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Microcredentials are digital badges that contain data regarding skills, competencies and strengths within a field of study, or through a course stream comprised of existing Allegheny courses. Microcredential badges are used on hiring and application portals to help job and graduate school applicants rise through the algorithmically-parsed applicant pool by meaningfully tying skills, competencies and strengths gained while studying at Allegheny to needs designated as important to organizations.
A Microcredential is defined by at least 12 credits that, taken together, develop a set of well-defined skills, competencies and strengths. Courses used to fulfill a Microcredential must be completed with a C or better. Up to one transfer course may be used to fulfill the requirements for any given Micro-credential.
Microcredentials are issued twice per year, typically falling on the first business day after February 1st for microcredentials earned in the fall semester, and June 1st for microcredentials earned in the spring semester.
2 Dimensional Design
2D Design equips students with the foundational knowledge to produce a portfolio of works in 2D, whether digitally or in traditional media such as drawing and painting. Students who earn this microcredential will be able to effectively utilize the tools and techniques of varying 2D media toward the production of a body of work.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Art
3 Dimensional Design
3D Design equips students with the foundational knowledge to produce a portfolio of works in 3D, whether in sculpture, ceramics, or emerging media areas such additive manufacturing. Students who earn this microcredential will be able to effectively utilize the tools and techniques of varying 3D media toward the production of a body of work.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Art
Accounting
The accounting microcredential provides foundational knowledge of accounting processes and methodologies. Students develop an understanding of accounting principles such as recording transactions, presenting financial information, and analyzing costs.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Business & Economics
AI-Driven Content Creation
AI-Driven Content creation equips students with contemporary strategies and tools for creating images, video, and text such as prompt engineering and large language model (LLM) model fine-tuning. Students completing this microcredential will be able to generate intentional and consistent results in response to a wide variety of purposes, including artistic and industrial applications.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Art History Fundamentals
Students who complete the Art History microcredential demonstrate basic fluency in the language of art history and visual analysis. Students understand major movements in Art History, particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and they learn about how artworks reflect, impact, and participate in cultural power dynamics related to race, gender, sexuality, and nationality, among others. Students must take 3 of the 4 listed courses.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Art
Artificial Intelligence Engineering
The Artificial Intelligence Engineering microcredential equips students with the skills to integrate machine learning techniques into new software for autonomously solving real-world problems beyond standard benchmarks. Through the coursework, students will critically evaluate how the convergence of modern tools and new applications can proceed ethically and sustainably.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Content Creation
Content Creation will develop students’ skills in producing images, video, and sound-based content and instructing them on effective deployment through web development and/or contemporary marketing practices.
Start Date: 23/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Informaiton Science
Core Skills for Mental Health Professions
Provides foundational knowledge and introductory skills in clinical assessment, diagnosis, and therapeutic interventions for mental health conditions affecting adults and/or children. This microcredential is designed as an educational stepping stone to build essential skills for roles supporting licensed mental health professionals or preparing for further training in mental health fields. It is not intended to qualify participants for clinical practice or independent therapy provision but offers a solid foundation for pursuing careers in clinical psychology, counseling, or related mental health services.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Psychology
Cybersecurity Risk Analysis
Cybersecurity Risk Analysis introduces the knowledge and skills that students need to design, implement, and deploy secure software systems. Students who complete this microcredential will have the demonstrated ability to identify and resolve cybersecurity risks through the analysis of a system’s design and implementation.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Data Analysis
Data Analysis introduces the knowledge and skills that students need to effectively make decisions using varied data sources. Students who complete this micro-credential will have the ability to use the Python and R programming languages to create data visualizations, perform statistical analyses, and train machine learning models that yield actionable insights and support decision-making.
