Alternative Credentials

Interprofessional Education (IPE) Digital Badging Project

In collaboration with a working group of Interprofessional Education leaders from 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities across Maryland, the William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and the University of Maryland, Baltimore Center for Interprofessional Education are leading the first phase (18 months) of a statewide project aimed at increasing the availability, quality, and visibility of Interprofessional Education (IPE) in health care academic programs through digital badging.

Comprehensive Learner Records

The University System of Maryland (USM) has been invited to partner with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education) to participate in their Lumina-funded national project to develop pilots for the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR).

Badging Essential Skills for Transitions (B.E.S.T.)

As a way to help bridge the gap between students’ accomplishments in college and their workplace readiness, the USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation is working with institutions within the System to develop digital badges that will help students choose experiences aimed at developing career-ready skills and better communicate what they know and are able to do once they enter the world of work.

UMUC Pilots Extended Transcripts

Traditional transcripts provide basic information about the courses students took: course names, dates of the course, credit earned, and grades.  What traditional transcripts don’t provide is more in-depth information on the skills students learned and their competency in these skills.  In Fall 2016, the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) piloted a digital “extended transcript” to better reflect student’s progress and competency of defined learning outcomes.  UMUC is one of twelve institutions around the country to take part in a $1.27 million Lumina Foundation

Alternative Credentials

Alternative credentials offer institutions a way to validate a range of knowledge, skills, and abilities students have developed, deepening the level of information otherwise provided through student transcripts or resumes. Well-designed alternative credentials help students to articulate their skills and academic accomplishments and make visible, through digital badging or other means, the specific learning outcomes students have achieved, what artifacts students produced to demonstrate their learning, and how those outcomes were assessed.