SECURE, DIGITALSTUDENT RECORDS
Access to student records is an equity issue. It's now been said. Out loud. Regardless of how essential that revenue is, maintaining barriers to accessing student records amounts to institutional efforts to perpetuate inequities.
Required: Transparent evidence of thecompetencies mastered by credential holders
Clear, measurable criteria that is assessed
Information about credentials should be valid, reliable,and transparent. Without sound, transparent informationindividuals and others do not know if credentials are en-abling individuals to achieve their goals
Transparent Credentials
In previous versions of Open Badges, the creator of an Achievement (known as a "BadgeClass") was the only entity that could issue it, but in v3.0, the door opens to many issuers recognizing the same achievement based on their own assessment. This practice of shared achievements enables skill assertions, where multiple issuers use a shared achievement definition to recognize achievement of a skill with each issuer doing their own assessment. In addition, further recording of related skills, competencies, standards, and other associations are enabled by the alignment of an Achievement
Big deal: credentials with disparate names, from disparate issuers, nonetheless asserting a shared achievement definition. For example, competencies in my Spanish 4 class assert Intermediate-Low language proficiency, but a teacher whose class is more advanced than mine even though it's also called Spanish 4 could assert Intermediate-Mid proficiency while their Spanish 3 assertions is for Intermediate-Low.
Economists explain that markets work bestwith “perfect information.” And visibilityfeeds this market by translating and sharingskills. But the price of transparency in themodern age is invaded privacy, as well as biasinherent in automated products and services
DEGREES AS CREDENTIALSDON’T GO AWAY
They are redefined as the skills that make up the degree, and learners can achieve mastery by other means. What does change is the emphasis on proficiency. Being able to demonstrate and validate skills proficiency will provide much more information to employers and (l)earners.
Universally accepted assessments ordemonstration opportunities, particularlyfor softer skills, could help learners andworkers validate any type of skill withoutbeing told that they will have to “go backand get a degree” before being consideredfor professional track careers
Universally accepted assessments can also add trust to college and university credentials. There is merit to the notion that higher ed institutions have a conflict of interest when it comes to serving as both learning provider and validator of that learning.
Skills visibility is about making the skills a (l)earner hasacquired open, transparent, and accessible to the(l)earner, providing agency to showcase their curated skillsand competencies to employers in the marketplace
We are now tantalizingly close to a worldwhere my skills are telegraphed digitally to any employer around the nation,or even the world, looking for that skills cocktail. And it works the other way:all employers looking for certain skills can feed into a real-time skills tickertape, signaling to learners and the learning providers that serve them whatcombination of skills will yield employment
that envisions credential transparency and open data as tools to unlock the learn-and-earn ecosystem nationwide and help every learner make more informed decisions about the credentials they might pursue
WHY this stuff matters. It's a responsibility to our learners (eg consumers)