Start Date: 23/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & information Science
Data-driven Health Informatics
Data-driven Health Informatics microcredential provides foundational knowledge and skills in finding, understanding, organizing, visualizing, and extracting information from health-related data. Students who complete this micro-credential will be able to explore publicly available health and genetic data, and use open-source web tools, Python programming, and Stata software package to learn insights from this data
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Editing and Publishing
This microcredential emphasizes public-facing writing, editing, and ethical publication. The courses have been selected to offer students opportunities to consider the practical skills of copy-editing, publication production, and marketing, while simultaneously learning to give and receive useful and editorial feedback.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: English
Embedded Systems Engineering
Embedded Systems Engineering microcredential equips students with the skills to develop and optimize software for hardware systems. Students who complete this microcredential will have the demonstrated ability to design efficient, high-performance embedded applications while utilizing memory management, parallel processing, and secure communication.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Filmmaking & Media Production
Filmmaking & Media Production equips students with strategies, and techniques to best utilize contemporary tools in the field. Students completing this microcredential will be able to produce technically advanced films that effectively leverage technique toward expressing an underlying conceptual or narrative objective.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: COmmunication, Media, & Performance
Finance
Finance equips students with the tools and methodologies employed by finance professionals. Upon completing this microcredential, students will understand the role of financial markets in the economy, how interest rates are determined, how risk affects the price and expected return of a financial asset, and will be able to analyze investment decisions.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Business & Economics
Foundations of Industrial Design
Foundations of Industrial Design equips students with the foundational knowledge to produce a portfolio of Industrial Design studies prompted by problems generated through the study of commonplace objects and their use cases. Students who earn this microcredential will be able to effectively utilize the tools and techniques of the field of Industrial Design toward the production of a cohesive portfolio of design objects.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Art
Game Design
The Game Design microcredential allows students to develop crucial skills for conceptualizing, designing, and building video games. Skills include electronic art, game logic, and web-based interactive interfaces. In addition, students learn how to think conceptually in areas like digital space, story, and level design. These skills apply in the fast-growing gaming industry as well as other engineering and design contexts.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
German Language and Culture
Through the German Language and Culture micro-credential, students acquire basic skills in reading, speaking, and writing the language together with essential cultural knowledge about the geography, regional culture, art, economy, politics, and values of German-speaking countries. In addition, students acquire an intercultural awareness and understanding of how linguistic and cultural differences shape communication and cognition.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: World Languages & Cultures
Health Anatomy
The Health Anatomy microcredential involves a three-course series that covers terminology and anatomy & physiology. This series may fulfill admissions requirements for graduate programs in nursing, physician’s assistant, physical therapy, or other allied health professions.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Biology
Investing
Investing equips students with the tools and methodologies employed to value assets. Upon completing this microcredential, students will understand how risk and interest rates influence the pricing of financial assets, and will be able to generate reports on firms, including equity recommendations.employed to value assets. Upon completing this microcredential, students will understand how risk and interest rates influence the pricing of financial assets, and will be able to generate reports on firms, including equity recommendation
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Business & Economics
The Multilingual Mindset
The Multilingual Mindset Microcredential is awarded to students who study two languages besides English at an intermediate (200-level) or higher. This level of study develops situational language skills, cultural awareness, and effective communication in multiple languages. Students gain critical listening and problem-solving skills through language comparisons and cultural exploration, and the credential recognizes students’ adaptability to work in teams and communicate in multiple linguistic and cultural settings.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: World Languages & Cultures
Product Development in the Internet of Things
Product Development in the Internet of Things provides students hands-on experience with creating smart devices using the principles of human-computer interaction (HCI), and user-centered design (UCD). Students will develop and prototype physical devices incorporating industry grade software and hardware such as the Raspberry Pi, Teensy, or ESP32 platforms to design reproducible, manufacturable, technical solutions which respond to and/or supplement human needs.
Start Date: 24/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Programming with Web Technologies
Programming with Web Technologies teaches students how to develop accessible, aesthetically pleasing, and well-organized websites and web applications. In addition to attaining the knowledge and skills needed to benchmark, maintain, and enhance websites, students who complete this microcredential will be able to design the user experiences and interfaces for compelling and dynamic web projects.
Start Date: 23/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Psychological Research Design and Analysis
This microcredential equips students with the ability to design methodologically sound psychological research studies, applying principles of effective research design and ethical considerations. Students will develop proficiency in collecting and analyzing data using statistical methods and gain hands-on experience with statistical software such as JASP. They will learn to interpret statistical results accurately and draw valid conclusions, strengthening their analytical and critical thinking skills. Additionally, students will refine their ability to communicate research findings clearly, both in writing and verbally, preparing them to present complex data in accessible ways for academic and applied settings.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Psychology
Site Reliability Engineering
Site Reliability Engineering develops students’ ability to manage large software systems with a focus on maintaining system reliability. Students who complete this microcredential will be able to develop and use intelligent monitoring tools to anticipate and address technical instability to prevent system failures.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Software Development
Software Development introduces the knowledge and skills that students need to engineer, release, and maintain software implemented in the Python programming language. Students who complete this microcredential will have the demonstrated ability to make high-quality contributions to both the source code and technical documentation in software projects stored in GitHub repositories.
Start Date: 23/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Software Performance Engineering
Software Performance Engineering introduces the knowledge and skills that students need to design, implement, and deploy correct and efficient software. Students who complete this microcredential will have the demonstrated ability to conduct experiments that characterize a software system’s performance, pinpoint and resolve software performance bottlenecks, and optimize a system performance without compromising its correctness.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Computer & Information Science
Tax Fundamentals
The tax fundamentals microcredential provides a working knowledge of accounting fundamentals, tax law, and tax preparation. Students receive training and hands-on preparation experience by preparing individual tax returns and reviewing those returns over two semesters of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Internship. The first time the students take the internship, they are certified as Preparers, and the second time they are certified as Preparers/Reviewers.
Start Date: 25/FA
Affiliated Department: Business & Economics
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