With content and learning opportunities increasingly available in varied forms, it’s not surprising that business startups are appearing with regularity to offer platforms that create personalized transcripting options. Utilizing technology and data analytics, these firms are compiling individual resumès, employer job descriptions, college transcripts, and other means to align individual learning and help students capture their learning journey in new ways.
Today more than ever, colleges need to find their place in the ever widening landscape of credentialing. Where we once were the sole gatekeepers to the kingdom of credentials, we have become one option in an ever widening sea of options. The traditional classroom experience will always remain the primary option for some, but it is no longer the fit for all. This raises the question, “How can we add to our current practices in order to engage students in these new spaces without losing track of who we are as a learning institution?”
Peter Smith’s book Free Range Learning in the Digital Age: The Emerging Revolution in College, Career, and Education once again provided me with great information and examples to consider with these new services.
Credly
Helps individuals capture and convey skills through portable credentials also connects employers and job applicants. The platform was developed for the Colorado Community College System to find a sustainable and comprehensive approach to digital badging and has taken off and expanded from there.
Helio
Developed at the University of Maryland University College, Helio provides data science and visualization using data on the entire student lifecycle to personalize the student experience.
Degreed
Helps people track and measure their own learning in a very personalized fashion. Degreed developed machine-curated content that is highly personalized through customized learning pathways. They have a mobile app to transcript everything, including podcasts you listen to and make notes on what you learn. It was launched with students in mind, but employers are now looking to use it for their employees.
Innovate+Educate
This is a non-profit with multiple career centers focused on a range of high-demand fields that work with local employers to clarify competencies required for workplace success in any given job. They work primarily with employers, but have already started linking students, employers, and colleges like the Cedar Valley Community College in Dallas for customized credit-bearing curriculum to meet workforce demands.
Portfolium
Provides students with a comprehensive, state-of-the-art platform (including social media options) to reflect on their learning and spotlight meaning with the ability to share it in a variety of ways.
COOL
Provides translation of military training and experience with civilian credentials. Helps fill the gaps and facilitates solutions for former military personnel with resources for Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.
MVCC is exploring ways to maintain its relevance in these changing times. From re-examining our practices in Prior Learning Assessment, to creating meaningful and rigorous pathways between our non-credit training and credit experiences, to our efforts in microcredentials, MVCC continues to broaden its horizons while staying tethered to the traditional classroom experience.
All of these organizations and platforms are artifacts of the new reality that continuous learning is the future and people need ways to manage all the ways they learn. Beyond these options, the cryptocurrency blockchain is gaining increasing interest as the most likely end-game in this space. An article from 2016 quoted a couple of authors that compared blockchain’s application in managing financial currency and financial capital to the potential of documenting and managing reputation as currency and social capital through a consolidated learning transcript. If colleges no longer have sole proprietorship over the transcript, but are just one of many, how might our own reputation as currency, social capital, and overall relevance change?
Please send comments and questions to presblog@mvcc.edu.
