Issuers also have an opportunity to include projects to work on or an assessment so learners can apply and better retain what they are learning. 92% of learners want this but only 34% of issuers offer this.
We know that this is a high impact strategy (applying learning helps students get jobs that pay well) and learners say they want it. Yet only a third of us offer it.
issuers should track learner engagement post-launch to optimize their courses. Unfortunately, most issuers aren’t tracking engagement metrics and don’t have a sense of where learners are finding value and where they’re dropping off. Less than half of issuers track what content or courses learners are most engaged with (34%), which learners are most engaged (25%), course completion time (24%), and where learners drop off (14%) — missing out on critical insights to improve their programs
Huge analytics opportunity that supports student success and feeds future funnel. So there's ROI in retention/completion, as well as new future enrollments.
students are matched with employers after a screening interview based on their major and goals, and they have final say in where they intern. The process is meant to be personalized
LERs could power doing this well and at scale. Also, this is good for everyone, not just people with disabilities.
The most effective approach to achieve these outcomes? Interdisciplinary models that embed skills flexibly across curriculum, that engage learners as part of networks, teams, and exploration, and that embed applied experiences in real-world contexts
Important to observe here: none of these things are simple and they require ecosystem thinking. Embedding skills takes faculty, learning designers, CTL-types to train and. support faculty, and industry and edu associations to articulate the skills that need embedding. Applied opportunities require industry partners to create the opportunities, co-design them, and run them well...not to mention the HE side of coordinating between the partnership shop, career services, advising, and faculty.
Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun outlines as essential literacies in Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. In addition to technical and data literacies, he shares two key components of human literacy. First, a set of “catalytic capacities” that include: Initiative and self-reliance Comfort with risk Flexibility and adaptability Second, a set of “creative capacities” that include: Opportunity recognition, or the ability to see and experience problems as opportunities to create solutions Creative innovation, or the ability to create solutions without clearly defined structures Future innovation, or the disposition to orient toward future developments in society
These "capacities" are a blueprint for how HE can notice, name, and credential the stuff that actually matters.
Social capital research has continuously demonstrated that early career exposure, network development, and mentorship also matter in early career success and throughout an entire career.
Exposure, networking and mentorship...these are three huge opportunities for post-secondary institutions to strategically embrace. These are key indicators of success outcomes and higher ed has a competitive advantage, especially in-person and residential campuses.
ABET’s recognition of the Siemens credential is an example of how quality-assurance standards can identify credentials in which society can be confident
Endorsements
Universities offer credentials aligned to NACE Career Competencies: University of North Florida, the university system of Maryland and Purdue
The online, asynchronous credential, offered upon completion of nine courses, is available globally through Coursera. The credential provides the opportunity to earn credits by enrolling in UC Boulder and completing additional assessments, making it stackable into a master’s degree.
What's missing: CU Boulder Micro-Credentials. This is on coursera. The credential is offered by Siemens. Doesn't have to be that way.
For the partnership to be effective, clarity of expectations and roles, commitment to collaboration, and communication are critical.
Expectations. Roles. Commitment. Communication. This is change management, not some radical new way of doing things.
Unlike traditional degrees, digital credentials allow potential employers to verify skills and students to showcase these skills
There's no competition with degrees! Degrees are important, are not under attack, and are already good at what they are intended to do. Innovative credentials address needs the degree isn't necessarily intended to address: verifiability of granular skills and the ability for learners to articulate, demonstrate, and narrate their skills.
demonstrate that their qualifications align with industry standards
It's not about changing curriculum, it's about painting the lines on crosswalks that are already present but not formally declared.
institutions need clarity to create coherent credentialing ecosystems that are aligned with their mission and the market.
Mission alignment.
Stackable credentials are also critical to the “Some College, No Credential” (SCNC) market, which reached a total of 36.8 million under the age of 65 in the U.S., up 2.9% from the previous year. Recent research from UPCEA and StraighterLine found that 76% of SCNC adults said being able to earn alternative or microcredentials that could stack toward a degree would increase or greatly increase their interest in completing their degree
In other words: 36.8M people have some college, and 76% say the ability to earn formal credentials that stack to degrees would increase their interest in completing their degree. That's 28 MILLION adults who already did post-secondary once and could be re-engaged. The dreaded enrollment cliff is 3M and yet 10x that number of people who already self-selected into college once gets none of the same attention. It's a massive opportunity.
And most importantly, we need to be transparent and intentional about what they are and how we talk about them.
This is the key takeaway and it's hopefully something people will realize is deeper than what we call things.
To best align credentials with workforce needs, institutions should engage employers. This will ensure that programs fill real-world talent gaps, boost learner employability, and strengthen corporate partnerships. This will also help to ensure that learners understand the credential they’re earning, how it stacks to other learning modules, and how it leads to future opportunities
This is great stuff and also the domain of robust credential metadata, not definitions of what kind of credential it is.
Employers must understand the credential to ensure that it meets their needs and allows them to assess candidates and recognize verified skills.
This is a key need. Standardized definitions of what a micro-credential is won't address it.
Credential Innovation captures the richness and diversity of this space. It speaks to the intentional design, employer alignment, and learner-centric approaches that our member institutions are pioneering to serve learners in targeted ways over a continuum of learning
"leaner-centric" is key; it's worth self-awareness with respect to the definitions friction and asking ourselves if the perceived problem is a learner-centric problem or an us (HE) problem? It can be an "us" problem (eg administrative nightmare for our tech stack such as SIS and Degree Audit) and still be a legit problem. The solutions will be better solutions however if we accurately describe the problems and avoid descriptions that proxy the issue to misleading causes.
Lack of standard definitions makes it harder for learners to navigate options and for employers to assess value
This assumption needs to be validated. Would standard definitions be a silver bullet for learner navigation and employer value? To wit: We have standard definitions for degrees and yet the navigation and value problems persist in that domain. What if the more important issue is not what to call these programatic containers but rather how to describe the contents of what they contain?
companies with external partnerships that provide employee training or professional development increased from 54% in 2022 to 68% in 2023, and among those without existing relationships, 61% of companies would be interested in developing these partnerships.
Most companies have external partnerships for employee training and the majority of those that do not would be interested in having them.
D ESCRIPTIONS OF THE INSTITUTION'S POLICY ON WORK- RELATEDEXPERIENCES OR WORK- BASED LEARNING, THE INSTITUTION'S POLICY ONPRIOR LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES , AND THE INDUSTRY- RECOGNIZEDCREDENTIALS , LICENSES , OR APPRENTICESHIP CERTIFICATES FOR WHICH THEINSTITUTION AWARDS POSTSECONDARY ACADEMIC CREDIT , INCLUDINGLEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FROM WORK - RELATED EXPERIENCE FOR WHICHTHE INSTITUTION AWARDS POSTSECONDARY ACADEMIC CREDIT FOR COURSESIN THE GUARANTEED TRANSFER PATHWAY MATRIX
Huge opportunity here for someone to work on this (while doing their dissertation) in ways that strategically unpack what is valued in work-related and work-based learning credit, and then use that data to create frameworks that might enable consistency, clarity, and objectivity with processes that are more familiar with messiness, inconsistency, and subjectivity.
