For a schedule-at-a-glance, visit our Schedule webpage.
A Comprehensive Approach to Achieving Success for Non-Credit Learners: Content Enhancement, Learner Success, and Workforce Readiness
This session explores achieving success for non-credit learners by balancing high-quality content, program completion, and workforce readiness. It presents a holistic approach that meets the needs of all stakeholders and ensures alignment within the educational ecosystem. The focus is on improving learner outcomes through increased completion rates and workforce preparation. Best practices for future readiness will be shared, emphasizing the role of competency-based and experiential learning. Strategies for optimizing resources and curricula to align with job market demands will be discussed, enhancing learner engagement, marketability, and career success. Attendees will gain actionable strategies for success and future readiness.
Accelerating LER Adoption: Overcoming Challenges and Barriers
The LER Accelerator coalition, launched with support from Walmart, is helping institutions transition from traditional transcripts to verifiable, digital Learning and Employment Records (LERs). This session will explore key adoption principles, challenges in implementation, and insights from LER Accelerator cohort institutions. Attendees will gain actionable strategies, access to resources and toolkits, and connections with national education and workforce leaders. Whether starting or refining LER efforts, participants will leave equipped to drive scalable, interoperable, and learner-centered digital credentialing at their institutions.
Advancing Incremental Credentialing Pathways: Tools, Research, and Strategies for Systemic Change
Explore how the Credential As You Go (CAYG) initiative is transforming higher education through incremental credentialing. This session shares key findings from research on 150 credentials and introduces the “Tipping Point” tool—a resource to help institutions and policymakers assess progress and plan next steps. A case study from the City University of New York (CUNY) highlights how the tool is guiding system-wide credentialing efforts. Participants will engage in discussion, gain practical insights, and explore how to apply the tool to advance learner-centered, workforce-aligned credentialing in their own institutions, systems, or states.
AI and Digital Credentials: Building a Smarter Skill Recognition Ecosystem
This session presents a theoretical framework for utilizing artificial intelligence to unify fragmented credential ecosystems through standardized skill taxonomies. The proposed model addresses credential interoperability, skill extraction methodologies, and pathway creation across educational boundaries. The session explores theoretical foundations, potential implementation approaches, and the implications for institutions serving students with diverse credential backgrounds. This innovative framework offers solutions to a critical challenge in contemporary higher education while maintaining academic integrity.
AI-Centered Credential Innovation: Launching a New Workforce Readiness Model with An AI Literacy Component and A New Digital Badge Taxonomy
As artificial intelligence redefines workforce needs across industries, universities must reimagine credentialing to meet rapidly evolving skill demands. This panel explores how NJIT is launching a new workforce readiness model with AI literacy as one of its six core skill domains. With two panelists from NJIT and two who provide national and international perspectives, this discussion will examine scalable strategies for aligning noncredit portfolios with labor market needs.
All Privacy Counts: Expanding the Scope of FERPA to a Broader Base of Learners
With more colleges and universities offering non-traditional learning opportunities and innovative credentials, the question of whether individuals taking non-credit classes or engaging in other learning experiences through a campus are considered "students in attendance" in accordance with FERPA is being reexamined. AACRAO is launching a work group to explore the definition of a student and whether data privacy rights should apply to non-credit records. Implications for learning mobility, non-credit to credit pathways and various systems used for non-credit learning must all be considered. The collective voice and support of AACRAO and UPCEA is critical should we agree that FERPA rights need to be expanded to non-credit learners. This session is designed to explore these questions, provoke discussion and solicit input from continuing education and registrar professionals alike.
Approaches to and Benefits from Differentiated Microcredential Strategies
Approaching strategies to give students value for microcredentials is not a monolithic proposition. Institutions should carefully consider the role microcredentials will play on campus and what groups need to be involved to be successful. Oregon State University and University of Phoenix have taken different approaches in standing up their microcredential programs, but both have achieved success and continue to strive toward reaching their desired outcomes. In this session you will learn what types of strategies were used at these two very different institutions to scale successful and viable microcredential programs that supported their learners’ needs.
