Higher education has been slow to respond to the increasing demand for digital credentials—specifically skills-focused microcredentials and badges. If the industry can speed up the adoption of systems for learners to display their learning achievements and job skills, it could help to reinforce sagging public belief in the relevance of college and a formal education.
That’s the founding premise of a recently formed coalition of national college associations, including the campus registrars’ group, the American Council of Education, and the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Their goal is to accelerate the use of learning and employment records (LERs) and digital wallets.
Mike Simmons is associate executive director of strategic partnerships and business development for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. He spoke with Work Shift about why the groups are wading into LERs, and what the Walmart-funded Accelerator project is hoping to accomplish. (The coalition includes: AACC, AACRAO, AAC&U, ACE, AIR, C-BEN, DCC, Educause, NACADA, NACE, UPCEA, and 1EdTech.)
While he doesn’t speak on behalf of all of the 12 groups, Simmons says the project’s leaders agree that LERs could be an opportunity to change the narrative around higher education. The lightly edited exchange follows below.
Q: Do you feel that higher ed has been somewhat left out of conversations around LERs and digital wallets?
of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
A: Yes and no. It largely depends upon location and institution. I think the keyword is somewhat. I can’t provide a great example where higher education is left completely out of the conversation. For as many times as higher education is invited very late to a conversation, there are examples where higher education is first in the conversation. So, yes, of course there are times when higher education could be at the table earlier, but the focus of our Accelerator work is about encouraging and empowering education institutions to actively participate, regardless of whether they’re in at the beginning or the end of a conversation.
Some would argue that employers (or even learners) have been somewhat left out of the conversation around LERs. Sometimes when higher education actually gets out front and develops innovative credentials, there may be the opposite problem. Who is invited to that conversation? Are employers and other stakeholders included?
My personal viewpoint is to never worry much about employers and institutions because somehow at the end of the day, they generally get included. I do worry about the learner’s potential voice in this mix, but that’s an entirely different topic for another day.
Q: How does this project seek to increase coordination around credentialing and learner records at the institutional level?
A: We know there are disconnected LER-related initiatives across the spectrum of higher education institutions. What we also know is they are usually confined to a single department, unit, degree program. In other words, the silo. And each implementation is different. The continuing professional education group leads some, others are an IT initiative, or through the career center, or in a specific degree or academic unit.
You see the point. A wide range of stakeholders on campus can be involved. That’s the first part. Next is the disconnect between and among those stakeholders—most often from a lack of information or knowledge instead of willful failure to collaborate. As such, LER work is constrained and doesn’t scale within institutions, much less spreading across them. Of course there are exceptions, but we believe LER adoption can be accelerated.
The Accelerator premise is that each of the likely campus stakeholders is represented by a professional association (e.g. AACRAO for registrars and enrollment professionals). By coming together at a national level to discuss and address the collaboration opportunities, we can then provide our respective members and other stakeholders with resources while modeling the type of collaboration that can occur at institutions.
Q: Is state policy a factor in this work?
A: Absolutely. We are a nation of state and local education systems. One component of this work is to accelerate higher education’s participation in state projects and conversations. In states where there are broad initiatives, this is happening. In some states it’s happening in full coordination with higher education, and in others it’s happening despite higher education. I will not name names here, but where there is an integrated statewide credential initiative, there are good opportunities for our group to make some progress. An important part of this work is identifying scenarios and situations where education is struggling with LERs, and a part of that is finding places where it’s succeeding.
I suspect we’re going to see some of the state level efforts as examples from which we can draw. I can use the state I live in as an example. In Alabama, every citizen now has access to a digital wallet through the Alabama Talent Triad. But we all know that simply having access to a digital wallet is only one part of the equation. A learner’s experiences, formal and informal, that can fill the digital wallet seem to be the place where higher education and our recording of experiences comes into play.
But right now, the processes we use to issue grades and transcripts are not very well in sync with the concept and processes of digital wallets. That’s a work in progress and it’s where the Accelerator conversation can bring resources and expertise to the table for our respective stakeholders involved in the work. In Alabama and several other states they seem to be well on the way to solving the technology infrastructure problem, so now the work is circling back around to revise the data process to make the wallet useful and successful.
Q: Where do you and the project’s leaders stand on the viability of more ambitious versions of the transcript-to-digital-wallet continuum?
A: We’ve all come together based on the premise that there is a viability to more ambitious versions of learner records. Without debating the specific technical options or vendor features, we’ve all at least agreed that LERs can provide an outstanding opportunity to change the narrative around higher education by showcasing what is happening—and in some cases to shine light on what’s not happening—as a driver of change.
We’ve all agreed upon a learner centered approach in that these enhanced records are about the learner and empowering them with information they might not have, or consider, for use toward their specific goals and ambitions. At its most basic, this is about sparking interests and questions for learners and empowering them with tools (LERs) to communicate in ways that connect to the talent marketplace. Yes, it’s a hypothesis, but we know what isn’t working, so we’re betting on this as the next best step.
Q: What are you hoping to accomplish with this work if digital wallets fizzle?
A: We all ask ourselves that question. Our general conversation focuses on the fact that it’s not so much about the digital wallet. It’s about figuring out how to help students understand and represent themselves based on the experiences we know and believe they’re having in higher education. It’s about modernizing how learning achievements and job skills are documented and recognized, helping to create a more transparent, efficient, and equitable system for both learners and employers.
The big topic is the relevance of formal education itself. If we can’t adequately demonstrate and show the relevance of education more appropriately and with greater clarity, we face a challenge to the validity of the entire enterprise. For the Accelerator work, it’s postsecondary, but the ‘relevance’ question is being asked of all formal education providers. I know that sounds dramatic, but most of us involved in this work do believe there is a bit of a crisis in higher education looming. So a digital wallet by itself does not solve all problems. But it is one way of opening a broader connection between what happens at an institution, and what happens with a student when they leave.