Stephanie Bailey, Nan Travers, and Melissa Goldberg at the Colorado Department of Higher Education Spring 2023 Faculty2Faculty Conference.
Incremental Credentialing Across the Country
Postsecondary faculty and administrators from across Colorado met for a full day to discuss higher education and workforce development innovations at the Spring 2023 Faculty2Faculty Conference sponsored by the Colorado Department of Higher Education. Keynote speakers Nan Travers and Melissa Goldberg provided information about the Credential As You Go initiative, including developments for the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library.
The more than 125 participants shared progress on implementation of stackable credential pathways in behavioral health, cybersecurity, computer programming, education, and healthcare. They also discussed innovations occurring at their institutions and addressed challenges as they work to better meet learners/earners where they are on their career and college trajectories.
If you know of a conference where incremental credentialing should appear or be part of the conversation, please reach out toinfo@credentialasyougo.org.
Credential As You Go Network
The Credential As You Go Network now extends to 22 states, 52 institutions/organizations, and over 300 individual participants.
The Network is hosting Affinity Group one-hour virtual conferences every other month on topics related to Credential As You Go.
Topics presented to date:
• Using the Incremental Credentialing Framework • Embedding Industry and Other Credentials into Academic Programs • Policies Supporting Incremental Credentials • Integrating Credit for Prior Learning
The Network has its own website portal, newsletter, and Credential As You Go team members to assist with the work. For specific Network questions, please contact Ashley Frank.
Credential As You Go Playbooks
Credential As You Go has recently released five new "playbooks" for use as “how-to” guides to support the many components of developing an incremental credentialing system:
Each playbook includes a purpose statement; template(s), questions, and/or checklists to guide developments; and case studies/examples. In addition, playbooks contain related resources such as the Credential As You Go Dictionary, video recordings from Credential As You Go webinars, the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, and resources others have recommended for this topic.
These playbooks are living documents. As more incremental credentials are designed, tested, and implemented, the playbooks will be updated and reflect lessons learned, case studies, and new tools created by stakeholders. Additional playbooks are coming soon!
The Board also discussed the rapidly changing technology world impacting the searching of information, such as AI and ChatGPT. The Library will offer unique resources that AI tools can pull from, regardless of the many scenarios which evolve over the next few years. Special thanks to the Credential As You Go National Advisory Board members who also serve on the Library Advisory Board.
Please check out the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, review the website, add content, and suggest changes to keep the Library accurate and updated!
For additional questions regarding the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, please contact Holly Zanville or Lucia Weathers.
My North Star has long been the vision of inclusive recognition of lifewide learning for lifelong development. I first got excited about ePortfolios in 2003 —my honeymoon actually was at the 2004 version of ePIC (ePortfolio and Identity Conference)! In 2011, I got excited about digital badges and made sure that Mozilla Open Badges came to ePIC 2012 as a more accessible incremental form of ePortfolio, controlled by empowered learners, built from digital badges, and recognizing learning, skills and achievements that could be formal, nonformal, and even informal.
I wear three hats now: advocate for more open forms of recognition of lifelong learning that go beyond course certificates; provide consulting services for digital credential projects based on Open Badges for clients in Canada, the US, and overseas; and my company is the service provider for CanCred.ca, a leading Canadian digital badge and micro-credential platform.
I feel a bit like an outlier in the Credential As You Go community, as someone living in Canada who does a lot of international work, not just in higher education but across several sectors. For example, while I think that different types of stacking at the graduate level and for industry can be great and love hearing about such developments, I'm still doubtful about many visions I've heard about stacking micro-credentials toward undergraduate degrees, like so many Lego pieces. It's an access story for adult learners but I worry that a lot of the rhetoric for stacking is driven more by institutional desire than learner or employer demand. Most examples I've seen of stacking toward degrees could be described as program articulation. I know my own degree has helped me in my life, and it was earned in a learning journey across three institutions, leaving several orphaned incremental credits in my wake! I love the multiple perspectives of the Incremental Credentialing Framework, and particularly how external and prior learning are displayed front and centre. We need to push harder to see more examples of "Retro As You Go" and even "Claim As You Go" ways to sustainably recognize work-integrated and other forms of life-wide learning, to go beyond the box of pre-imagined "badges for courses," if we want to truly empower lifelong learners.
One of my most influential and rewarding work experiences was helping build an alternative bachelor’s degree option, where students could design and individualize a degree to meet their career goals. This degree option met them where they were and aimed at not leaving any learning behind— to best use their background and accumulated credit hours (often averaging over 100 hours of completed work but no degree option in sight). We worked primarily with adult transfer students who had accumulated many hours across different institutions and degree programs, had military affiliation, and were returning to higher education after stopping out for many years. This flexible option was heavy on academic and career advising.
This opened my eyes to the journey so many of our students experience—life getting in the way (ability to afford college and financial hardships, family changes from new baby to taking care of elderly family member); changes in career opportunities (upskilling and reskilling because advancement requires a degree or the employment landscape changes); and the military-affiliated students and their families (service men and women and their spouses moving across the country and overseas) often accumulating many courses and certifications but no degree. We worked with these students in a holistic manner, understanding their academic journey and career goals, to make connections to a career path and create an individualized bachelor’s degree program. Since the beginning of the program in 2014, more than 2,000 people have earned their Bachelor of Science in University Studies (BS-US) from East Carolina University and have continued on to career advancement and brighter economic future. I feel lucky to have been a small part of their journey.
My career has enabled me to work in the community college, university, and system levels in North Carolina — and see change is happening! While sometimes it can feel at a snail’s pace, there is a major shift towards encouraging learning beyond traditional degrees. As the State Coordinator for both North Carolina and Colorado in Credential As You Go, I get to meet the passionate, dedicated individuals who want to support learners and create the processes to make it happen for our students. I‘m proud to be part of the process.
Digital Badge Academy Podcast
Catch up on one of the biggest trends in #digitalcredentials, by listening to Digital Badge Academy's podcast with Holly Zanville who joined to tell listeners what "Credential As You Go" is and how they can start to benefit right away from its implementation in the Digital Badge Academy Podcast. #CAYG #incremental #credentialing #openbadges #digitalbadges
June 1: REACH Conference, Colorado
June 7: New Jersey Council of County College’s Workforce Consortium, Atlantic City, New Jersey
June 9-10: Council of Graduate Schools, Washington, D.C.
