By David Longanecker

June 3, 2016

I've appreciated the opportunity I've had during my final months before retirement at WICHE to participate in the Connecting Credentials effort, both at the October national summit and in co-facilitating the recent work group on Common Language.  I want to reflect on where I think we as a community, or perhaps as a group of disparate communities, are today and where we need to go with respect to credentialing.  I believe there are two seminal questions that need to be answered: Credentials to what end? and

Where's "the problem?"

Read the full piece here

May 2, 2016

In the last half decade, new forms of credentials such as badges, nanodegrees, microcredentials and certificates of completion have flooded out into the world from various learning environments. And with this torrent of new assertions of learning come a variety of questions: Who issued this credential? What is it supposed to represent? Was there a rigorous assessment involved? And even, what is this thing, and how should I attempt to understand it? All fair questions. But how to go about answering them?

Carla Casilli, co-facilitator of Connecting Credentials Work Group 1: Common Language tackles these questions and others in an opinion piece on the proliferation of credentials and the state of the credentialing system in the U.S.

Read the full piece here

Lumina Foundation and the national Connecting Credentials Initiative are interested in learning more about the growing practice of embedding industry and professional certifications within higher education programs. We have just launched a national survey to collect information about such partnerships between higher education institutions, high schools, employers and industry groups. The survey takes less than 15 minutes to complete.

We plan to summarize the survey findings and select a number of sites across the country for study as models of innovation.  If you have any questions about the survey or Connecting Credentials, please contact Evelyn Ganzglass by email, Co-Director, Connecting Credentials. Thank you in advance for your participation. 

IMS Global, Post-Secondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC), The Migration Policy Institute, Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD), American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), Women Employed, KnowledgeWorks and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation have all joined Connecting Credentials as co-sponsors in the last month! 

Connecting Credentials is co-sponsored by a diverse set of 101 organizations who are committed to making the confusing array of degrees, certificates, industry certifications, badges, and other credentials easier for learners and employers to understand, use, and interconnect.

Co-sponsors are engaging in this work in many ways, including participating in convenings and work groups, presenting at webinars and conferences, doing research and writing, and ensuring that their networks are made aware of Connecting Credentials and are given the opportunity to join the national dialogue.

For more information, click here.