A COMPREHENSIVE RECORD OF THE INSTITUTION'S AWARDS OFPOSTSECONDARY TRANSFER CREDIT FOR EACH SEMESTER OR TERMBEGINNING WITH THE FALL 2023 SEMESTER OR TERM FOR ALL COURSES THATTHE INSTITUTION HAS IDENTIFIED THROUGH THE INSTITUTION'S CURRENTTRANSFER AND COURSE ARTICULATION PROCESS AS HAVING LEARNINGOUTCOMES EQUIVALENT TO CORRESPONDING COURSES AT OTHER COLORADO
This could be very impactful data that * informs learners * creates consistent experiences * saves time/effort for institutions making transfer credit determinations * provides perspective students expedited expectations about their transfer credits (which could be competitive advantage for ambitious campuses that approach transfer as an admissions strategy)
Employers would spend less time sorting through unqualified applications
and filtering out well-qualified candidates!
To rebuild trust, education providers must do more than issue degrees‑‑they must demonstrate clear outcomes. That means helping learners see the direct connection between their education and career opportunities, making learning outcomes more transparent, and ensuring skills are recognizable, validated, and transferable.
Value of post-secondary is demonstrated with receipts!
Colleges, universities, and workforce training providers play a critical role in preparing people for careers, but they need better alignment with the actual skills employers demand.
NOTE: this doesn't call for change in education/training itself (necessarily). There's much improvement we can realize simply by surfacing and making visible alignments that exist but are currently invisible.
Employers must shift how they hire, manage, and promote employees, putting skills and competencies at the center of decision-making. This means investing in systems that track skills development, recognizing learning from all sources, and ensuring internal advancement pathways are clear and equitable.
Key word: invest. The greatest potential of this movement requires that employers invest in products and practices.
fundamentally change how we connect talent to opportunities
This is a narrative few are hearing and fewer are promoting: a huge benefit of the ecosystem vision is about connecting people and opportunities
And more importantly, what could it do for workers, education providers, employers, and our communities?
LER Ecosystem
Certain types of learning (like degrees from well-known institutions) continue to be valued over others, even when they might not be the best indicator of job readiness
Given STRADA's Talent Disrupted findings, "might not be the best indicator" might be a generous way of putting it.
Career navigation tools use AI to help match job seekers and opportunities, but the tools often work with incomplete or outdated learning data
NAVIGATION. The future is more sophisticated navigation that is not limited to singular domain (eg college, career). Think Naviance on steroids
We often describe our skills through job titles, the reputation of past employers, and the prestige of institutions we’ve attended, rather than articulating what we actually know and can do
proxies
legacy systems move too slowly, lack the intelligence needed for smart decision-making, and fail to capture the full range of skills and experiences people bring to the table.
The WHY
As an alternative, researchers are turning to ontologies—dynamic frameworks that map how skills interact across jobs and industries. Unlike taxonomies, ontologies adapt to context, making them valuable for AI-driven hiring tools.
Ontologies vs Taxonomies
Despite their limits, taxonomies remain useful for research and policy, informing studies on job polarization and technological change. However, they fail to fully capture job complexity and context.
What if we don't actually need ONE TAXONOMY TO RULE THEM ALL?
Project-Based Learning: Integrate project-based courses withdirect instructor and cohort interaction to create a differentiatedmicro-credentialing experience, meeting the demand forhands-on training
PBL for its own sake and also bc it offers validation through performance assessment and can produce evidence artifacts.
A striking 95% of HR executives acknowledge theimperative for employees to receive more hands-on practice thanconventional online training typically offers. This insight underscores thevalue of experiential learning and positions local institutions favorably.By incorporating hands-on components into micro-credentialprograms, local universities can meet the demand for practical skilldevelopment, aligning seamlessly with employer expectations
hands-on practice
Detailed Tables of ContentsCourses that garner high enrollment often present detailed tablesof contents. These structures provide a transparent overview of thecourse content, allowing learners (or corporate purchasers) to assessthe relevance and alignment with their learning objectives. The termsfound in the tables of contents can also play a significant role inimproving search engine optimization (SEO
Table of contents for transparency and helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions. Plus, could impact SEO.
Noah Geisel,
AACRAO interview.
That feels like the kind of distinction employers make between Princeton and The University of Phoenix. They know those providers and can make sound assumptions about job seekers holding credentials from these places and programs
This is a description of common practice, not a valid point about making reliable judgements about credential meaning and quality.
Because there were so many, because there was no regulation or oversight to assure quality or competency, because there was no standardization or segmentation of badges, people had no idea what they meant.
How do we know that this has been a problem? It's conventional wisdom but what validates it?
For existing students, the priority is immediate recognition of skills and knowledge in the major or complementary to the major, helping the student earn a fellowship or prepare for graduate school, to encourage persistence and completion, and to help students compete in the job market
Naming the important learning => encouraging persistence/success => currency that helps access future opportunities
Each microcredential is a substantive learning experience with set learning outcomes and assessments where student work is produced. While community building or participation in meetings or events can be important parts of the student experience, they do not rise to the level of a SUNY microcredential.
Credentials must be credentialing something.
All work is aligned with key pillars set by SUNY’s Board of Trustees and Chancellor John B. King, Jr., including student success; research and scholarship; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and economic development and upward mobility
2 Keys: this synthesizes with student success, research, and other existing priorities; and executive sponsorship is baked in.
iQ4willgenerateandpostadigitalcredentialinthehighschoolstudents'WalletforcompletedCareerandTechnicalEducation(CTE)programsusingtheDigitalCredentialConsortium (DCC)trusted,distributed,andsharedinfrastructureandthe1EdTechOB3wrapperthatprovidescredentialverification,makingiteasierforemployers,educators,andprofessionalstoverifycredential
Institutions increasingly turn to digital credentials to reshape their recruitment and admissions processes. Universities like Georgia Tech, the University of California, Berkeley, and Syracuse already use digital credentials to assess applicants holistically. By incorporating digital badges, microcredentials, and LERs, institutions can create richer, more accurate student profiles that go beyond traditional metrics like standardized test scores and GPA
More effective, efficient, and equitable admissions
Takeaways
Key participant takeaways 1. Ease/convenience 2. Confidence building 3. Vital that employers and other consumers signal to earners that they value the credentials
increase their confidence
We don't talk about this enough. Especially for populations that self-select out of seeking opportunities, the impact of confidence building is a key benefit of credentials.
