nation, made up of 26 colleges, seven universities, and 54 campuses. Serving 270,000 students annually, it enrolls more Black, Indigenous, and students of color than all other Minnesota institutions combined. Governed by a Board of Trustees, Minnesota State is committed to providing affordable, high-quality education, partnering with employers to meet workforce needs, and creating opportunities for all Minnesotans to build a better future for themselves and their communities.
The three CCGE Fellows — Robb Lowe (Director of Career and Technical Education Pathways), Mary Beth Lakin (Executive Director for the Credit for Prior Learning Assessment Network – C-PLAN), and Daniel de Moraes (Director of Program Support and Quality Assurance) — brought cross-functional expertise and experience leading to dynamic discussions that are driving meaningful change across the system.
Their work was informed by insights from four Minnesota colleges which were part of the Lab’s third Community College Growth Engine (CCGE) cohort. Building on these findings, the Minnesota Fellows are developing guidelines to help institutions design and refine micro-pathways that address labor market shortages, align with industry standards, support institutional goals, and meet learner needs.
Insight No. 1: Systemwide support is being redefined to empower institutions through growth, belonging, and agency.
The Minnesota Fellows recognized that to achieve the program’s goals, they needed to adapt the tools to align with their team’s needs, Minnesota’s state ecosystem, and the diverse demographics of its institutions. The understanding of the need for flexibility encouraged them to adopt a more regional perspective, exploring how these tools could be implemented at the institution, region, and system levels. Reflecting on this experience, Mary Beth Lakin shared, “Not only did we not have to [color within the lines], but we got to develop a whole new coloring book with some of the resources and tools.”
This process has led them to rethink how state systems view campuses — not through a lens of deficits but by recognizing their strengths and contributions. Robb, Mary Beth, and Daniel understand that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work; instead, they sought to balance consistency with institutional autonomy.
As a result, they adapted the Lab’s Learner Engagement Framework to better understand their primary stakeholders, the institutions, and communities they serve. This shift highlights the importance of fostering growth, belonging, and agency to support institutions in moving forward.
- Growth: Institutions, like learners, need environments that help them recognize their progress, build confidence in their ability to succeed, and move toward their goals.
- Belonging: Institutions must feel a sense of connection and support within the state system, ensuring they can operate as their authentic selves while contributing to a larger educational ecosystem.
- Agency: Institutions should have the ability to shape their own learning environments, make meaningful decisions, and align their development with their unique goals, values, and local needs.
By embracing this framework, they are shifting from a prescriptive approach to one that empowers institutions, reinforcing a system where growth, belonging, and agency drive meaningful progress. The Minnesota Fellows believe that by embracing a co-design approach, they can better support institutions in developing sustainable and impactful micro-pathways that serve both learners and the workforce.
Insight No. 2: A systemwide approach to designing micro-pathways supports institutional growth by creating regional personas that reflect each community’s needs and challenges.
In the traditional micro-pathway design process, the Lab emphasizes the importance of learner-centered design in developing solutions that enhance learner engagement. One key approach is the creation of learner personas. By analyzing institutional data and gathering student feedback, partnering institutions with the Lab’s Community College Growth Engine develop personas to better understand the lived experiences of the learners they are designing with and for.
While the Minnesota Fellows recognize that learners face significant challenges, they understood that their work was not intended to address learner needs directly. Instead, their focus was on serving institutions as their primary customers.
As a result of this understanding, the Minnesota Fellows modified their design experience to better support the institutions they serve. As a result, they designed a regional persona tool that combines multiple institutional personas within a given region to support the growth, agency, and belonging of the institutions they serve. The Minnesota Fellows began by drafting targeted questions to identify key data points that define institutions within a region. Their approach is based on the idea that gathering information from the six distinct regions of Minnesota will provide insights to inform a systemwide guide. By prioritizing understanding over prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution, Mary Beth, Daniel, and Robb modeled a critical practice for college partners: Listening to understand before jumping to solutions.
“We understand that we are not the ones with all the answers,” Robb said. “It is about the institutions driving what goes on in their community based on what they have learned from their partners. We have recognized we are not the experts, and we need other voices in the solution. We cannot copy and paste solutions, we have to be able to adapt solutions based on the needs of the community and stakeholders.”
Building on this understanding, the team developed questions as tools to assess each institution and its needs, then combined the insights to gain a broader understanding of the state’s geographic regions. The questions below are a sample of what the team developed to gain clearer understanding of the perspectives, challenges, obstacles, and opportunities at each institution and across the region. The list below is a representative sample of eight different categories of potential questions including post-secondary institution, college programs, labor market needs, students, faculty and staff perspectives, partnerships, CPL, and support needs.
