Graduate students at Southern Connecticut State University are getting a new benefit this fall — free, flexible micro-credentials designed to sharpen research skills, build confidence and add career-ready credentials to their résumés.
For the first time, Southern’s Graduate School, in partnership with the Office of Workforce and Lifelong Learning (OWLL), is offering free, non-credit micro-courses exclusively for enrolled graduate students.
The first two offerings — “Understanding Statistics in Research” and “Publishing Academic Research” — focus on skills graduate students can put to work immediately in the classroom, in their research and throughout their careers.
And there’s another bonus: students who successfully complete a course earn a digital badge micro-credential they can add to their résumé or CV and share on LinkedIn.
Big Skills. Bite-Sized Learning. No Extra Cost.
Graduate-level research can be challenging, particularly for students returning to the classroom or encountering advanced research methods for the first time.
“Understanding Statistics in Research” is designed to make academic statistics less intimidating and help students become more confident reading, interpreting and evaluating research.
“Publishing Academic Research” takes students behind the scenes of academic publishing, introducing them to the process of preparing research for publication and helping them better understand how scholarly work moves from an idea to a published article.
Professor Jess Gregory, coordinator of the EDL Sixth-Year Program and one of the courses’ developers, said the goal is to give students additional tools to thrive in graduate school.
“Courses like this can reduce some of that insecurity and make graduate students feel more welcomed and more prepared,” Gregory said. “It just sets them up for success.”
Designed to Fit a Graduate Student’s Life
No additional class meetings. No fixed weekly schedule. No need to squeeze another traditional course into an already busy semester.
The micro-courses are offered fully asynchronously through OWLL, allowing students to complete them when and where it works for them.
Content is broken into short, manageable sections with quizzes and assessments built into each module. Students can work through the material gradually rather than trying to complete everything at once.
Gregory said that flexibility was intentional.
The courses were developed specifically with adult learners and busy graduate students in mind — including those balancing careers, families, research and coursework.
Enrolled graduate students will receive information about opting into the courses after the third week of classes and will have 180 days to complete each micro-credential.
Another Credential. Another Career Advantage.
The goal extends beyond helping students succeed academically.
Southern wants graduate students to leave with additional, identifiable skills they can communicate directly to employers.
Lisa Galvin, associate dean of graduate enrollment management, sees the micro-credentials as another way Southern strives to deliver more value to students.
“I’m excited to offer something above and beyond the program they came here for, something that gives them a step up in the competitive market,” Galvin said.
A graduate degree demonstrates advanced knowledge and commitment, but employers are also looking for evidence of specific skills. Micro-credentials help make those abilities easier to identify.
“A degree is a really amazing asset to help somebody in their career trajectory,” said Amy Feest, senior director of OWLL. “But for an employer, it doesn’t always signal the exact things that they learned.”
The digital badges help bridge that gap by giving students another way to showcase specific competencies alongside their graduate degree.
This Is Just the Beginning
Southern is already developing additional micro-courses on emerging and high-value topics, including advanced research using artificial intelligence tools, citation tracking and the ethical use of AI in writing.
The growing partnership between OWLL and the Graduate School reflects a broader approach to graduate education at Southern: provide students with a strong academic foundation while continually adding practical tools they can use in their research, professions and future careers.
It also supports Southern’s position as Connecticut’s first and only Carnegie-classified Research 2 (R2) university, a designation recognizing the university’s high level of research activity.
“As an R2 institution focused on research, all of our students will have that same ability and access to information to allow them to do this training the right way,” Feest said.
For Southern graduate students, the equation is simple: more skills, more credentials and more career value — at no additional cost.
