Best wishes to you and yours this new year! As 2024 begins, we’re happy to share many activities happening at Credential As You Go. We’re grateful for your engagement in the incremental credentialing movement and look forward to working with you in the coming year!
Advisory Board Membership
Welcome to the following new members of the Advisory Board:
Dan Adams, Leader of the Data & Research Team, Advance CTE
Sheryl Grant, Founder and President, New Trust Lab
Chris Mayer, Career Army Officer, Head of the Department of English & Philosophy, United States Military Academy (West Point)
Matthew Valdez, Librarian, Learn & Work Ecosystem Library
Staff Team Changes
Best wishes to Ashley Frank, Jason Render, and Molly Kratzenberg, who left Credential As You Go at the end of December 2023 for exciting new opportunities. Ashley is taking a position as project coordinator in the Provost’s Office at SUNY Empire State University; Jason will be working as a policy associate with Corporation for a Skilled Workforce’s Competencies & Credentials team; and Molly will be working for the Office of Persons With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). Good luck to all— we miss them already!
Summit on Making the Case for Incremental Credentialing in Graduate Education
A virtual summit co-hosted by Credential As You Go and the Council of Graduate Schools will be held on January 18, 2024 from 2 – 3:30 pm ET. This summit will explore how the credential landscape is changing and the ways in which non-degree credentials can serve as pathways into careers and graduate degree programs for learners from diverse backgrounds.
We debuted our first video, Transforming the Nation's Credentialing System at the 2023 Network Conference. This is an open-source resource! We encourage you to share it across your networks.
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). These incremental credentials represent all six approaches of the Incremental Credentialing Framework with the largest group 47% representing the "Stack As You Go" approach and the smallest representing "Retro As You." Among the credentials, 62% are launched, 46% are credit-bearing, 38% are noncredit and 13% are a combination. These are built across disciplines with the largest number in information technology (IT), followed by business, then health care.
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.
With support from Walmart, developed the Credential As You Go Network comprised of both the Walmart-funded 2023 cohort and IES-funded 2022 cohort. Through the Network, members gained new content, networked, and learned from playbooks, case studies, the website and professional development activities including large and small group meetings, a Network Conference, and one-on-one discussions with the Credential As You Go team. A password-protected Network page on the Credential As You Go website allows members to create profiles, search for colleagues, and upload and access resources (to date, over 2,000 downloads).
Network activities have been driven by its membership. We solicited input and feedback through surveys, polls, email exchanges, and nearly 200 hours of one-on-one discussions.
Produced and published 9 playbooks on the Credential As You Go website, presented author walkthroughs at Virtual Network meetings, discussed playbooks at Credential As You Go Advisory Board meetings, disseminated these through the Credential As You Go Newsletter and social media, and shared at many national and international conferences. Playbooks have had over 14,000 views by over 6,000 users since published.
One-on-one discussions with Network partners revealed that Playbooks have been used by policymakers, state leadership, college leadership, faculty, student services representatives, registrars, and communications professionals across the Network.
Published 9 blogs, 3 podcasts, and 4 reports with widespread distribution.
Hosted 6 large group meetings via webinar between March - November 2023. Webinars included author walk-throughs of the various playbooks and an open forum for discussing playbook topics, questions and answers with authors and ideas exchange among Network members. Average attendance was 115.
Credential As You Go team presented at some 20 national and international conferences and webinars with such groups as C-BEN, ePIC, CAEL, AACRAO, Non-degree Credential Research Network, 1EdTech, WICHE-WCET System Consortia, Colorado Department of Higher Education, New Jersey Council of County Colleges, Council of Graduate Schools, ACT, AACRAO / UPCEA, Convergence and Institute for Credentialing Excellence.
Hosted Higher Education Quality Assurance Incremental Credentialing, a national summit exploring the ways accrediting bodies are and can support incremental credentialing and discussing what higher education institutions and state systems of higher education are doing to ensure quality and address accreditation requirements.
With Workcred, co-hosted Embedding Industry Certifications in Academic Programs: A Win-Win which featured three panels defining industry certifications, highlighting the benefits of embedding them in academic programs and highlighting examples of real experiences in aligning industry certifications with academic programs.
Hosted a 2-day 2023 Credential As You Go Network Conference on Incremental credentialing: Exploring the Questions which featured the work of Network members.
Recent legislation (Colorado Re-Engaged (CORE) Initiative) enables 4-year institutions to award an earned associate degree to eligible students who have stopped-out from a baccalaureate program after earning at least 70 credit hours. The Colorado Legislature recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic forced many students – particularly those from low-income communities – to stop attending the state’s colleges and universities before attaining a bachelor’s degree. These stop-out students invested a significant amount of time and money to advance their knowledge and skills through higher education, but never received an academic credential to reflect this investment.
The Colorado Department of Higher Education found that about 25,000 students at the following universities were eligible for an immediate associate's degree: Colorado State University; Colorado State University – Pueblo; University of Colorado – Denver; Fort Lewis College; Metropolitan State University of Denver; University of Colorado - Colorado Springs; and University of Northern Colorado.
An example of implementation is the experience of MSU Denver. The campus sent emails to former students notifying them about the opportunity to receive an associate degree, and about scholarship funds available if they wished to return to complete a bachelor’s degree. About 700 people opened the emails (18% open rate), and in one day alone, the university had 130 people reach back asking how they could re-enroll for spring term 2024, 32% do want their associate's degree, and 18% asked for more information about returning to school.
The University of Colorado Denver also recently awarded nearly 70 associate degrees to students who met the requirements of The Board of Regents’ newly approved Associates of General Studies degree programs at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and University of Colorado Denver.
