“Digital credentials” has come to be a bit of an umbrella term encompassing everything from badges to competency-based education to comprehensive learner records, and conversations on the topic can grow to include not just new ways to articulate learning but corollary topics such as education-to-workforce and supporting technologies like blockchain, verifiable credentials, and self-sovereign ID.
The vigor and scope of the discussion reflects the fundamental nature of the level of impact that digital credentials could have on the education sector. This is not only a new modality of learning, but reflective of an increasingly new way of thinking about the value proposition and ownership of learning outcomes. As concerns grow among both employers and students about the practical value of the traditional transcript, beyond serving as a marker of completion, it may even be seen as part of a wider and more challenging conversation. As one sociologist recently put it, “The skills/competencies discussion represents an erosion of trust in Higher Education. Employers no longer trust Higher Education to produce the skilled workforce they need.” At the very least, it would seem to represent a dissatisfaction with the way that education represents the skills and knowledge acquired in completion of a degree or other learning endpoint. In addition, it speaks to the increasing need for learning data to be mobile and longitudinal across education domains, from P20 into employment and workforce education.
The IMS Digital Credentials Summit has grown to join the top tier of conferences focused on next generation learning articulation and the intersection of education and employment. This reflects what Unicon is seeing in the industry with an increase of focus towards microcredentials, the use of badging, the application of competencies to concepts of learning outcomes, and bringing it all together in the use of comprehensive learning records (CLRs) and other learning and employment record (LER) structures.
Unicon has directly experienced a steady growth in demand for expertise throughout all of these areas, so we’re looking forward to the upcoming 2022 Summit, to be held February 28-March 2, where some of the top thinkers and practitioners in the field will be gathered in Atlanta to review the current state of the art, and lay the groundwork for the work going forward. As I start to think ahead to it, I’m particularly excited about several sessions:
If you’re going to be at the IMS Digital Credentials Summit, track me down and let’s talk! I look forward to sharing what I learn when I get back!