How will buy-in from the workforce and higher education institutions be obtained to support the implementation of competency-based micro-credentials and learning and employment record technologies, and how will they be trained?
Value propositions! "I'll believe you about these badges and start to care if you convince me that the employers care." On the employer side, this hints at need to get over it with the real/imagined quality concerns and focus on their need to signal to opportunity seekers, "we value your credentials and want to see them."
Who owns the data
Curious what the participant concerns were here
liked what LER technologies offer regarding storing everything in one place
When highlighting features, we might under-index this as a key benefit
employer verification
In addition, this hints at employMENT verification: this could be a light lift sort of Tier 1 entry point for organizations to be both issuing and consuming credentials. Large employers spend a lot of resources responding to requests to verify former workers' employment histories. If part of off-boarding departing workers includes VCs for official employment verification, that could lead to big savings of time and resources (as long as other employers accept the credentials), as well as accelerate hiring processes that sometimes lead to failed hires bc people find another position that starts sooner. For key HR leaders to start with badging from a place of effortlessly improving their efficiency and costs might be a better place to launch than more involved strategies that offer less immediate value propositions.
For nearly half of the lower-wage employment analyzed, we identify at least one higher-paying occupation requiring similar skills in the same metro area. We also find that transitions to similar higher-paying occupations would represent an average annual increase in wages of nearly $15,000, or 49 percent.
Recognition can change the world. Signals need to be valid and trustworthy, but we're so close to making a huge difference in the world through recognition of things that are already there, just hidden in plain sight.
Our vision is for members of the UMBC community to amass hundreds of microcredentials throughout their careers
This is first I've seen this explicitly stated by an organization
Better understanding of what learning described by credentials prepares earners to do in theworkforce, at the skill level. This may be a reframing of competencies toward position descriptionlanguage
Employers want to know what credentials are credentialing, and they want to hear it in their own language. The temptation will be to convince faculty and others to revise descriptions, however the opportunity is in leaving that and instead seeking their consensus and comfort with interpreting their descriptions into the languages of employers.
Increasingly, our partners are interested in building collections - or connecting to - credentials that they don’t own, issue, or offer to show learners the full pathways of learning opportunities that they can pursue.
Example of how this gets operationalized: There will be platforms (think Naviance on big data and personalized data steroids) that will help Learners discover right fit opportunities based in part on the credentials they already have. There will be savvy institutions connecting to others' credentials so as to increase the likelihood that Learners discover those institutions' program offerings. This will be akin to a sort of skill-based SEO approach as a recruitment/admissions strategy.
One participant noted that local credentials,that is, from local colleges, were more highly valued because they almost certainly had examples ofhires with the same credentials
Resume parsers will now have better and slightly more detailed credential information to pass onto client systems—confirmation of a credential with a standardized name and associated skills
while there was certainly discussion with workshopparticipants about more specific changes to their hiring tools, thefundamental issue at the root of each major challenge was inadequateinformation about candidates
wants more consistent/trustworthy data
major HRIS system providers, from offering a full stack of proprietarysolutions to adopting a platform model that supports integrations with a range of third-party services
On the otherhand, there are legitimate concerns about how well resumes may be translated into structureddata via parsing.
This is consistent with what their peers report generally: one study suggests that almosthalf of companies do not know how to gauge a candidate’s skills based on a non-degree credential.12
The top four HR platforms according to Forbes13 all have marketplaces showcasing 300+ partnerintegrations. These platforms’ integration capabilities mean that established providers of traditionalbackground check services have a path to incorporate non-degree verification into their offerings
In addition to service providers, a new class of information consolidator, the Learning andEmployment Record (LER) wallet providers, may find benefit in joining the partner marketplaces. AnLER wallet is envisioned to be an application where credential holders can store their credentials ina safe, private way, giving the holder an ability to curate and share more comprehensive informationabout formal and informal education activity, along with other achievements. A key value of LERwallets is that credential information can only be stored in them if they have been verified by theissuer
At a minimum, we hope this discussion willencourage HR leaders to work with their HR technology providers to broaden access to the fieldsoffered by the parsing companies in system integrations
Parsing algorithms that translate unstructured resume data into a set of variables thatcorrespond to fields in an ATS or HRIS implementation are sometimes maintained in-house bythe HR technology companies. In a large number of cases, however, resume parsing is a serviceprovided by a handful of companies. These companies have all been in business for decadesand process incredible volumes of data on a daily basis. We estimate that, collectively, thesecompanies process ten million resumes a day or three billion resumes per year.
This kind of data could potentially enhance his understanding of what sources generateapplicants who work out best and what experiences correlate most highly with more successfulhiring outcomes
having better information can help Malik address the common queryfrom unsuccessful applicants about why they weren’t selected and allow him to proactively offerguidance on what they might seek to earn
helps him turn a pool of rejected applicantsinto a pipeline of potential future candidates that will let him achieve even better, more cost-effective efficiency
data does exist, but doesn’t yet flow through theecosystem in a consistent and high-quality way
stored data that he can analyze
more connected data,
Just as skills information can begin to flow from the curricular skills data source to the resumeparsers, a similar connection can be created between the curriculum data source and non-degreecredential data sources
Additionalawareness and use of digital credentials may also attract the attention of the traditional third-partycredential verification companies or larger wallet creators.
For Jake, the high school graduate applying for jobs, the application process shifts away from being agame of how to pick the perfect keywords for his resume. Instead, he is matched by the actual skillsacquired in his recent community college coursework and EdX certificate. Both Jake and the hiringmanager he will soon meet have a more equitable and accurate path through the noise of today’sonline hiring process.
Simple, elegant explanation: it moves from clumsy proxies that screen out qualified people like Jake, to powerful and sophisticated matching that connect opportunities to people like Jake who have the verified skills to deserve those opportunities.
This interconnected ecosystem allows for improvements that HR leaderswould most like to see: better whole-person evaluation, better leverage of candidate skills, bettercredential verification, and more reliable information on what makes a good candidate
The value proposition, as presented here, is all about the wheel being more efficient, more effective, and less expensive in identifying, hiring, and retaining cogs. What might be magical is the rare nexus of what being best for the wheel also being good for the cogs, us humans who this work is hopefully really about.
integrationswith the mission-focused LER wallet companies or the entrance of a few general-purpose walletproviders, such as ApplePay or GooglePay, into the hiring ecosystem. Both Apple and Google arealready experimenting with housing digital driver’s license information for a number of U.S. states, andexpansion into storing digital credential information may be a viable, incremental step for them
Might some see this as a call to pay close attention, get involved, and push for public/public good solutions? Or will we default to leaning on FAANG to provide our "free" wallets and control or even own more of our data?
