��ɫֱ��

��ɫֱ�� is a long-standing champion in the advancement of Innovative Credentials overall and the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) in particular, having collaboratively developed pilots, guidelines, and best practices that expand the idea of the traditional record. Through past Lumina Foundation grants, a current grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a new grant from the Walmart Foundation, ��ɫֱ�� continues to be a leader in the development and adoption of CLR in American higher education.

Additionally, ��ɫֱ�� is working to promote awareness and advance knowledge around the Learning and Employment Record (LER), a system that contains verifiable information about a person’s achievements spanning an inclusive range of contexts to include the CLR, the higher education component of the LER, that provides verified credentials representing the skills and competencies achieved by the student during their academic career.

��ɫֱ�� will support higher education contributions of robust learning to the overall Innovative Credential work, which includes supporting:

• Digital Credentials
• Alternative Credentials
• Micro-Credentials
• The Comprehensive Learner Record
• The Learning and Employment Record
• Extended Transcripts
• and others

by putting forth recommendations for academic record practices that protect the integrity and validity of these expressions of learner achievement, supporting the principles of interoperability and student-centered records, and continuing to seek collaboration and innovation partners.

Get Involved with Innovative Credentials

The ��ɫֱ�� Exchange Innovative Credentials Community connects higher education professionals to learn from each other, share insights and best practices, and support the development and implementation of innovative credentials.

��ɫֱ�� Resources

• Enhancing Accessibility and Inclusion: The 2024 Landscape of Credit for Prior Learning in U.S. and Canadian Higher Education (2024)

  
  The challenges and successes in implementing CPL within educational institutions are explored in this report. Issues related to institutional policies, mechanisms for assessing and awarding credit for prior learning, staffing, technology and learner awareness are examined.

• (2023)

  
  Insights from a June 2023 Survey aimed at determining if the terms for various credentials, referred to as innovative credentials in this report, are defined and used differently based on their institutional context.

• FINAL REPORT: Alternative Credentials: Considerations, Guidance, and Best Practices(2022)

  
  The ��ɫֱ�� Alternative Credentials work group published their final report in July, 2022. This report provides research on best practices for members' institutions considering or already offering certificates and micro-credentials. The intention of this report is to create standards for definitions and portability of alternative credentials.

• Implementation of the IMS Global Comprehensive Learner Record Standard: A Practical Guide for Campus Personnel(2022)

  
  The IMS Global CLR Implementation Guide is a comprehensive data standard that meets the objectives of an official institutional learning-focused and comprehensive learner record.

   

• CLR Phase II Report(2021)

  CLR Phase II seeks to expand the understanding and use of CLRs among additional institutions. Download the CLR Phase II Report to learn more.

• (2020)

  Per our review, the CLR Standard from IMS Global is the only comprehensive data standard in place today that meets the objectives of an official institutional learning-focused and comprehensive learner record.

• (2019)

  For this second phase of the Lumina grant there were four main goals:

  • Facilitate the scaling of CLRs in up to 150 colleges and universities
  • Standardize the components of a CBE transcript/record with the goal of achieving 10 participating institutions in this second phase
  • Address the data integration issue
  • Leverage existing degree audit technologies to track progress toward learning outcomes/competencies.
  To achieve the goals outlined for the second item above, ��ɫֱ�� partnered with the expert organization on competency-based education, member institutions of C-BEN, a “network of colleges, organizations, and individuals, dedicated to realizing the potential of competency-based education”.
• 2018 CLR Data Integration Work Group White Paper(2018)

  During the first phase the CLR project, one of the most significant barriers to the development and implementation of the student record was the integration of data to populate the record with data and evidence of learning.

  In the second phase of work, ��ɫֱ�� assembled the CLR Data Integrations Work Group to identify the barriers to data integration that exist today at most institutions. While some colleges and universities will be able to address these challenges through internal resources and expertise, most lack the infrastructure to address the barriers they may face. This Work Group provided universities with information on moving forward, creating potential guidelines, and working to promote standards that not only benefit students but also employers and other admitting institutions.

• 2016 Fact Sheet(2016)

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Innovative Credentials News:

UPCEA has announced the members of The Council for Credential Innovation (CCI), a body for senior leaders driving non-degree credential strategy at the unit or campus level, and key thought leaders from nonprofit organizations and companies actively contributing to developing the alternative credential space. Congratulations to all the council members for their work and innovation in credentialing. 

��ɫֱ�� wants to highlight ��ɫֱ�� members Karen Battyle, Mark McConahay, Noah Geisel, Shawn Miller, and Doris Savron and invite all council members to continue the conversation in the Innovative Credentials Community of Practice in the ��ɫֱ�� Exchange.  

National Reach
��ɫֱ��'s efforts to advance CLR have helped institutions across the United States. The 2021 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation enables additional institutions to be supported and further contributes to the knowledge resources for CLR adoption and best practices.