In the context of the deep integration and development of "Internet + education", the modern teaching method has undergone a significant change (Peisachovich et al., 2021). Ever since COVID-19 lockdowns, the demand for remote teaching has increased dramatically (Kumar et al., 2022). In addition, to improve the precision of education and deepen the supply-side reform of education, the concept of micro-credentials (MCs) has subsequently entered the purview of the education industry in China. MCs are usually composed of 3-10 courses and are intended to provide a quick-to-complete education in a specific area of specialization (Guest et al., 2022, Wang, 2018a). MCs emphasize vocational competence and employment needs in their content design and teaching methods (Olcott, 2022). Thus, MCs can serve as a bridge between school education and labor market demand.

China is currently experiencing a period of rapid aging, especially in its “very old” (over 80) population. The disabled, the cognitively impaired and those suffering from various chronic diseases specifically, have also begun to contribute to skyrocketing demand for health care services for older adults (Hsieh and Chen, 2018, Zhuang et al., 2016). At present, there are about 40 million disabled or semi-disabled older adults in China and according to the international standard of a 3:1 allocation of disabled older adults to aged care personnel, at least 13 million aged care personnel are needed to provide adequate care. However, the total number of aged care personnel in all service institutions for older people in China is less than 500,000 and the number of licensed personnel is less than 20,000 (Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 2020). This shows the wide gap between aged care worker supply and demand. Geriatric nursing education in China was first developed in the 1980s (Wang et al., 2021). However, according to the Catalogue of Undergraduate Programs in General Higher Education Institutions (2020) issued by the Ministry of Education (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2020), there are no geriatric nursing or geriatric medicine programs as of yet. At the undergraduate level of professional education in geriatric nursing, most colleges and universities only offer the (mandatory) course "Geriatric Nursing" and very few colleges and universities offer geriatric nursing majors.

Numerous empirical studies have revealed that nursing students have negative attitudes toward older adults and have poor perceptions and recognition of geriatric care (Carlson and Idvall, 2015, Li et al., 2018). Ageism and a poor image of aged care nursing can be a greater challenge in the development of geriatric nursing education (Australian Government Department of Health and Aging, 2004). Conversely, related studies have shown that reforming the course of geriatric nursing programs can help improve students' knowledge of aging and, to some extent, promote their confidence and willingness to engage in geriatric nursing (Koehler et al., 2016, McCloskey et al., 2020, Rodgers and Gilmour, 2011). From another perspective, education, care of older people and medical care have become the "troika" that drives Chinese domestic demand which has led to higher requirements for the content and of nursing-related higher education in China. It has thus become necessary to integrate accessible quality resources and build geriatric nursing MCs that involve care of older people and general medical care at the same time. MCs can offer an effective pathway to training geriatric nursing personnel and laying the foundation for secondary disciplines. The construction of geriatric nursing MCs is therefore conducive to meeting the current market demand for geriatric nursing talent (Varadarajan et al., 2023) and it can also alleviate the gap between the increasing demand for care of older people and the lack of professional geriatric nurses.

The primary goal of the study was to develop geriatric nursing MCs based on standardized training objectives that can be used to enhance geriatric nursing education. In China, training objectives refer to the specific training requirements based on the national educational objectives and the nature and mission of schools at all levels and in all categories. Training objectives can be used for competence evaluation that can help students to reach the needed competence to provide aged care during their studies. Meanwhile, this study was a portion of a project. This project consists of three parts: developing geriatric nursing training objectives, constructing geriatric nursing MCs and validating the MCs from the perspective of undergraduate nursing students. This study was the second part of the project, we used the Model of Integrated Course Design (Fink model) to construct course-specific learning goals and course modules for each course in the MCs (Fink, 2013). The relevant research questions were: 1) What are the specific frameworks and steps needed to develop geriatric nursing MCs for undergraduate nursing students in China? 2) Is there a consensus among nursing experts related to geriatric nursing MCs, including learning goals, course and course modules?