Increased awareness of digital credentials and more demanding HR expectations may also encouragea range of other types of integrations
Ecosystem is held back by lack of awareness and (probably unwitting) low expectations.
data about the nature of the non-degree credential experience can includethe kind of information provided by EQOS
EQOS, a JFF service, is one of several options in the space.
higher confidence
Higher confidence => Higher trust
Examples of these sources would include an established digital walletprovider, or an exhaustive catalogue of digital credentials that are available, such as the repositoryhosted by Credential Engine. Having the curricular data source, which has a connection to the parsingcompanies, also create a connection to credential information opens up a connection, albeit anindirect one, between the non-degree credential information and the parsing activity. Instead ofreceiving just a course name from the resume parser, the intermediary can also receive a non-degreecredential identifier that is sent to the credential data source to look up and return skills information
Opportunity to go deep here. Bread crumb is to check out the issuer directory with Credential Engine, where they are inviting institutions to publish details about their credentials in a standardized format (CTDL) that will hopefully one day be consumed by connections like those hinted at here.
One example of a curriculum data source is OpenSyllabus.org, a non-profit that hosts acomprehensive repository of higher ed course information. OpenSyllabus.org can serve as a value-added provider that sends skill information about specific college coursework to the parsers. This willexpand the potential skill information parsers can associate with a resume, going beyond what mightbe gleaned only from reading a course or degree title. They would now have access to informationderived from more detailed course catalog descriptions or even course syllabi information. Parserswill be able to send more extensive lists of skills over to companies’ HR platforms in a structuredformat they can immediately utilize. This integration also captures the skills from a particular type ofnon-degree credential - the coursework completed by the 40 million people in the U.S. who have somecollege, but no degree.
This might catch the attention of HE people paying attention. It also hopefully connects to the participants who shared that they are not getting the information about the programs that they desire. If the data being consumed (by this vendor or others) is still rooted in describing the content of the learning and not the measurable, assessed outcomes, then it's utility is limited and, crucially, it could create trust issues that make consumer wary of all the data. On the other hand, if they can trust the high quality data, there will be a window of competitive advantage for HE institutions that choose to share the data that the consumers (largely employers) want to see.
As a first step in connecting more and better data to candidate profiles, we propose workingwith the resume-parsing companies to expand the skills information they extract and transmit fromapplications. To do this, it is necessary to identify a small number of value-added providers managinga large source of useful information that the resume itself doesn’t typically include
Don't reinvent. Start with important players already invested. Describe the value TO THEM. (For some, it could be helping them see that they are only dominant bc there's no alternative; this new approach will either give them greater advantage or be the competitive disadvantage that destroys them.
None of the jobs weapplied for, even with companies who were forward-leaning in the LER space, included an option toconnect or share an LER as part of the application we submitted. This lack of implementation standsin stark contrast to the incredible volume of reliance on resumes
The need is there. This is a hammer with very clear, very costly nails.
simply having technology available does notguarantee its use by end users without substantial investment in change management
This is also about Change Management
The lack of reliable and consistent information about non-degree credentials presented by candidatesin the hiring process also meant that workshop participants had no information to classify candidatespost-hire. This gap made it impossible to know who among the employee base had earned whichcredentials. Without this basic profile data, HR leaders are unable to gather much-needed insight intowhat types of credentials appear to prepare candidates best for a given role or which credentialsappear to be more effective at training than others
This could play into Credential Quality Assurance work in Higher Ed.
a lack of intuitive visualizations were alsoidentified as places for improvement
"The dashboard isn't concise enough!" Also: "We need more data visualizations!"
Due to the relative novelty of LER wallets, both applicant adoption and employer awareness remainlimited. This lack of familiarity has resulted in minimal client demand to integrate LER wallets intohiring workflow tools. Consequently, major HRIS platforms do not currently support APIs for data flowdirectly from LER wallets.
KEY FINDING. This is one of the most important takeaways of the report, especially in regard to LERs. It's also important to note the lack of familiarity when considering other survey data about innovative credentials: if participants have limited understanding of the stuff they are being asked about, how much should we read into the data about their (possibly inaccurate) perceptions?
eliminates the backend verification work that is so burdensome
Value proposition in the automation leading to time and effort savings that eliminate human tasks.
In contrast to the badge information screens in Figure 10, HR leaders expressed strong preferencefor the concise summaries on the mocked-up HRIS screen. They also appreciated keeping theinformation in the flow of work, thereby minimizing the need to consider yet another tool or interface
TWO THINGS: 1. The shiny interface is for humans, not machines. Are the participants assuming that they are looking at the interface for all of the candidates or just the top candidates? 2. If participants know that they are only seeing an interface like Figure 10 for top candidates, would they still desire something more concise or would the narrative be right-sized?
information about trainingcontent and skills was important, but only one aspect of how they determined if credentials wereof interest. They also wanted some understanding of the quality of the training. Some of the parsingcompanies have created scores that might help HR leaders understand credential quality, but theworkshop participants told us quite clearly that they didn’t like these kinds of scores. To them, scoringsystems felt very black box in nature and were generally not trusted.
Consumers want quality. They also are wary of quality assessment. Trend currently appears to align with historical defaults of using proxies instead of precise, targeted measurements (eg Using length of seat time and GPA instead of competency-based assessments)
Ideas for More Actionable InformationIn discussion with HR leaders helping imagine process improvement, we learned that the informationcurrently curated for digital badges was helpful, but perhaps not quite hitting the mark. Workshopparticipants told us two things about the kind of information found in Figure 9: it was overwhelming,and it missed key facts they wanted to know.In their view, the sum of information presented on badge websites is a bit dense and very focused onthe nature and content of the training
KEY FINDING: it's a problem if the context focuses on the nature of the content instead of the nature of what the credential is credentialing.
the findings alsorevealed a genuinely inconsistent interpretation of less traditional education experiences. Part of theproblem appears to be widespread industry confusion regarding the distinction between certificates,certifications, and short-form courses.
The risk of HE not mapping our lexicon to that of employers is that our learners' credentials may suffer devaluation because they are failing to communicate what the consumers need to know.
Most notably, application times were very different, ranging from a swift two-minute process tomore than 45 minutes. Some organizations appeared more sensitive to reports that a key concern ofcandidates is how long it takes to apply for a job.1
Time to apply is a COST that may limit applicant pools for employers.
