The first Arkansas Wayfinding Convening took place in July on the NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) campus. It brought eight colleges together in the process of creating the first microcredential course offerings in Arkansas.

“Microcredentialing allows us, the educators, to develop talent in a time-efficient manner specifically for what employers need,” NWACC President Dennis C. Rittle said during the convening. “This signals a priority shift observed in the workforce to a skills-first mentality, given that industry partners are looking for skills and competencies that may not be covered in a traditional degree program. Microcredentialing gives us that capacity.”

During the convening, college representatives and higher education officials shared their experiences in creating microcredentials in the Natural State and found some common challenges and barriers. A variety of group discussion, breakout sessions and individual opportunities to share anecdotes allowed those attending to benefit from the resources found and breakthroughs each college experienced.

Representatives from the Arkansas Division of Higher Education, Arkansas Department of Transformation and Shared Services and Arkansas Community Colleges were present alongside deans, directors and faculty from NWACC, University of Arkansas East Arkansas Community College, University of Arkansas Rich Mountain, Arkansas Tech University-Ozark, Arkansas State University Newport, South Arkansas College, Arkansas State University Three Rivers and North Arkansas College.

“Collaboration with our peer institutions was a wonderful experience all around,” said Lucas Paxton, director of digital learning at NWACC. “As an independent community college, we are left to ourselves more often than not. This Wayfinding conference let us know that we are not alone in this institution-changing work.”

Sessions were led by Education Design Lab.

NorthWest Arkansas Community College will be the first college in the state to offer microcredential courses. General Project Management, Behavioral Health and Biological Technician will be options for students in August as a part of the fall 2025 semester.

NWACC faculty and staff have been designing these new, shorter course offerings since April 2024.

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