Top 3 Concerns Educators Have About Digital Credentials: And Why You Should Offer Them Anyway
When it comes to issuing digital credentials, all stakeholders will need some guidance. While the wallet or digital badge provider may send instructions to the teacher or student, there is no guarantee they will read or understand those instructions. Yes, the platform should make it easy, but the issuer also has to help the learner understand what the credential is and how to use it.
Discussing the credentials and their value can also help your learners understand and communicate the skills they gained to earn the badge. So, even if employers don't know how to process the specific technology, your learners will be able to better represent themselves and their abilities moving forward.
3) There Is No Guarantee Digital Credentials Can Be Used Outside the Organization
Finally, educational institutions worry that digital badges and credentials aren't as versatile as we hope. They are concerned that learners will be forced to use the same digital badge supplier forever if they want to continue sharing their credentials, or that the digital credentials won't be accessible outside of the issuer's ecosystem.
This is where standards and the community come in.
First, when selecting a provider, ask that they follow open standards so that if your learner ever wants to move their credentials out of the current wallet, they can do so easily to another wallet or system that follows the same open standards. This will give the learner ownership over their credentials instead of hindering them by the technology.
Second, there are ongoing efforts to create larger and more open marketplaces for storing and sharing digital credentials. For example, the Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC) offers a Learner Credential Wallet (LCW), and Digital Promise is working on an open source badging platform.
Moving Forward
When it comes to digital credentials, there is a lot to consider and a lot of work still being done to get us where we want to be. Several national efforts, including 1EdTech's TrustEd Microcredential Coalition, Digital Promise's Badging Coalition, the LER Accelerator Coalition, and many others, are helping educational institutions take the next step, regardless of where they are in their digital credential initiatives.
Anyone interested in continuing deeper conversations on these topics, or looking for partners can join 1EdTech's member community, and save the date for the 2025 Digital Credentials Summit in Phoenix, March 3-5, 2025.
About the Author
Kelly Hoyland serves as the director for higher education at 1EdTech, where she works with members to meet the challenges they face in the rapidly growing and evolving digital teaching and learning landscape. This includes working across K-12, higher education, and corporate education to make life achievements more accessible, personalized, and equitable for every learner from the start.