Briana aims to enhance efficiency by leveraging technology to better manage andverify credentials, potentially exploring solutions that simplify the integration of professional socialmedia profiles that have been linked to government-recognized credentials. Briana’s main concern,however, is that she is unclear whether the company developing the platform she uses to store HRinformation is committed to supporting these kinds of integrations
For these ecosystems to be healthy, the interconnected nodes. function in harmony. They are aware of the other nodes' desires and intentionally seek to meet those needs. A barrier to progress is technology solutions that can function to meet important needs yet do not. (Positive assumption here that the developers either don't properly understand their users' needs or don't properly understand how to capture ROI if they do design to meet those needs; not that they know the needs and choose not to address them)
Stage Three: Expandingthe EcosystemLeverage new demand from end-usercompanies that have access to additionalinformation to justify more integrationsbetween data sources and HR tools
Ecosystem expansion might rely on market incentives for additional parties to connect, synthesize, and operationalize data. Important to consider that this is not limited to HR vendors; it's also about their clients, as well as other vendors that may be better enabled to connect with (L)earners to market Navigation services, coaching, scholarship and lending programs, educational/training/upskilling opportunities, and more. In a future of direct admissions, there are multiple roles in this ecosystem. And, of course, there is much opportunity and value for the human (L)earners at the center of the ecosystem.
Once these connections are established,expand data flow to include the additionalinformation about non-degree credentialsdesired by HR leaders
KEY: data is what the Consumers desire, not necessarily what the learning providers want to describe.
“The Creative Edge” report was the degree to which hiring managers see these self-efficacy skills reflected in candidates who have achieved digital credentials. In comments and interviews, hiring managers noted that they view candidates who have made the effort to obtain digital credentials as self-motivated, ambitious, and dedicated. 53 percent of hiring managers in the study said that having a digital credential demonstrates a candidate is committed to professional development
This mirrors UPCEA survey data that beyond what credentials are credentialing, consumers assign a strong signal to credentials around earners' self-motivation and personal growth.
In the list of top ten skills rising in importance between now and 2027, three relate to self-efficacy: “curiosity and lifelong learning” (ranked fourth), “resilience, flexibility, and agility” (ranked fifth), and “motivation and self-awareness” (ranked eighth).
Durable skills that are valued by Consumers and could be noticed, named, and credentialed.
What metrics do you use to measure your success?The process of aligning strategic priorities to the UMS Micro-Credential Initiative led us to create aprimary goal for our students.
Easy change management to overlook: How will we know that we are successful? What we measure is what we prioritize, and what we prioritize is usually strategic.
Excel for Storytellers: The Co-Design Process
Really interesting case study.
those institutionsthriving within the changing landscape of higher education continue to make it easy for peopleto unbundle and rebundle their education and training, allowing them to personalize and bestmeet their career and personal goals. In the area of microcredentials, “stackability” arose as afeature more than any other—designing credentials to stack towards other, larger credentialsand as pathways towards credit-bearing degrees. While some of our consortium institutionswere further along than others in this regard (for example, National University only buildsprograms from components that are stackable), all ten institutions embraced the intent tomake all new programs stackable. UPCEA believes that stackability is critical to the success ofboth microcredentials and degree-granting programs. Students are demanding these options.In addition, allowing rebundling and stackability requires strong operations and advising,
It is vital to strategically decide where an institution does/doesn't want to play in this particular sandbox. It is also essential to support intentions with policies, systems, processes and practices (eg operations, advising, etc) that will allow the intentions to become sustainable realities.
We learned that an institution’s alumni were an underutilized resource to explore and establishcommunity partnerships.
Alumni Association as key stakeholder.
Other elements specific to sustainable business models include:► Building business models that accurately account for all expenses, including the fixed costsof existing technology, as well as staff and faculty salaries. When existing faculty and staff areutilized (from marketing to instructional design, to instruction itself) it is important to expensetheir time estimates or percent of workload into the program pro forma.► We encourage institutions to generate multi-year break-even enrollment/revenueprojections for each program established. These projections became important“touchstones” for year-to-year assessment of program growth and health.► Those institutions creating comprehensive marketing plans, unique for each new programestablished, had the best success in their marketing efforts. A useful marketing tool is togenerate “personas” to better understand the likely population who will be attracted toparticular programs.► The use of formal and signed Memos of Understanding (MOUs) early in programdevelopment were important to clarify and solidify partner expectations. Additionally,MOUs were a valuable vehicle to discuss and ultimately settle the important program andbudgetary topics above.
Key financial/budgetary/business operations considerations to strategically plan upfront.
It is important to shore up internal support within and across the institution, includingidentifying and cultivating “champions.” Some of these champions should be centraldecision-makers within an institution who can make decisions campuswide
Leaders must lead.
overwhelmingly valued microcredentials as a way to upskill/reskill their currentemployees and as an important signifier on a resumé, signaling that their presence indicatedthat a candidate was committed to self-improvement and pursuit of specialized skills
Interesting that a leading value right now is in signals independent of the credential itself. Will this shift as credentials proliferate?
As institutions compete for a decreasing number of traditionalstudents
Other UPCEA reports also point out that while there are 3M fewer incoming 18-year-olds than in the past generation, there are over 40M people in the U.S. with some post-secondary participation and no degree/credential.
they should haveone tracking system forthe entire portfolio ofmicrocredential offerings
Centralized Source of Truth
First, microcredentialsshould be part of thestrategic programportfolio for all institutionsof higher education.Additionally, institutionsshould resource theirmicrocredential activitiesappropriately forsustainability and growth
This requires executive sponsorship and cabinet-level involvement.
Many institutions did not have a centralized office or system to keep track of microcredentialactivity across that institution.
Impacts consistency, quality, data stewardship, reporting requirements, governance, etc
but oftenmultiple parties were responsible on campus for employer outreach, which caused confusion
Avoid creating a cluster. This requires strategic leadership.
Employers were strategic partners and consumers of the content
As consumers employer partners can bake ROI in from the beginning with reasonable assurance that seats are filled.
deconstructing existing for-credit courses to do so (72%)
Doesn't require reinventing the wheel; MCs can be meaningful specializations that get credentialed on the way to larger credentials.
023, UPCEA surveyed 100 individuals from 100 institutions,supplementing those quantitative results through six follow-up focus groups. The full report can befound here
I've also annotated that report
only 69% said that senior leadership at their institution has embracedmicrocredentials
Less than 100% and also compelling for the 30% that lack senior leadership embrace to share that "hey, 7 out of 10 leaders do embrace this stuff, so is there a strategic reason why we are choosing to be outliers here?"
(20%) did not include microcredentials as astrategic priority
Implying that 80% DO include microcredentials as a strategic priority
myfreebingocards
bingo card maker
The transparent communication of course goals, assessments aligned with objectives, and access to top-tier instructional materials and support resources ensures a holistic and enriching learning experience. Notably, since the implementation of the course template, UF CJC Online has observed a remarkable 25% increase in course completion rates, underscoring the tangible impact of its commitment to quality education
Increased course completion rates is a huge indicator! Also, K-12 has been hammering transparent goals for a generation, as Marzano and others have demonstrated that a top factor in successful learning is whether or not we support Learners with clear expectations of what they will need to know and be able to do.
consistent learning experience
Templates for consistency
The template, housed in Canvas, is easy to update to reflect resource and content information changes. In addition, the comprehensive template equips instructors with essential tools, eliminates the need for them to create courses from scratch, and allows them to dedicate their time and expertise to delivering engaging and impactful courses.