Arizona Learning Mobility Collaborative: A Cross-Institutional Approach to Digital Credentials
This session presents a pioneering collaborative model for implementing digital credentials across Arizona's public higher education ecosystem. Learn how 13 institutions joined forces to develop a shared framework for learning mobility that emphasizes learner agency, credential interoperability, and skills recognition. Discover how this initiative addresses complex transition points through prototype solutions that balance technical infrastructure with human support. The presentation will share actionable insights for registrars and institutional leaders seeking to enhance credential mobility while maintaining academic standards and operational feasibility.
Balancing Innovation and Policy: Perspectives from a Registrar’s Office in Developing Digital Badges and a Comprehensive Learner Record
Transforming the traditional registrar’s office to an innovation-driven leader is essential in today's higher education landscape. This session will explore how registrars can balance strict adherence to regulations with the need to lead initiatives like comprehensive learner records, microcredentials, and digital badging. Participants will gain insights into forming partnerships, leveraging technology, and developing new leadership styles. Through a case study of UT Austin’s CLR and digital badging initiatives and discussion, attendees will learn strategies to support and collaborate with registrars in driving innovation and achieving operational efficiency.
Beyond Completion: Connecting Preparedness, Competitiveness, and Confidence to Learner Outcomes
What drives true learner success in professional and continuing education? Join us to hear how the University of Missouri–St. Louis, in partnership with Ziplines Education, is prioritizing career outcomes through a thoughtful blend of technology and human interaction. Discover how personalized support, high-touch engagement, and real-world learning experiences can empower adult learners to build confidence, gain in-demand skills, and achieve career growth.
Beyond the Transcript: Complementing Business Education with Professional Certificates
This session explores how the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is complementing traditional business education with industry-recognized certificates through platforms like Coursera Career Academy. Presenters will share strategies for integrating certificates such as Google’s AI Essentials into degree and non-degree offerings, aligning them with academic outcomes, and engaging faculty in the process. Attendees will gain practical insights into building partnerships, designing scalable models, and enhancing learner value. Whether serving undergraduates, graduate students, or lifelong learners, this session provides a framework for embedding professional credentials into business education to strengthen relevance and workforce readiness.
Bridging Data, Skills, Credentials and Opportunity: Scaling Work-Based Learning through Aligned LER Technology
This session explores how Craft Education and WGU are building digital infrastructure to scale work-based learning (WBL) and bridge education-to-career pathways. Craft’s data platform streamlines apprenticeship management, compliance, and funding. WGU’s Achievement Wallet captures and verifies diverse skills and credentials, helping learners showcase their abilities to employers. Together, these tools reduce friction, support learner mobility, and enable trusted ecosystems, particularly in sectors like education, where shared credentials and licensing bodies make LER adoption especially promising.
Bridging Talent & Opportunity: Reinventing Education Through Collaboration
Join Tecnológico de Monterrey, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Udemy, and MEGA to explore how cross-sector collaboration can drive workforce reintegration and upskilling. This panel highlights two successful co-designed programs focused on learner employability. Discover how academia, industry, and education partners can bridge the skills gap and deliver real outcomes
Bridging the Skills Gap with LAiSER: AI-Powered Insights for Education and Employment
How can we make skills more visible across education and employment systems? This session introduces LAiSER, a language intelligence tool that uses AI to extract skills from syllabi, resumes, and job ads, helping institutions and employers speak a common language. We’ll share real-world use cases in curriculum analysis, skills-based hiring, and lifelong learning pathways, while exploring how LAiSER supports shared skill nomenclature, employer engagement, and data interoperability. Attendees will leave with practical insights and open-source resources to support credential innovation and learner mobility.
