Over the years, college enrollments generally increased due to the ever-increasing demand for skilled workers. Globalization, technology, and the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs have many rethinking what type of degree to pursue. Additionally, there’s a new norm in student type and it isn’t your typical 18-year-old freshman. As Ted Mitchell, Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education states, “Today’s average student is no longer the 18-year-old whose parents drive her up to “State U” in a minivan stuffed with boxes. Instead, the “new normal” student may be a 24-year-old returning veteran, a 36-year-old single mother, a part-time student juggling work and college, or the first-generation college student. The faces we picture as our college hopefuls can’t be limited by race, age, income, zip code, disability, or any other factor.” In an effort to meet these types of learners, education providers are providing new types of learning opportunities such as online learning, boot camps, competency-based training, and industry-specific training. These alternative types of credentials enable learners to demonstrate their competency in a specialized area. A recent report from ICDE conveys that traditional transcripts don’t really convey a student’s skills as a potential job candidate, whereas specific credentials provide a better indication of a student who has the required competencies for a job. “This ‘unbundling’ of learning acquisition, verification, and documentation will break the long-held advantage that higher education institutions have enjoyed in the verification of a person’s education and will further enable non-higher education organizations (such as professional associations and corporations) to become active in providing learning opportunities and credentialing.”With these new types of learning opportunities comes the challenge of providing portable and authentic credentials. Currently, higher ed institutions control the gateways for access to academic transcripts, effectively restricting public access through fees and controlling what student data to release.
