Reflections from the Digital Credentials Summit – March 2024, New Orleans

I was delighted to have the opportunity to join hundreds of colleagues from around the globe at the recent 1EdTech Digital Credentials Summit in New Orleans.? As both the technology and marketplace for microcedentials and digital credentials mature, the focus is shifting; for providers, how to scale and automate and for learners how they can have agency over all their digital credentials to curate and share their own stories as required.? ??Consumption ecosystems such as HR and talent systems are also maturing, accelerated by AI.

Rather than narrowing the definition or attributes, new frameworks allow for many different types of digital credentials that can accrue over a lifetime of learning, earning and living.? Whilst many universities have focused on taught and assessed microcredentials, many of the case studies also looked at how credentials might be used to make the existing curriculum more transparent.? Especially around skills and capabilities earnt whilst studying for macro qualifications – making the hidden curriculum explicit.?

The connection between microcredentials and skills and the potential of short form learning to address skills shortages and develop the workforce of the future continues to strengthen, along with the need for education institutions to partner with industry to deliver relevant and effective programs and also to work across education levels.? In Australia this would require greater collaboration between Universities and the VET sector, keeping in mind that VET have been doing short courses for decades.

The many sessions from K-12, higher education, EdTech, government and industry provided a wealth of information and case studies, however there were a few interesting themes that were persistent throughout the various conversations and presentations:

• Learning records and learner agency
• Durable skills
• Opportunities for AI
• Using EdTech to scale

Learning records and learner agency

Comprehensive Learning Records (CLR’s) and Learning Employment Records (LERs) were hot topics especially in the richness of evidence that could be provided. Whilst in some contexts they seemed to be used interchangeably, a CLR was usually a record incorporating learning experiences, whilst the LER usually spanned more than just learning and collated different types of evidence.?? In 1EdTech Open Standards a CLR is defined as a “longitudinal record of achievements and milestones”, and a LER is a digital record of learning and work.? However what was consistent was the critical need for learner agency and learner mobility.? Learners need to be able to collate and display their credentials as required and presentation metadata will need to be included in digital credentials to allow learners to grant permission for relevant information to be surfaced as either human or machine readable.?

In learning records, the concept of Provisional Evidence Records (PER) as a variant of a CLR, ?was particularly fascinating (case studies were presented by Edalex and BCDiploma) as these solve one of the problems for how we combat proliferation of credentials that are issued over time.?? When we have a program, for example a career readiness program for undergraduates where they earn badges over their degree, a PER can group them together to show progress and allow learners to share their PER at any point in time with links that automatically reference their up to date progress and the learner has one record rather than lots of little badges that don’t explain the bigger picture.?

Durable skills

Interesting to see the language pivot from soft or transferrable skills to durable skills with the simplest definition being skills that will endure and that are not easily replaced by technology or AI.? The usual suspects are all present, such as teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving etc. ?However what was interesting was that where soft skills are contrasted with hard skills, the shift to durable allowed contrast to ‘perishable’ skills.? ?Perishable skills are in demand are are needed, but are short-lived and often quickly superseded. Microcredentials can play a role in evidencing durable skills that are built up over a career and providing upskilling or reskilling in perishable skills eliminating ‘wasted’ learning by providing just in time short courses. Good to keep in mind when developing content as learning for perishable skills needs to be developed quickly in response to emerging need.

Opportunities for AI

AI was mentioned in nearly every panel session and there is no doubt we are just starting to see the impact that AI will have on both learning and work.? So I just want to call out one particular use case that could help institutions fast track some of their efforts around embedding digital credentials into their existing curriculum.? Mapping skills in existing curriculum is time intensive and often deprioritised, in January 2024, EvoLLLution, CAEL and Modern Campus found that whilst 86% of higher education institutions acknowledge that postsecondary education needs to be designed around well-defined skills and competencies over half of four-year institutions have no plans to implement CLRs at this time. ?

Availability of academic staff is often the barrier to time intensive curriculum mapping, Anthology and Post University worked together to use Large Language Model tools to mine the huge volumes of existing content to develop drafts for digital badges that learners can use to demonstrate their achievements whilst they are learning.? The drafts are then reviewed and refined but the initial mining of contents takes minutes instead of hours. ?They based their work on the premise that “Any student should be able to leave a program and walk away with tangible, valuable records of learning and insight into their own skills development.? There is gold before the end of the rainbow.”

Using EdTech to scale

Technology across all aspects of credentialing is becoming more available and there is great potential to ease the administrative burden.? Many of the case studies still used spreadsheets and whilst often a necessity, Excel is not the optimal system for digital credentials.? Low hanging fruit can be found in automating manual processes and building integration points across existing systems and there was clear acknowledgement that often the biggest challenge is corralling all the stakeholders, which would indicate the need for more effective change management strategies to wrap around these initiatives.?SmartResume presented their 2024 Digital Credential Ecosystem Report, which whilst it is US centric, it does a great job of outlining the types of organisations and systems that are involved in the life cycle of credentials from issuing to consumption.?

Some general takeaways

“A PDF is not a CLR”, was heard many times across the sessions.? Education institutions need to quickly get much better at giving their students meaningful information about what they have learned and achieved.? Interestingly one of the big benefits of providing more detailed information is that it gives the learners themselves the ability and confidence to talk about the skills they have gained using language relevant to recruiters.?

Digital credentials aren’t just for formal education, they can be utilised across learning, living and earning.? I think back to all the printed certificates that I’ve received for work based learning and not only can’t I find most of them, they are not verifiable and usually only contain the title of the short course – literally not worth the paper they are printed on.?

Continuing proliferation of AI and related systems will require the rapid acquisition of skills that microcredentials can provide in ways that traditional qualifications can’t.

Final thought – we need to start this way of learning and evidencing what we do as early as we can. How great would it be if by the time high school students started thinking about their future careers they understood what durable skills they already have and can use, and how a lifelong learning mindset could open alternative pathways to meaningful employment and enable them to fluidly combine learning and earning.? Whilst traditional academic pathways will still be relevant for some, many others need alternative pathways that are more accessible and equitable.