Competency-Based Microcredentials Implementation: Case Studies with Western Governors University and Digital Promise
This session explores strategies for incorporating competency-based micro-credentials into educator preparation programs, reshaping learning by emphasizing demonstrated mastery over seat time. We’ll examine how digital badging recognizes educator competencies in real-time and how wallet technology enables the seamless sharing of credentials across systems, districts, and platforms by sharing case studies across diverse PK-12 and higher education institutions, including how micro-credentials are being leveraged to reach programmatic and learner goals holistically at Digital Promise and Western Governors University. Attendees will gain insights into program design, equity considerations, and the role of interoperable technologies in scaling personalized, skills-based pathways for teacher growth and leadership.
Credential Ecosystems in Action: Pathways That Accelerate Learner Journeys
Discover how to create innovative credential pathways by working within and beyond traditional academic frameworks. In this interactive panel discussion, UMGC leaders will present flexible pathways that seamlessly integrate prior learning and current academic experiences. Through detailed scenarios and student personas, participants will apply learned strategies to their own institutional contexts, developing actionable plans for credential innovation. Leave with practical approaches to create a student-centered ecosystem that enables lifelong learning, credential transparency, and career advancement, balancing your institution's unique realities with bold innovation that truly accelerates student success.
Credentialing with Purpose: How AI-Enhanced Learning is Transforming STEM Sustainability Education
This interactive session explores how AI-powered tools can enhance STEM sustainability education through credentialed online learning. Co-developed by Construct Education and ABET, it features the ABET Sustainability Micro-Credential and Amara, an AI learning assistant that supports learners in mastering real-world competencies aligned with ABET standards and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Participants will engage in live demonstrations, role-play, and collaborative design activities to evaluate and create AI-enhanced learning tools. Ideal for educators and instructional designers, this session offers practical strategies for aligning micro-credentials with industry standards and advancing sustainable, scalable workforce development in STEM fields.
Designing Pathways for Successful Student Outcomes
To help ensure positive student outcomes, academic leaders and administrators must support learning pathways that encourage and acknowledge multiple levels of learning. By creating academic pathways designed to build upon each other and respond to employer needs, schools are able to support student learning that leads to beneficial outcomes in the workforce.
Developing Noncredit Data: Efforts to Systematize Infrastructure
As interest in understanding the value of noncredit education and non-degree credentials is mounting, data are increasingly essential. Panelists will discuss emerging efforts to develop a more systematic data infrastructure to capture and measure noncredit data. A national taxonomy for noncredit data that is based on data in existing state systems will be shared. Efforts from various systems around the country will be shared as universities seek to strengthen these data systems. The panel will share the latest on state and institutional efforts, and offer attendees a chance to consider how to implement or improve their own processes.
Empowering Learners and Institutions with Skills-Based Records
Morgan State and UMGC share how they implemented a Learning and Employment Record (LER) with a Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) and embedded badging to empower learners and showcase institutional ROI. Panelists will discuss cross-functional collaboration, governance, and the value of learner-owned, interoperable credentials that connect education to career outcomes.
Empowering Students with Trusted Credentials: Ensuring Integrity, Transparency, and Relevance
This session explores how institutions can develop and implement credentialing standards that ensure transparency, integrity, and student empowerment. Participants will examine best practices for aligning credentialing with industry standards, accreditation requirements, and workforce needs. The discussion will highlight how transparency fosters trust and equips students to articulate their competencies. Attendees will leave with strategies for enhancing credential credibility, improving communication of credential value, and ensuring students are well-prepared for career success.
Ensuring Excellence: Collaborative Approaches to Quality Standards in Noncredit Credentials
When it comes to alternative credentials, authenticity doesn’t have to mean bespoke. Leading universities like the University of Chicago, Arizona State University, and Purdue University are combining top-tier technology skills curricula with their own teaching, research, and disciplinary expertise to deliver programs that are distinctive and aligned with their mission, values, and academic standards. This panel explores how these institutions built robust quality assurance frameworks for noncredit offerings. Attendees will gain practical insights into designing programs that are scalable, sustainable, and trusted by learners, employers, and institutional stakeholders while upholding academic rigor and integrity in a rapidly evolving educational landscape.