- College programs: What kind of pathways have you created, or are planning to create, that apply short-term certificates or credentials to meet employer needs?
- Partnerships: What methods are you using to gather and prioritize feedback from employers regarding their workforce needs?
- Post-secondary institution: How do you see your organizational culture facilitating changes needed to implement micro-pathways/micro-credentials/non-credit-to-credit pathways?
Minnesota West Community & Technical College emerged as an ideal partner for this work. With five campuses spread across the southwest region of the state, it offers a valuable opportunity to gather insights at both the institutional and regional levels. As of Spring 2025, Minnesota West agreed to collaborate with the Fellows team to review the proposed questions and provide feedback on their relevance and effectiveness. The team will then incorporate input from a cross-functional group representing all five campuses to refine the questions as needed.
Insight No. 3: True progress comes from shifting away from solely providing insights and instead embracing a learner’s mindset, creating a culture where collaboration replaces silos.
Through this process, it became clear that meaningful change could not be confined to the Fellows program alone. Instead, it needed to extend to Minnesota institutions and other state programs. Recognizing this, Mary Beth, Robb, and Daniel saw the need to support system and institutional leaders in challenging their own assumptions, breaking down competition and elitism across campuses, and fostering a culture where collaboration replaces silos.
The work of the four colleges with the Lab, along with the CCGE Fellows, created a valuable opportunity to improve the understanding and use of micro-credentials across the Minnesota State system. The growing excitement on campuses and amongst leadership led system office leaders to hear from multiple internal and external sources about the need and interest in micro-credentials within higher education. Using models from other institutions such as Alamo Colleges District (Texas), Colorado Community College System, and the State University of New York (SUNY) system provided a valuable learning opportunity, signaling a chance to take the next step forward.
To advance this goal, the Fellows supported the creation of a micro-credential workgroup as a safe space for dialogue, trust-building, and shared learning. Discussions within the group revealed that while multiple institutions are offering micro-credentials, there is no system-level framework to ensure inclusion and equity, which are essential for scaling the work. Currently, each institution is approaching micro-credentials in its own way, creating an opportunity for collaboration and alignment, potentially supported by the system office with guiding policies and practices. By facilitating these conversations, the workgroup is helping to level the playing field, establishing clear policies, and creating a structured roadmap for future onboarding and expansion.
This group is focused on key areas such as:
- System policies and procedures for micro-credentials
- Integration with degree programs
- Removing boundaries between credit and non-credit offerings
- Establishing common definitions and badging taxonomy
- Reviewing existing practices, policies, and procedures, including credit for prior learning
- Examining financial aid implications
- Recognizing and validating co-curricular learning
Through this collaborative effort, the workgroup is tackling key structural challenges to ensure the effective integration of micro-credentials within the system. While this solution shows promise, it is crucial for leadership to recognize the potential drawbacks of the micro-credential workgroup. Without careful consideration, policies and support structures may unintentionally favor institutions already engaged in this space, limiting opportunities for broader participation. This highlights the need for a blueprint to guide institutions that have yet to offer micro-credentials but aspire to do so in the future, ensuring equitable access and system-wide adoption.
Conclusion
The Minnesota Fellows took a unique, system-level approach to address this challenge, ensuring that the design process remains adaptable to Minnesota’s diverse ecosystem. By collaborating with institutions, they are testing and refining a scalable model that not only innovates how pathways are developed in collaboration with area employers and learners but also addresses critical policy issues, including definitions, taxonomies, branding, non-credit-to -credit pathways, curricular alignment, and financial aid. Through the integration of a micro-credential workgroup, their efforts are shaping a more inclusive and responsive education system that benefits students, institutions, and the workforce alike. By aligning these efforts, the Fellows are shaping the system’s approach to creating consistent, equitable, and transparent pathways for all learners, encouraging consistency in expectations while allowing for the creativity and flexibility of institutional design.
Hear more from the Minnesota team during the Community College Growth Engine Fellows Learn+Share Showcase.
This insights brief has been authored by Elizabeth Ham. Elizabeth brings her experience in K-12 education, community college instruction, and design thinking to the Lab as an Education Designer working with the Community College Growth Engine.
This publication was made possible through the generous support of Walmart. The findings, conclusions, and recommendations presented in this publication are those of Education Design Lab alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Walmart.
