Credential As You Go launched its Learning Network on March 9, 2023. The Learning Network is comprised of both 2022 and 2023 cohort members, including state systems of higher education, public and private colleges and universities and other credential providers who are working to build and implement incremental credentials.
The purpose of the network is to facilitate peer-to-peer networking through a shared online space, resource sharing, affinity group meetings, and large group forums and discussions. During the launch meeting, the first four affinity group topics were announced: 1. Using the incremental credential framework;
2. Embedding industry and other credentials into academic programs;
3. Policies supporting incremental credentials; and
4. Integrating credit for prior learning
Our first large group meeting took place on March 23, during which the first two playbooks were introduced:
Credential As You Go is proud of the work several Board and Staff members put forth at the 1EdTech Digital Credentials Summit in Dallas, Texas.
Jim Daniels, David Leaser, Sean Gallagher, Kyle Albert, Holly Zanville, Holly Ann Custard, and Naomi Boyer joined the Summit as speakers.
February Summit: Accreditation
This Credential As You Go Summit on February 1 explored accreditation and quality assurance issues arising in incremental credentialing. A panel represented institutional accreditation, specialized accreditation, and state systems of higher education and institutions participating in key incremental credentialing efforts.
The discussion focused on ways accrediting bodies support incremental credentials, and what institutions and state systems of higher education are doing to ensure quality and address accreditation requirements in incremental credentialing.
The Research Team has started collecting data on 73 credentials (more than our targeted number of 60) developed to date through the IES grant.
Of the 73 credentials:
33 are launched and have learner enrollments. The remaining are targeted to launch for the fall 2023 semester
43 are credit-bearing, 22 are noncredit, and 6 are a combination of credit and noncredit
For credit credentials, the most common range is 10-12 credits within the first two years of undergraduate studies
The titling of these credentials (e.g., microcredential, badge, certificate, degree) varies, with microcredential the most common (41%)
Most credentials use more than one of the six approaches of the Incremental Credentialing Framework. The following percentages were identified across the credentials (most credentials fall within more than one approach):
Institutions are using a variety of strategies to design their incremental credentials. Currently, eight strategies have been identified.
Types of Common Credentialing Pathways
Make up a full degree (credit-based)
Are developed to fit into parts of the degree (credit-based)
Provide specializations for a degree (credit-based)
Provide different tracks to a degree (credit-based)
Are awarded based on courses already completed (credit-based)
Embed credit for prior learning (noncredit or credit-based)
Are focused on employment (usually noncredit based)
Articulate noncredit to credit learning
The Learn & Work Ecosystem Library
The Learn & Work Ecosystem Library's goal is to make the learn-and-work ecosystem information easier to find, use, and maximize for diverse stakeholders.
The Library is growing in use and content development. On December 2, 2022, there were 668 distinct tracked users; and on March 15, 2023, there were 2,328 distinct tracked users, 3,974 sessions, 10,676 page views, and 38 downloads.
There have been 23 new content/wiki request forms submitted and 10 correction request forms. A Glossary of Terms was created and additional improvements for the search capacity are underway.
It's long been clear to me that people's life experiences evolve in ways that are unique to their circumstances, interests, and other things that motivate them. The assumption that everyone should follow the same traditional learning path is just not realistic. We pursue different paths, learn from them, change our minds based on what we are learning, and so on. As we become adults, we are so different from our younger selves, and we continue to evolve and change with every year. And the world of work is changing even faster! So it's critical that everyone has the option to learn new skills and pursue different career paths at every stage of their lives.
About a year ago, Jeff Grann of Credential Engine and I wrote a blog series on Credential Transparency that discusses "bigger-picture thinking about the need for greater transparency about what students know and can do as they traverse the on-and off-ramps between education and work." One of the themes in these blogs was how important it was for postsecondary systems to be a key player in the movement toward this new way of treating learning and skills. Three things in particular stand out for postsecondary institutions to be working on in order to stay in the game:
Finding a common competency language that aligns with employer language around skills
Developing valid, competency-based assessments of formal, informal, and experiential learning
Creating a credential transparency strategy for managing data, tools, and staffing
CAEL has been leading a lot of work to help institutions and systems with some of the needed translation of skills and knowledge -- through credit for prior learning programs, building credit crosswalks between industry credentials and postsecondary ones, creating new tools and processes for making those crosswalks more transparent, and advocating for new kinds of incremental credentials. We are also helping institutions and systems build incremental credentialing pathways - for example, through our Advancing Delta Talent initiative in the Mississippi River Delta Region.
Institutions and organizations are clearly taking many important steps towards a new kind of model where the bachelor's degree is not the only route to a rewarding career pathway, family-sustaining wages, or economic mobility more generally. I think that existing efforts -- like Credentials As You Go -- are making great progress in helping to expand awareness of and access to more of these kinds of pathways. I do think that in the U.S. we have some unique challenges due to how decentralized our system of education is. That makes it harder to establish any kind of universal standards -- whether for competency definitions, course outcomes, or specific degrees or credentials. But ultimately, technology-based solutions are likely to help us evolve to a new reality, perhaps sooner than we might even be able to predict right now.
Three jobs have especially shaped my view about the importance of quality credentials. At the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, I learned how important access to higher education is. My job was connecting people living in communities surrounding the World Trade Center, area airports, and the seaport to jobs at those facilities. Job seekers needed to demonstrate they had the skills to perform on the job —yet so often people without any sort of credential lacked the proof to show employers they were right for the position. Later I ran community college customized training programs for employers and witnessed how those programs made the difference for employees who would have been stuck in dead-end jobs without those credentials. And when I worked to help launch competency-based degree programs, I watched working adults who thought they “were not college material” experience academic success which led to greater career opportunities.
I envision a higher education system that is grounded in the delivery of quality credentials—recognized by industry; providing the skills leading to career opportunities; and affordable, portable and stackable. Such a system would be competency-based. It would credential learning regardless of how that learning takes place. It would be built upon relevant assessments so that credit can be awarded for nontraditional programs, and allow for multiple entry- and exit points so learners can continue their learning and credentialing journey.
I believe such a system is achievable. Driven by declining enrollments, demand for incremental credentials by learners, and employers increasingly willing to recognize credentials outside of traditional degrees, credential providers are experimenting with and creating promising models of incremental credentials. Now is the time to measure what works, share learnings, and bring an incremental credentialing system to scale.
Don’t miss the latest 3-part blog series in The evoLLLution: a Modern Campus illumination after the last Credential As You Go Summit on accreditation.