Expanding Access and Opportunity: The University of Toledo’s Scalable Strategy for Noncredit Learning
Explore how the University of Toledo and Anthology are partnering to build a scalable, learner-centered approach to noncredit programming. This session will showcase Blackboard Catalog for registration and course management, and Milestone for issuing career-aligned micro-credentials. Attendees will gain practical strategies for creating guided, cross-departmental initiatives and using technology to streamline delivery, document skills, and support lifelong learning.
From Birth to Meaning: The TBR CRED CLR 2.0 Journey
Learners and employers both benefit when jobs are matched to the most qualified candidate for the job and learners can advance their skills with insight into pathways for education, courses, training in their chosen career, and guidance to help the learner change their career when desired. Employers benefit from in-depth employment and credential information in a digital format and when the employer cannot yet consume the digital format of the credentials, we can provide a readily consumable format to screen job candidates through multiple formats including, pdf, web-rendering, and SmartResume™. All aspects have a foundation of information you can Trust.
From Classroom to Career: How Micro-Credentials Empower Modern Learners
Explore how micro-credentials are reshaping higher education to meet the needs of diverse learners. This session will highlight strategies for upskilling and reskilling, focusing on how institutions can create flexible learning paths for working adults, career changers, and others looking to bridge the gap between knowledge and employability.
From Course Objectives to Career Outcomes: Bridging Academics and Industry with Professional Certificates
Discover a faculty-developed model for integrating professional certificates into academic courses. Presenters from Coursera for Campus and Jackson State University will share practical tools, curricular strategies, and real-world examples of how to embed industry credentials from platforms like Coursera into credit-bearing coursework. This session offers a roadmap for scaling micro-credential integration while supporting academic quality and student success.
From Credentials to Careers: Scaling CLRs for Student & Employer Success
Comprehensive Learner Records (CLRs) have the potential to power student success—but only if they’re designed with career outcomes in mind. At the University of Texas at Austin, the CLR and Career Success teams are reimagining the student experience by working backwards from the job search, not just forward from enrollment. Learn how UT Austin aligns CLR design with four pillars of career learning—career navigation, skill development, experiential learning, and employer/alumni connections—creating a lifelong resource for students. This session shares how cross-campus collaboration and external partnerships bring CLRs to life as tools for employability, not just records of learning.
From Signal to Strategy: Designing Credential Ecosystems That Translate Across Sectors
This interactive session helps participants (re)design credential ecosystems that communicate value across the learn-to-work system. Learn strategies for translating existing and new academic credentials into signals employers understand and trust. Explore tools to align credentials with labor market needs, reduce translation friction, and design for usability and uptake in hiring systems.
HLC Credential Lab: Supporting Linkages Between Providers and Institutions
HLC’s Credential Lab is focused on providing a quality assurance “endorsement” of education and training providers. How can this recognition assist institutions as they build relationships with providers? How could both sides work together so the offerings from the content providers may be recognized toward the completion of institutional degrees or certificates? Engagement with the audience and providers will be an integral part of the session.
How to Get ROI from Your Digital Credentials RFPs
We’re all leaning into innovative credentials, like microcredentials and learning and employment records (LERs), to unlock better learning experiences and open new doors to employment. But let’s face it: choosing the right technology to issue and manage these credentials can feel overwhelming. That’s where we come in. Drawing from real-world experience, we’ve gathered practical insights to guide you through every step of the procurement process—from crafting strong RFPs to evaluating vendor proposals and making confident, informed decisions.
LAiSER: AI-Powered Skills Mapping for Education and Workforce Alignment
This session introduces LAiSER (Leveraging AI for Skills Extraction and Research), an open-source tool developed by the George Washington Institute of Public Policy to address the growing disconnect between higher education and workforce needs. Using AI language models, LAiSER maps complex relationships between skills, education, and labor market demand to identify gaps and training opportunities. The presentation will outline the tool’s conceptual framework and demonstrate how it transforms unstructured data into interpretable skill profiles to support responsive education and workforce planning.