NEW YORK'S WORK AT SUNY ON MICROCREDENTIALING
Well before SUNY joined Credential As You Go, it adopted a system-level microcredential policy (2018), following recommendations from a Microcredentialing Task Force created in 2015 and endorsed by SUNY Trustees. The policy ensures that the rigor and quality of microcredentials match those of every type of credential that SUNY offers. SUNY also established a definition of microcredentials and a taxonomy of related terms to guide the development and implementation of SUNY microcredentials across the 64 campuses. All of SUNY microcredentials are designed to be of quality through academic approval processes, stackable to other credentials and degrees, in-demand and relevant to current and emerging market needs and industry standards, and portable through transcript and/or digital records.
To date, microcredentials have been integrated across every sector of SUNY campuses and award levels – continuing education, undergraduate, and graduate. Currently, 42 campuses offer over 500 microcredentials in 60+ discipline areas in high-demand fields, including: Accounting, finance, and taxation; Supply chain, project management, and business practices in the US; Entrepreneurship, leadership, and marketing; Non-profit, small business, and grant writing; Computer science, data science, and analytics; IT, cybersecurity, networking, cloud, and support; Esports and gaming; Renewable energy, green building, and clean technology.
SUNY has developed a common website to list microcredentials available at all campuses at: Search Microcredentials at SUNY - SUNY. SUNY microcredentials are taught by SUNY faculty and students have access to academic supports and campus resources. Many microcredentials result in a digital badge, which students can put on their resume or a profile (e.g., LinkedIn) to show employers what skills have been achieved.
New efforts underway include a newly developed policy template and recommendations for successful practices such as marketing and website strategies, matriculating students, and data collection. An additional 14 campuses are just beginning and will be using these resources to initiate their work. SUNY will be addressing many challenges to these developments in the coming years and sharing its many lessons learned with the Credential As You Go Network, especially around: (1) data capacity-building, (2) marketing, (3) digitizing records, and (4) technical support to implement microcredentialing fully across all 64 SUNY campuses.
NORTH CAROLINA'S INCREMENTAL CREDENTIAL & POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
Fayetteville Technical Community College created anew policy and protocol system to offer “badges” as well as a dedicated faculty member to oversee the process. This will enable providing guidance, professional development, innovative tool support. and specific help in the design and development of badges. This office will also oversee student enrollment and awarding of badges. The first three badges in development:
Welding Badge
Expert Forklift Operator
Introduction to Cybersecurity and Attacks
Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute is working onaligning programs from continuing education and the workforce space to credit pathways and creating new opportunities for students in:
Criminal Justice AAS With their new associates degree developed, working to create pathways to 4-year institutions and create 2 + 2 partnerships.
Certified Medical Lab Assistant With help from Credential As You Go, a certification to teach this course was made possible and two different pathways became available for students with this course: a direct pipeline to the Medical Lab Tech degree and ability to sit for two national certifications.
Google Credentials The Business College added two Google credentials into existing courses within the AAS in Business Administration degree. Google’ Project Management in the Introduction to Business 110 course and Google Analytics Beginner in the Principals of Marketing course MKT 120 course.
Truck Driver Training New credential options beyond traditional offerings include “Class A HazMat, Standalone Haz Mat and Class B Passenger, Passenger endorsement” to the existing Class A and Class B courses. This is the largest program of its kind in NV. CCCTI continues to grow and be a leader to provide innovative ways to access these skills and licenses.
Substation Technician program addition through CCCTI Energy Institute. Successful students will gain 10 credentials options.
Cardiovascular Sonography Certificate This will be in addition to the existing Sonography program.
Appalachian State University Inthe Bachelor’s degree program is Veterinary Technology, offering microcredentials is allowing flexibility to offer the latest tools as embedded opportunities into the curriculum. The program is one of the first at ASU to offer microcredentials and is continuing to add options for students that are nationally recognized and aligned with industry standards and best practice. “Fear Free Certification” is the first microcredential offered and four new options are in development:
RECOVER Initiative BLS (Basic Life Support)
ALS (Advanced Life Support)
NAVTA Infection Control Leader Certification
CAETA (Companion Animal Euthanasia Training Academy) Certification
The Learn & Work Ecosystem Library
Several new features have recently launched at the Library, a companion initiative to Credential As You Go. The Library aims to make information easier to find, use and maximize for diverse stakeholders working to improve the learn-and-work ecosystem to include state systems of higher education, policymakers, higher education institutions, certification organizations, employers, researchers, and others. Improvements include a redesigned front page, better search capacity, prototyping “relational maps,” expanded Glossary, first-time Index of artifacts, new methodology page and key search tips, and more content. The Library uses a wiki model, with e-forms easily accessible at the website for users to suggest new content and to request edits in current content.
FebruaryMoving from a Degree-Centric Postsecondary System to an Incremental Credentialing System: What Happens to Learners’ Financing Options? Contributing Authors: Becky Klein-Collins, (CAEL); Mary Beth Lakin, (C-PLAN), Minnesota State Colleges and Universities; Julie Peller, (HLA); Cynthia Proctor, (SUNY); Dustin Weeden, (SHEEO); Sarah Wilson-Sparrow, SUNY Schenectady County Community College; Holly Zanville, George Washington University, Credential As You Go, Learn & Work Ecosystem Library (Credential As You Go report)
March 4Credential Innovation in Learn & Work Ecosystem (Zanville & Travers) at Digital Credentials Summit 2024 in New Orleans. The conference session will present the journeys of two related national initiatives, Credential As You Go and the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, focusing on lessons learned and milestones ahead.
March 8 Colorado is hosting its Fac2Fac Spring 2024 Convening on Colorado Credential As You Go and Stackable Credential Pathways Initiative. Colorado CAYG institution teams will present project summaries and next steps to move the work forward.