Digital credentials provide learners with the ability to not only compile their experiences and expertise into a single wallet or comprehensive learner record but also provide opportunities to easily share and transfer that information to others, including potential employers, schools or another institution. In its simplest form, digital credentials serve as a transcript but with the metadata to validate and showcase the true impact and value of the credential.
Making Competencies Visible
When a student transfers between a school or goes to apply for a job, the only real documentation that they may be able to share is their report card or a transcript. That doesn’t really show what a student knows, just that they passed (or did not pass) a class. Digital credentials provide learners with the ability to showcase their competencies beyond a traditional report card or transcript through verifiable means. It’s one thing to say that a student achieved an A+ in algebra, but what does that actually mean?
With a digital credential, it can show that the student is competent to recognize and use the structure of an expression to identify ways to rewrite it or use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (inter-quartile range, sample standard deviation) of two or more different data sets. It is much more significant for an employer or new school to know that a student can analyze and interpret data in order to make it more meaningful. It’s a transferable skill, compared to an unknown entity on a report card or transcript. This enables the learner to make their competency visible in a way that was a futuristic dream but is in fact a reality today.
Working with Colleagues to Make the Future Available Today
As much as I would love to say that I had this genius idea about launching digital credentials, that would not be true. Having thought partners and colleagues at all stages of the implementation process is invaluable. Meeting virtually or discussing via digital forum achieves multiple goals with very little lift. In developing cohorts for other projects, a cohort can do the following:
- Provide thought partnership: Working in isolation or feeling like you’re the only one addressing a challenge is exhausting. Trust me, managing the largest domain in the United States, it often feels like no one gets it. With a solid thought partnership, a complex challenge can often be re-thought to be manageable and reasonable
- Share best practices: Why reinvent the wheel? If something works, why not use what exists and build upon it rather than trying to rediscover 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom merge with a covalent bond to make H20 or water? Knowing what has worked and what does work can be a great framework and provides an opportunity to use what already exists (with permission of course).
- Identify common trends: When working with others, common feature requests or workarounds are more readily identified. When using a tool, seeing what the challenges are not only provide you with validation but can also be beneficial to figure out how to move forward.
- Advocate for change: A primary job responsibility I have is to be a positive agent for change. If multiple customers or clients are having a similar issue, it is easier to narrow down user error or something bigger. If something bigger, having multiple stakeholders advocate for positive change only amplifies your voice and that of your team.
Connection to College and Career
Digital credentials provide college and career evaluators with concrete, tangible and verifiable evidence that a learner possesses a specific competency. This is a substantial contrast to solely seeing course information or taking a learner’s word for it. The verifiable nature of digital credentials make them much more impactful. Alongside Open Badges 3.0 and CLR Standard 2.0 from 1EdTech, the metadata available within digital credentials make it easy for a learner to not only earn but also share and showcase their competencies with anyone from any device. Although we have the infinite knowledge of the internet available at our fingertips, having access to official documentation requires a complex workflow. With digital credentials, an individual can access and share at a moment’s notice without seeking approval.
Summary
Digital credentials were once the future of learning pathways and an educational journey. Now, they are here and waiting to be leveraged more extensively within a K-12 space. Need more of a reason to implement them within your K-12 district? Consider the visibility of a verified learner competency, available at an instant and ready to share. The future of digital education is available today and waiting for you.
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