Knowledge

Online graduate micro-credentials are promoted both as flexible learning pathways for working professionals and as portable signals of capability for employers and professional communities. Yet, scholarship on these credentials is dispersed across policy, education, technology, and workforce literatures, making it difficult to see how the field is framed and where evidence is accumulating. This study uses OpenAlex to build an updateable evidence map of online graduate micro-credentialing. A total of 2535 records (2010–2026) were retrieved and deduplicated to 2150 works. The corpus was annotated with a transparent seedless triage step. A conservatively revised keyword typology was then applied to a typology-eligible subset, and topic modeling was used to surface candidate themes. Within the typology-eligible subset, 223 records were classifiable. Learning-first framings (66.8%) and stackable framings (58.7%) remained more common, and a 100-record hand-coded audit supported the revised rules (80.0% full-quadrant agreement). Large thematic clusters concern workforce/economic skills, engagement-oriented digital learning, and broad online teaching/learning, while smaller badge-related, infrastructure, and adjacent-domain clusters require cautious interpretation. The map points to a literature still weighted toward pathway design and implementation, but typology validation also indicates that structural framing is more mixed than the earlier always-assigned counts suggested. By making the search space and annotation logic transparent, this study provides a rerunnable baseline for cumulative qualitative synthesis and a clearer agenda for future research on how online graduate micro-credentials function as both learning experiences and credential signals.

Introductory Java programming requires learners to reason about abstract computational concepts such as program state, control flow, and execution order, which often present substantial difficulties for novice programmers. These challenges may be further intensified for collegiate student athletes when programming instruction remains disconnected from the domain knowledge that shapes their prior experiences. This paper proposes a wrestling-inspired, state-based pedagogical framework that leverages the rule system of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wrestling as an analogical knowledge domain for introducing foundational Java programming concepts. Within this framework, wrestling match states and scoring actions are systematically mapped to core programming constructs, which include variable assignment, conditional branching, loops, method invocation, and program termination. This paper is positioned as a conceptual and pedagogical framework study rather than an empirical intervention study. It focuses on the theoretical rationale, conceptual alignment, instructional mappings, and classroom implementation possibilities of a wrestling-inspired approach. This paper does not report participant data, learning assessments, or comparative outcome measures. Instead, it illustrates how sport-specific mental models can be transformed into structured instructional representations that may support learners’ reasoning about program execution. By integrating domain-aligned cognitive schemas with programming instruction, the proposed framework offers a structured knowledge scaffolding approach that is designed to support novice understanding of computational processes in introductory programming education.

This study examined how human resource management (HRM) training and development practices contribute to strengthening knowledge absorptive and protective capacities within South African state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Using an exploratory mixed-methods approach, this research was conducted in two phases. Firstly, 20 HR managers were interviewed, and annual reports from nine SOEs were reviewed. Thematic analysis, supported by Atlas.ti, revealed key insights that informed the design of a survey used in the second phase. In the second phase, the survey was administered to 585 randomly selected employees across three SOEs, achieving a 25% response rate. Data analysis carried out with Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) version 8.4 showed strong reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94. Findings indicate that training and development initiatives play a significant role in building absorptive capacity as they enhance knowledge acquisition and the ability to integrate new skills. These practices also reinforced employees’ tacit knowledge base, particularly through job-specific training and skills development. However, whilst HRM practices were effective in knowledge absorption, they were less successful in safeguarding and protecting critical tacit knowledge against potential loss. This study highlights the dual challenge facing SOEs: advancing employees’ capacity to absorb knowledge whilst also developing stronger mechanisms to protect valuable expertise.