Beyond the Grade: Using Credentials to Launch Careers

UM-Dearborn professor’s research shows students value embedded online courses to build relevant career skills

Besa Xhabija wanted to help her students.

The University of Michigan-Dearborn associate professor was giving them solid instruction in her biochemistry classes, but she knew they needed more. In an increasingly competitive job market and in post-graduate programs, she wanted their knowledge and achievements to stand out. 

So Xhabija began integrating Michigan Online courses into her biochemistry classes, and her students started earning certificates that they could share on applications for jobs or graduate school.

Staying true to her research roots, Xhabija surveyed her students to find out if they felt the assigned online courses were beneficial or a burden. The results showed they not only found value in the Michigan Online experiences, but the students also believed they should be required in other classes. 

“I expected more resistance because the usual worry is that students see an added credential as busywork,” Xhabija said. “Instead, 28 of 37 preferred it be required rather than an optional workshop, and even among students who came in barely using AI, two-thirds wanted it required. That flipped my prior assumption.”

Integrating Michigan Online Courses

Xhabija has added the Michigan Online courses—which are free for all U-M students, alumni, faculty, and staff—into three of her classes so far. She first piloted the approach in two biochemistry labs in the fall 2025 term, adding Understanding and Visualizing Data with Python as a requirement in an introductory lab, and giving extra credit for students completing AI-Powered Data Analysis in a project lab course. In winter 2026, Xhabija launched her most extensive microcredential integration in her “Principles of Biochemistry” (BCHM 370) course. Students were required to take three courses worth a total of 100 points:

• Google Career Essentials — AI Essentials
• Data Augmented Technology Assisted Medical Decision Making (DATA-MD)
• Sleep: Neurobiology, Medicine, and Society

Xhabija chose these Michigan Online courses for their relevance to students preparing for healthcare careers or medical school. By adding a not-insignificant point value (12 percent of the final grade) for earning all three certificates, students felt encouraged to complete them. 

To make room in the curriculum, she dropped an outdated assignment and spread out the certificate deadlines to help students pace their work. Xhabija was careful to not overburden her students; rather, she wanted to maximize their time and provide a meaningful return on their work.  

“I wanted to make that effort legible, a way to signal to an employer or a professional school committee exactly what they have learned and can do,” she said.

Students Benefit from Microcredentials

Xhabija’s careful approach in designing the syllabus was successful, with every student finishing AI Essentials and 42 of 44 students completing all three courses.

More importantly, students found value in the experience. Post-course surveys, which were staggered through the semester, revealed three key takeaways: 

• Students wanted the embedded workshops to be a required part of the course.
• The impact was universal—first-generation and working students performed similarly with their peers. 
• The learning was real. Students scored 92 percent and above on knowledge and policy checks, and 95 percent said the training prepared them for technology use in their future profession. 

Yet what most impressed Xhabija was their gain in judgment around AI use. Students were asking questions about when to trust AI outputs, and when to avoid using the tools altogether.

“The point I wanted to make to students is that learning to use a tool well and learning when not to reach for it are the same skill,” Xhabija said.

However, the students’ gains in judgment did not translate into an ability to assess the veracity of an AI output. In the survey given after completing the DATA-MD course, for example, while most students indicated they knew when not to use AI and when to question the outcome, they were less confident evaluating an AI model’s accuracy or predictive values. 

Improving that skill is a goal for Xhabija in future courses and a valuable takeaway for instructors who are working to teach AI skills to their learners. 

“To me that is not a disappointment but the actual lesson for faculty,” she said. “These credentials are a strong complement to rigorous domain teaching, not a substitute for it.”

While Xhabija emphasized that this is only initial survey data rather than a controlled analysis of the impact of the microcredentials, her students’ responses reinforced that she is on the right path.

Quality, Relevance of Courses Cited

Issa Awad, a UM-Dearborn senior who has been accepted to medical school at Central Michigan University, wasn’t sure what to expect when he saw the Michigan Online courses on the syllabus. Yet he was immediately impressed with how smoothly the courses progressed and the ease of using the platform.

“They were very good. They’re very well organized, and the system really works with you,” Awad said. “You don’t want to have to sit there and figure that out on your own when you’re a college student juggling multiple courses.” 

Serving all of her students was paramount for Xhabija. Nearly half of UM-Dearborn’s incoming students are the first in their families to attend college, and many are balancing jobs and caregiving responsibilities with their course load. 

In post-course surveys, first-generation and working students rated the credentials’ value as high as their peers, and scored similarly on the knowledge checks. 

The same was true for her AI skeptics. She said the cohort included students who genuinely disliked AI—one wrote that the course “used up a good amount of my limited hours on this Earth.” 

“And yet among those students, two out of three still ended up wanting it built into their required courses,” Xhabija said. “The students are, in a sense, ahead of us on this. They are asking to be taught it.”

Using AI the Right Way

Establishing a clear boundary around academic integrity was paramount for Xhabija, who explicitly barred AI use during any of the course assessments, which are all done in person to allow for enforcement of the rules. 

“The certificates build good AI habits for studying, while the in-person format keeps the exams clean,” she said. 

Having the data now shows that her students not only want the AI courses, but also are benefitting from the lessons around when to use AI and how to do it responsibly. It’s a lesson she hopes fellow instructors recognize.

“Faculty tend to worry that students will resent AI work as ‘one more thing’ bolted into a course,” Xhabija said. “My data says close to the opposite.”  

Eva Schwark, a former student and research lab assistant for Xhabija, said AI was just being introduced when she was a UM-Dearborn student, so she had limited interest in trying it. Yet Xhabija encouraged her to take the “AI-Powered Data Analysis” course in order to help prepare her for a job interview. Schwark, who now works as a lab tech in a hematology research lab, said the course showed her a wide array of AI uses that are specific to her work.

“It was good for me to get exposed to the other side of it, especially with programming for data analysis because that’s what I use it for,” she said. “Getting introduced to specific tools and techniques is so helpful because otherwise, you wouldn’t know where to find it or how to use it.”

More Michigan Online to Come

Xhabija said she plans to continue with the three-certificate requirement in BCHM 370, but allow one to be the student’s choice so they can select a credential that best matches their career aspirations. She is also adding Michigan Online courses to additional biochemistry courses. 

Xhabija’s next step is to focus not only on students’ ability to use AI responsibly, but also on their ability to critically evaluate the accuracy, reliability, and limitations of AI-based tools. She also hopes to further explore whether this model of embedding career-relevant technology training could be adapted in other STEM and health-focused courses. 

Whatever comes next, Xhabija’s goal remains the same: to supplement her students’ college education so they can demonstrate the work they’re doing both inside and outside the classroom. 

“I felt we owed it to our students—a lot of them work one or two jobs, care for elderly family or younger siblings, and commute on top of it,” she said. “These certificates make a student’s real skills legible to an employer at the precise moment it counts.”