Templates as Strategy: instructors implement Best Practices in part bc it's made easy for them.
the QM Rubric, evaluates various facets of online course design through eight categories, including learning objectives, alignment, assessment strategies, instructional materials, learner interaction, course technology, learner support, accessibility, and usability
Quality Matters rubric categories
Among 11,300 roles at large firms, companies increased the share of workers without a bachelor’s degree by about 3.5 percentage points. At the same time, this shift only applied to the 3.6% of roles that dropped a requirement during that time period, which means the net effect is a change of .14 percentage points in incremental hiring of candidates without degrees.
Degree is still advantageous.
“The skills-based hiring movement has gained momentum, as more and more employers committed to stripping degree requirements from their postings, replacing the proxy of a college degree with actual evaluations of candidate skill,”
degree as proxy
This is often described as a mainreason why qualification systems not opened to all types of credentials
Barrier is about burden to status quo...if sustainable process existed, would systems accommodate something that is probably in learners' interests?
attribute a quality label to credentials outsidethe formal system
Model for HE to value high quality external (non-accredited) credentials
The mainfactors limiting the level of trust include: doubts about the quality of somemicrocredentials, no agreed standards for quality assurance, and uncertainty as towhether certain microcredentials will be recognised by national authorities,employers or education and training providers
Seeds of doubt on MC quality
Assigning credits to learning outcomes allows for the accumulationof units of learning and provides for transferability from one setting to another forvalidation and recognition. Interviewees representing countries in which VETsystems are modularised indicated that modules are designed to indicate a set oflearning outcomes that are expressed in terms of credits. The interviewees fromnational authorities and VET providers commonly agreed that the introduction ofmodular structures in VET and the application of a learning outcomes-basedapproach was set to provide more individualised training paths, enabling accessand progression for learners.
Align Learning Outcomes to Credits (key for meaningful unbundling/bundling)
The European approach to microcredentials(European Commission, 2020a) also highlights the importance of clearly definedlearning outcomes as a way to promote overall transparency and provide detailedinformation regarding what a learner is expected to know and is able to do
Purpose of Learning Outcomes
microcredentials must be transparent and understandable and shouldinclude summary of critical information such as:(a) the title;(b) the duration of a learning activity;(c) provider of the course;(d) description of the content;(e) learning resources;(f) type of assessment;(g) credits attributed to the course;(h) prerequisites needed for enrolment;(i) learning outcomes;(j) body ensuring the quality of the course;(k) options for stackability, if any
11 data elements for transparency
Creating Internal Value.
LERs will give employers internal heat maps of talent
Measuring What Matters
THIS! Been declaring for ten years how this is all about measuring the stuff that people actually care about.
Refined Incumbent Worker Upskilling
For industry, the efficiencies are going to be huge cost savers.
unanimously, the employers I’ve talked to would find the greatest value in utilizing learning and employment records that include verified skills data.
Employers care about skills data that has been measured and assessed
flexibility
Flexibility in response to learners' is a strategy. When to schedule office hours. When to schedule class messages, due dates/times, etc.
“the practice of purposefully involving minoritized communities throughout a design process with the goal of allowing their voices to directly affect how the solution will address the inequity at hand.”
Including voice is a practice for embedding equity.
Nearly 1 in 5 state positions are vacant
20% vacancy
Playbooks have had over 14,000 views by over 6,000 users since published.
Evidence of proliferation
Recruited 30 new members to the Network to engage in planning and implementation of incremental credentials. Among those are state systems of Hawai'i, Minnesota, the University of Texas, and the City University of New York (CUNY) System; and 24 public and private colleges and universities across 22 states.
Proliferation of HE commitment, including state systems.
Number of incremental credentials increased from 32 at the start of the US Department of Education IES grant to 131 within the three original states (Colorado, New York, North Carolina)
4x growth in a year of stackable approaches...and that's just under CAYG
Searching as exploration. White and Roth [71 ,p.38] define exploratory search as a “sense making activity focusedon the gathering and use of information to foster intellectual de-velopment.” Users who conduct exploratory searches are generallyunfamiliar with the domain of their goals, and unsure about howto achieve them [ 71]. Many scholars have investigated the mainfactors relating to this type of dynamic task, such as uncertainty,creativity, innovation, knowledge discovery, serendipity, conver-gence of ideas, learning, and investigation [2, 46, 71].These factors are not always expressed or evident in queriesor questions posed by a searcher to a search system.
Sometimes, search is not rooted in discovery of a correct answer to a question. It's about exploration. Serendipity through search. Think Michael Lewis, Malcolm Gladwell, and Latif Nasser from Radiolab. The randomizer on wikipedia. A risk factor of where things trend with advanced AI in search is an abandonment of meaning making through exploration in favor of a knowledge-level pursuit that lacks comparable depth to more exploratory experiences.
alternative credential programming and financialmodels are highly decentralized across an institution – so much so that it may bedifficult for an institution to have a good grasp of its entire portfolio. Adding alternativecredentials to an institution’s strategic priorities will firm up program and business modelplanning and execution
Inconsistent processes for establishing programs, funding programs, and pricing programs
First is the strategic priority within their institution. Ifalternative credentials have been embraced by senior leadership and included in thestrategic plan, they are more likely to have the necessary resources allocated to them
Executive sponsorship => resources allocated.
It’s not available to everyone, but a senior leadership who is vocal about lifelong learning can give you greater access to open doors, and people will take it more seriously. Time is never wasted with senior leadership and demonstrating the long-term interest for the institution, communities and companies we serve.
Executive sponsorship is a $0, very valuable resource.
When news broke out about Bill Cosby, folks had, and still have, a hard time dissociating his “America’s Dad” and TV persona who was like a father figure and his philanthropy work from the man who “used his enormous power, fame, and prestige” to sexually assault women
Maybe this is chance to finish 2020 blog post about the complicated nature of shifting our engagements with 2D personalities to 3D people... The questions proposed at the end are helpful in deliberate consideration (vs absolutist takes)
QR Codes can be a great way for teachers to distribute class material. Here are free sites you can use to generate QR codes
Free QR code sites
As employers continue to face hurdles in identifying and hiring qualified talent, the potential for skill- and competency-based digital credentials is likely to grow
This "WHY" for industry is well stated. Employers are highly motivated.
foster a sense of belonging and support for historically underrepresented students
When applicants who are historically underrepresented students see themselves reflected in the current student population and observe a sense of belonging, this could lead to increased applications from certain groups. And increasing the applications should lead to increasing the admissions.
outreach and recruitment programs can still target specific groups (e.g., via schools or districts that predominantly serve students of color), so long as they do not award admissions spots solely based on an individual student’s race
Be intentional AND don't discriminate.