Leveraging Open Online Courses and Credit for Prior Learning for Degree Completion
This session highlights a successful partnership between the University of Memphis’ Finish Line Program—a degree completion initiative for adult learners—and Saylor Academy, a nonprofit offering free, online college-level courses. Since launching as a pilot in 2013, the program has helped over 1,100 students graduate, with Saylor Academy as a key partner. A major factor in its success is the use of Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) to reduce financial barriers and accelerate degree completion. Attendees will learn how this partnership has evolved over 14 years and gain practical strategies for replicating a similar model at their own institutions.
Micro-credentials, Macro-impact: Supporting Faculty with Credential Innovation
Prepare for an engaging, hands-on session packed with actionable strategies for involving faculty in the exciting world of micro-credential development! In this interactive presentation, you’ll discover practical examples and resources that you can immediately apply to support your own faculty or curriculum developers. Our experts will guide you through proven methods for engaging faculty while setting up clear support structures, guidelines, and quality measures to ensure success. Whether you're just starting or looking to enhance your program, this session will equip you with the tools and insights needed to elevate your micro-credentialing initiatives to the next level!
Modernizing the Business Model of Community College Workforce Programs
Learn how two community colleges built robust workforce training programs that help students gain valuable skills leading to well-paying jobs in their communities. These programs are strategically designed to align with employer needs, offer industry-recognized credentials, remain free or low-cost through braided funding, and are supported by strong data systems. This intentional approach has made them vital pathways into the workforce for adult learners. Participants will hear directly from the colleges as they share the steps they took to develop and sustain these impactful programs.
NECHE's New Non-Credit Quality Assurance Recognition Process
The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), accrediting institutions since 1885, is expanding its role to recognize non-credit providers through a new “NECHE recognition” process. With funding and support from the Lumina Foundation, in 2023, a task force consisting of representatives from six member institutions developed a Framework for Non-Credit Quality Assurance. This evidence-based Framework consists of seventeen markers that define high-quality non-credit programming. A pilot evaluation process using the Framework was conducted in 2024 with six organizations: 4 NECHE member institutions, one non-member institution, and one third-party provider. In Spring 2025, the Commission approved the recognition process, and applications will open in Spring 2026. NECHE will also seek nominations for non-credit peer evaluators. This session will introduce the Framework, explain the recognition process, and offer time for discussion and questions.
Powerful Partnerships: Proven Strategies to Build and Grow Corporate Relationships in Continuing Education
Strong corporate partnerships are essential for successful continuing education and professional development programs. In this interactive session, experts will share proven strategies for building and sustaining meaningful collaborations with employers. Learn how to establish a Corporate Advisory Board, design curricula aligned with workforce needs, and use social media to attract corporate partners. This session will offer actionable insights, real-world examples, and tools to help you launch or strengthen partnerships in your institution.
Recognitionist History: Viewing Credential Innovation’s Future through its Past
How did we get here? Join us for a fun, unofficial, and historically accurate survey of the history of the Open Badges and microcredentials movements. Offered through a narrative gameshow format inspired by "This is Your Life" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", attendees will have a chance to learn and earn a lot (of badges).
Reimagining Collaboration to Solve Student-Impacting Institutional Challenges
At PLNU, a partnership between the Registrar’s Office and Graduate and Professional Studies led to two transformative tools - Problem Framing for Academia and the Fix-It Funnel. These strategies improved collaboration, reduced institutional friction, and created faster, student-centered solutions. This session shares how others can build similar cross-unit efforts to support nontraditional learners.
Rethinking Credential Trust: A Scalable, Third-Party-Free Authentication Hub
This session explores a scalable, institution-led model for real-time credential authentication that eliminates reliance on third-party vendors. Through encrypted QR codes and trustless verification architecture, institutions can maintain full control over credential issuance and revocation while enabling instant validation by external stakeholders. Designed to reduce registrars’ operational workload and support global learner mobility, the model aligns with evolving expectations around transparency, data privacy, and alternative credentials. Attendees will engage with a live demonstration and strategic discussion on implementation pathways, governance models, and collaborative opportunities across diverse institutional settings.
