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Good practice Imported

IIOE Micro-Certification Project — Academic-Credit AI & Digital Competency Badges for Mongolian University Teachers

Mongolia · Ulaanbaatar · See the Mongolia profile · See the Ulaanbaatar profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 28% 60/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

MUST, Mongolia's IIOE National Centre, runs a train-the-trainer micro-certification scheme with UNESCO-ICHEI, giving AI and digital-competency micro-credentials to 1,800+ teachers at 10+ universities, recognised for master's-degree credit.

1,800+ teachers
Teachers certified
10+ universities
Universities reached
~65 master trainers
Master trainers
450 lecturers
Additional lecturers trained (pilot phase) (pilot phase)
~300 core faculty
Initial core faculty cohort
>90%
Teacher satisfaction (self-reported)
>85%
Student satisfaction (self-reported)
2-3 credits
Elective credit recognition
3-6 credits
Master's programme credit recognition

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) / UNESCO-ICHEI
Period
2022–ongoing
Keywords
higher education, teacher training, AI literacy, micro-credentials

Context

The International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) Micro-Certification Project, run under the auspices of UNESCO by the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation (UNESCO-ICHEI), designated the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) as its Mongolia National Centre in January 2022.

Objectives

MUST uses a tiered 'training of trainers' model to build AI and digital-competency skills among Mongolian university teachers, and -- distinctively -- recognises the resulting micro-certifications for real academic credit rather than as free-standing badges.

Activities

An initial cohort of roughly 300 core faculty complete English-language AI and digital-competency training and become certified instructors, after which the material is translated into Mongolian, contextualised for local curricula, and cascaded outward. Through this cascade, the IIOE platform has delivered micro-certification to more than 1,800 pre-service and in-service teachers across more than 10 Mongolian universities, with roughly 65 master trainers and 450 additional university lecturers trained in the pilot phase. MUST's Open Education Institute recognises the certifications for 2-3 elective credits against its ICT Competency Framework, and for 3-6 credits within Education Management and Education Studies master's programmes. On 30 June 2025, Mongolia's Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Communication, MUST and UNESCO-ICHEI co-hosted a High-Level Policy Dialogue in Ulaanbaatar, launching a joint action plan on capacity-building and formal recognition of AI and digital competencies across the higher-education workforce.

Results

Self-reported survey data cited by UNESCO-ICHEI shows over 90% of participating teachers and more than 85% of students satisfied with course relevance and practical applicability.

Conclusions

This is descriptive, self-reported evidence rather than an independent evaluation of learning gains, which is the main gap in the evidence base to date.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — MUST designated National Centre January 2022; cascade delivered to 1,800+ teachers by 2025; High-Level Policy Dialogue and joint action plan launched 30 June 2025.
Staffing & skills
MUST core faculty/certified instructors, including roughly 65 master trainers, UNESCO-ICHEI coordination, MUST Open Education Institute (credit-recognition administration)

Conditions for success

  • Train-the-trainer cascade model, starting from a certified core cohort
  • Translation and contextualisation of English-language material into Mongolian
  • Academic credit recognition (2-6 credits) giving the micro-credential real currency, not a symbolic badge
  • High-level government-UNESCO joint action plan for institutional buy-in

Common failure modes

  • Reliance on self-reported satisfaction data rather than an independent evaluation of learning gains

Where it fits

Governance type
university-government-UN partnership
Scale
national (10+ Mongolian universities)
Income level
n/a

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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