Motlow State Convocation talk on Connections, August 2023. Full, unedited video on youtube (which doesn't show these slides so the slides help)
Americans’ views of what a college education should be tend to prioritize specific, workplace-related skills and knowledge rather than general intellectual development and personal growth. Half of Americans say that the main purpose of college should be to teach specific skills and knowledge that can be used in the workplace, while 35% think its main purpose should be to help students grow and develop personally and intellectually and 13% volunteer that these objectives are equally important.
The majority of people in the US believe workforce-relevant skills and knowledge should be a priority for college education. Regardless of whether faculty intentionally and overtly design learning to focus on these skills and knowledge, I believe that nearly all high quality offering in Higher Education implicitly include skills and knowledge with valuable transfer to the workplace. And Best Practices in digital credential design allow us to notice, name, and formally recognize though our credentials where they show up in our learning opportunities and when learners acquire them.
This survey finds that one-third of Americans who lack a four-year college degree report that they have declined to apply for a job they felt they were qualified for, because that job required a bachelor’s degree.
They may have the skills required but lack the proxy for those skills
At BYU-Pathway Worldwide, this approach has been associated with a 20% increase in student retention (Marcus, 2020). These examples demonstrate the positive impact of earning a certification or certification on persistence, retention and graduation rates for learners in baccalaureate programs.
One study examining short-term credentials embedded in associate degree programs found that these short-term credentials had positive impacts on retention and degree completion
Although there are equity concerns that are essential to consider, the Student Success piece is a compelling element to consider: In addition to supporting learners' needs for acquiring skills and providing them with credentials to communicate about their skills, the possibility of credentials supporting completion and attainment could be a valuable consideration in program design.
SHRM Foundation, in partnership with Walmart, aims to acceleratethe movement to demonstrate the value of nondegree credentialsto identify skills and talents in the workforce. Upon first releasing thisresearch report with the term “alternative credentials,” we discoveredthat the word “alternative” may suggest that employers considercandidates with these credentials as a different, lesser option.We aim to challenge that thinking and declare these credentialsas imperative to the workforce.MAKING SKILLED CREDENTIALS WORK 2
Nondegree vs "alternative"
Such efforts to protect data privacy go beyond the abilities of the technology involved to also encompass the design process. Some Indigenous communities have created codes of use that people must follow to get access to community data. And most tech platforms created by or with an Indigenous community follow that group’s specific data principles. Āhau, for example, adheres to the Te Mana Raraunga principles of Māori data sovereignty. These include giving Māori communities authority over their information and acknowledging the relationships they have with it; recognizing the obligations that come with managing data; ensuring information is used for the collective benefit of communities; practicing reciprocity in terms of respect and consent; and exercising guardianship when accessing and using data. Meanwhile Our Data Indigenous is committed to the First Nations principles of ownership, control, access and possession (OCAP). “First Nations communities are setting their own agenda in terms of what kinds of information they want to collect,” especially around health and well-being, economic development, and cultural and language revitalization, among others, Lorenz says. “Even when giving surveys, they’re practicing and honoring local protocols of community interaction.”
Colonized groups such as these indigenous people have urgency to avoid colonization of their data and are doing something about it
“Onde habilidades como criatividade, empatia e resiliência estão mencionadas no currículo do aluno?”, questiona Noah Geisel, professor e gerente do Programa de Microcredenciais da Universidade do Colorado Boulder, no primeiro painel do evento virtual ‘O admirável futuro da educação superior’, promovido pelo Semesp, que acontecerá até sexta-feira, dia 28.
This six-part series tells the ACD story of exploration, innovation, and learning
6 part playbook from Alamo
approaches to align data analytics microcredentials with undergraduate experiences;
embedded MCs
WCET
Report from 2022 WCET workshop
Northeastern University for its new primer on microcredentials written specifically for higher-ed leaders
colleges will also have to invest in a major effort to “convince graduates that part of paying it forward is to respond to surveys aimed at determining what worked for them.”
whether microcredentials have been validated or endorsed by a trusted third party; whether they include an experiential or work-based component; and/or whether they map to in-demand skills in a given industry. As I see it, if that’s what employers will be looking for from microcredentials, that’s probably what colleges ought to be putting into them
How to balance HE mission with employer practices? Can we hold that both "our role is to enlighten minds" and "our credentials are meaningfully aligned with employer-speak to help position our learners as job seekers" are valid and complimentary? Or does the latter undermine the former?
check out the companion primer for human-resources or talent officials, which provides advice for evaluating the microcredentials that job applicants might present
link to Northeastern report
microcredentials need not be an alternative to college, but rather as a way to introduce or augment existing academic programs
Degrees are NOT dead. This will very possibly increase the value of degrees.
gauge the value of the microcredentials they offer, a step I suspect many have not yet been brave enough to take. That calls for tracking how often learners claim their awarded microcredential and share it to a professional networking site like LinkedIn, and for collecting feedback on why they did or didn’t. Another suggestion from the primer: track the number of microcredential learners who go on to enroll in a degree program
Interesting data to collect. Relates to the Equity report from Credential Engine: https://credentialengine.org/credential-transparency/equity/
Approximately one-third of employers consider badges during the application process and there are several reasons why.
On the job seeker side: “LinkedIn reports that more than 44% of users added certificates to their profiles in the last two years.”
And on the hiring side, two of the reasons offered for why 1/3 of employers consider digital credentials during the application process: “First, many employers are more interested in the skills job candidates have acquired rather than the coursework they have completed.
Second, considering badges during the interview process allows organizations to assess candidates from a wider range of backgrounds, not just those who have earned a traditional bachelor’s degree. Emphasizing the value of skills and broadening the types of credentials that are accepted (including badges) can help organizations build more inclusive workplaces.”
Makes the case for why trusted skills assertions can be the future of better connecting talented humans with opportunities they deserve
SHRM research
Digital Micro-Credential Efficacy and Impact on Learner Confidence
to publish clear, reliable,and verifiable data
This is a competitive for Higher Ed. Reliable and verifiable data that consumers trust.
The full value of credentials (e.g., labor market value,interest alignment, range of occupations to which thecredential can lead, stackability and transfer options, etc.
Value is not solely about $
As data practices become intentionally anchored in equity,there must be a willingness to hold entities accountableto make adjustments if data trends show consistentshortcomings and unintended consequences. Equitabledata practices cannot be maintained without clear guidingprinciples and the identification of critical data points.Such principles allow for appropriate and effective use ofthese data to support students’ discovery and successfulnavigation of pathways and transfer to achieve optimal andequitable outcomes.
Equitable data practices are about humans achieving optimal and equitable outcomes.