Skills First Future: Using Learn & Work Ecosystem Library & Credentials for Workforce Change
The Learn & Work Ecosystem Library will describe its information aggregator role in the learn-and-work ecosystem and collaboration with SHRM Foundation's new Center for a Skills-First Future. SHRMF will describe the new Center and the ways it is widening pathways to work for skills-first candidates. Panelists will share early analytics and insights from their collaboration, including user types, engagement activities, credentialing efforts for HR professionals, and insights on information collection and usage in the evolving education and workforce environment. A facilitated discussion will follow, including panel reflections and audience Q&A.
Stacking Success: A Framework for Microcredentials and Durable Skills
The Durable Skills Advantage Framework provides a systematic approach to embedding essential durable skills in professional and continuing education programming. Developed with input from 800+ stakeholders, it is being applied at UW-Madison through curriculum audits and AI-based tools to identify skill gaps. The framework supports the development of stackable microcredentials that showcase mastery across multiple skill domains. This presentation explores implementation strategies, including marketing efforts to highlight the workplace value of durable skills. By bridging academia and industry, the framework creates a common language, clear learning pathways, and enhances workforce readiness, reskilling, and upskilling initiatives.
Strategic Positioning: Enhancing Value in Noncredit Professional Certificates
Discover strategic insights into competitively positioning noncredit professional certificates by aligning Bloom's learning outcomes, cost, and organizational needs, utilizing Georgetown’s innovative ideation model.
The Employer's Voice in the Indiana Achievement Wallet and Learning & Employment Record
The shift to skills-based hiring is essential to realizing the promise of Learning and Employment Record (LER) ecosystems. This session will explore how the Indiana Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Workforce Excellence equips employers across sectors with training, tools, and resources to implement skills-based talent strategies. Attendees will also hear how Indiana and WGU’s Achievement Wallets—a digital platform for capturing, aligning, and sharing verified skills—help students present their full range of capabilities to employers. These efforts represent a powerful model for aligning workforce and education stakeholders to support more equitable, transparent, and effective hiring practices.
The Invisible Learner: Addressing the Digital Eco-system Gap and Supporting Learners (and Staff)
At the University of Edinburgh, we identified a gap in supporting non-student learners seeking new skills and recognition for their achievements. Our decentralized short-course delivery system led to inconsistent technology use, resource-intensive workflows, and a fractured learner experience. To address this, we partnered with Eduframe by Drieam and Instructure to develop a comprehensive platform that streamlines administrative tasks, centralizes technology, and enhances the learner journey. In this session, we will share our experience from gap analysis to platform implementation, highlighting the challenges faced and the impact of digital solutions in transforming educational ecosystems and creating scalable learning opportunities.
The Value of Quality Assurance in Credentials: Why It Matters for Employers and Earners
In today’s rapidly evolving labor market, the demand for flexible, skills-based learning pathways is growing—and with it, the proliferation of micro-credentials and alternative credentials. While these educational programs offer promising opportunities for learners and employers alike, their credibility and impact hinge on one critical factor: quality assurance. This presentation explores the essential role of quality assurance in ensuring that credentials are trusted, meaningful, and deliver the educational objectives advertised.We will examine how robust quality assurance frameworks benefit earners by enhancing the recognition, portability, and value of their credential(s). We will also highlight how employers rely on quality-assured credentials to make informed hiring and upskilling decisions to improve talent pipelines. Drawing on our pilot research, practical examples, and participant perspectives, this session will unpack what quality assurance looks like in the credentialing ecosystem and why it matters now more than ever.
Things to Think About: Regulation and Microcredentials
This presentation explores the complex compliance landscape surrounding microcredentials, drawing on both registrar and accreditation perspectives. It examines regulatory risks, challenges in defining credentials, and issues in translating noncredit to credit. Key policy considerations such as Pell eligibility, NC-SARA applicability, and stakeholder perspectives will also be discussed.