TRANSFER AND CREDIT MOBILITY
Learner mobility depends on learning record mobility.
SECURE, DIGITALSTUDENT RECORDS
Access to student records is an equity issue. It's now been said. Out loud. Regardless of how essential that revenue is, maintaining barriers to accessing student records amounts to institutional efforts to perpetuate inequities.
EARNINGS INFORMATION
There is a difference between reporting on earnings information and using earning information to declare credential quality.
SUPPORTS
Including student support data in transparent credential metadata. Wow.
Finally, those entities purchasing and using such tools,services, platforms and resources, such as schools,education systems and districts, city, county and stateagencies, colleges and universities, workforce boards,and community-based organizations, should include thefollowing principles as requirements or considerations intheir procurement, evaluation, and reevaluation processes
including equity in high stakes decisions makes equity high stakes.
We now have the capacity to ensurethat all possible pathways – andthe essential information about allthe providers, credentials, skills,assessments, quality indicators,outcome measures, transfer values,and links to job skills critical tounderstanding and building thosepathways – can be made fully open,transparent and interoperable sothat a new generation of tools tocustom pathways to meet everyone’sindividual need
There is a lot in this little paragraph, and a big point to not miss is the call out of "individual need." There will be dashboards and other tools that purport to serve learners/earners with comprehensive data about the possible pathways that are open to their successful futures. A harmful that we can anticipate many falling into however, will be generalized data that fails to leverage "nearest neighbor" practices that provide users with data based on the outcomes experienced by people with shared characteristics to their own. For example, if a specific pathway has great outcomes that are disproportionately enjoyed by White males under 45 who already work in that industry, then the generalized data may be misleading to a career-changing Black woman in her early 60s who is investigating the next steps in her journey..
Structural belonging refers to institutional conditions, policies, practices, and cultural norms that demonstrate that one is accepted, supported, respected, valued by, and important to a community. Fostering structural belonging, thus, requires dismantling and transforming inequitable institutional structures that devalue, dehumanize, disrespect and “other” minoritized students, especially those who are multiply marginalized.
A welcome sign does not = belonging. At an institutional level, there is a responsibility to demonstrate the conditions necessary for people to trust that ours is a safe place to seek belonging.
Thus, equity-minded campus leaders should make assertive efforts to center the voices and experiential knowledge of REM students in their assessment and transformation of institutional structures, policies, practices, and processes.
Colleagues from non-majority backgrounds will bring background knowledge, experiences and insights to structures, policies, and practices that people like me never could.
However, the graduation certificate is still paper-based and does not fit employers’ digitized recruitment processes. Digitizing the graduation certificate is overdue to align with the digitized processes of employers and universities. However, there is only a few research on that issue. This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature analysis. Therefore, we investigated 147 articles in the context of research on digital credentials.
Consumption issue: the outgoing recognition is valued by the sender but not in a format that is appreciated by the receiver. The problem with putting highlights on a laser discs is that it requires someone to have a laser disc player.
Market Scan: Skills Validation Methods doc by Education Design Lab and XCredit Skills Validation Network
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report documents an increase in learners with college credits but no credential and finds they are returning to college at lower rates than in the past.
Highlights the importance of Learner Mobility
Talent Playbook
Unified Credential Framework
WGU Framework
It is also important to note that this positive evidence for low-income certificate-earners stands in con-trast to findings for other historically underserved groups; studies indicate that individuals of color and older individuals go on to stack credentials at lower rates and see smaller earnings gains relative to White individuals and younger individuals (Bohn and McConville, 2018; Bohn, Jackson and McConville, 2019; Daugherty et al., 2020; Daugherty and Anderson, 2021). Although we suspect many low-income individuals are also individuals of color, the findings suggest that there are inequities within stackable credential pipelines that might be more strongly tied to race, ethnicity, and age than to socioeconomic status. It is also possible that many low-income individuals never complete a first certificate and thus do not enter a stackable credential pathway
Important note on Equity: The positive findings for credential-stacking among low-income individuals stand in contrast to findings for other historically underserved populations, such as older learners and individuals of color, which show some evidence indicating lower rates of stacking and lower returns from stacking relative to younger individuals and White individuals.
Criteria
Specific earning criteria offers transparency.
Complete Solo Teaching Requirement / Final which requires 10 hours of classes as solo instructor.
"Complete" speaks to measurables that may not be transparently aligned with the competencies. This criteria statement however does specify that the completion means the earner has done 10 hours of solo instruction. That's helpful. Even better would be if those 10 solo classes were supported with assessment beyond just showing up. The alignment to external standards is also a model example.
Proposed effective human resources initiatives based on workforce analytic
Solid earning criteria. Linking to rubric or something measurable would be even better.
Defining the LER
Once the awarding and registration systems are in place, institutions should also integrate with a modern CRM solution to attract and manage student interest, support, and personalized communications to increase enrollment and engagement. The CRM needs to support career services and other experiential learning departments as the school looks to build outside relationships with organizations and industry partners to provide real-world learning experiences and assessment opportunities for students
CRM focus that goes beyond the academic unit to include others. Also think about Alumni Affairs, Foundation, and lifelong learning.
How are you going to maintain quality? Who will teach the program? Who will oversee it? How will you assess the success?
Assessment questions
And micro degrees or certificates give quick recognition of learning and skills achieved that are sometimes lacking in more traditional programs
Not just the content. Also the narrative. Recognition is huge.
Interoperable LERs support learners’mobility by functioning in local, regional,state, national, and global talentmarketplaces
MOBILITY
Interoperability: The ability of systems to worktogether, exchange, and make use of informationfrom other systems. In education, interoperability isthe ability of a system to exchange education andworkforce information with and use information fromother systems without special effort on the part of theuser. This means all individuals, including learners andemployers, have appropriate access to educationand workforce information, allowing them to makeinformed decisions in the workplace
Interoperability is rooted in access and equity
learners will seek to use their data to interact withemployment and education systems, including career navigation and job searches,that will allow them to continue to build skills and a career
This is a huge concept to strive to embed in the narrative: a major reason WHY this is the right thing to do is that we can help implement systems that allow formal recognition of people's assets to function as tools that empower people in way that allow them increased agency in accessing their successful futures and economic mobility.
LERs are reshaping not only what is recorded about alearner’s knowledge, skills, and capabilities, but also how learners can access and usetheir data to pursue employment and further education without barriers.
Learners using accessing and using their data is the revolutionary piece here.
“Our relationship with Community College of Aurora exemplifies the best in finding workforce solutions. Together we dug into the details to develop curriculum and training experiences that prepare students to meet the requirements for specific job responsibilities in behavioral health.”
co-design with the employers who will consume credentials
microcredentials create more affordable academic options that lead to economic mobility and high returns on investment for students