TrustEd Credentials: A New Model for Skills Transparency
Wichita State University selected Territorium as their Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) and credentialing provider to launch the first-ever 1EdTech TrustEd Credential in higher education, introducing a revolutionary model for credential transparency and skills validation. Using Territorium’s CLR platform, students securely showcase verifiable microcredentials aligned directly with employer expectations. This session shares strategic insights from WSU’s groundbreaking launch, outlining how institutions can successfully integrate innovative microcredential practices. Attendees will leave equipped to initiate similar credential innovations at their campuses, bridging the critical gap between education and employment.
Upskilling Industry Workforce through Non-Credit Micro Credentials
This session will delve into the strategy and implementation behind workforce micro-credentialing, emphasizing the importance of upskilling in today's job market. It will cover identifying skill gaps and training needs for two distinct industry workforces. The session will also highlight the support ecosystem designed for learners and industry validity. Data analysis on impact and participant feedback will be shared, along with a future roadmap for micro-credential initiatives. Attendees will gain key insights through engaging prompts to apply in their institutions.
Using AI to Surface Skills from Syllabi for Advising and Credential Clarity
Auburn University shares a practical case study on using Skillabi, an AI-powered tool, to extract and communicate professional skills from course syllabi. Integrated into academic advising for online degree completion students, the project helps students see the skills they’ll gain from each course—before enrolling. Tied to Auburn’s QEP on student articulation of learning, the initiative offers a replicable model for institutions aiming to bridge courses, credentials, and career outcomes.
AI Literacy in Action: Crafting Microcredentials for Lifelong Learning
NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) has developed an AI literacy microcredential program, offering separate courses for students and educators. These microcredentials span several domains, including Foundations of AI, Effective and Responsible Use of AI, and Technical Aspects of AI for students. Introduction to AI in Education, AI-Enhanced Instructional Design, and AI for Administrative Efficiency comprise the microcredential for educators. This presentation will share insights from the program's design, launch, and implementation, focusing on how the credentials were developed in alignment with AI literacy competencies and instructional quality standards.
Building Industry-Aligned Credentials: A Model for Emerging Tech & Cybersecurity
Explore how Louisiana Tech University (LTU), the Louisiana Tech Research Institute (LTRI), and ISACA partnered to develop industry-aligned credential pathways in emerging technology, IT audit, and IT risk. This session highlights how stackable certifications—Certified Emerging Technology, ITCA, IT Audit, and IT Risk—support workforce readiness. Learn how employer engagement, flexible credentialing, and hands-on learning prepare students for in-demand careers. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for building scalable, employer-driven programs that align with workforce needs.
Closing the Chapter: Managing Online Program Deactivation Without Disrupting Student Success
As institutions evolve, academic programs must sometimes be phased out—but without a clear strategy, program deactivation can create uncertainty for students, faculty, and staff. This presentation provides a high level practical roadmap for sunsetting online programs while prioritizing student success and operational continuity. Drawing from UAGC’s experience in managing program closures, this presentation will explore best practices for strategic communication, student advising, catalog and system updates, and faculty management. Attendees will learn how to leverage Canvas & the Faculty Portal as a central communication hub to provide clear guidance, track student progress, and ensure seamless transitions to alternative degree pathways. Additionally, the presentation will highlight faculty and staff considerations, ensuring instructional quality remains intact while maintaining institutional integrity.
Credentialism as Cultural Power: Reframing Educational Merit Across East and West
Credentialism has become a defining feature of modern educational and occupational systems, yet its cultural and political dimensions remain insufficiently examined. In educational leadership discourse, the assumption that credentials reflect merit and legitimacy often goes unchallenged. This paper intervenes in this discourse by interrogating the cultural foundations of credentialism through a cross-cultural comparative approach. Drawing from both Western and Eastern thought, the study explores how educational credentials have been historically constructed as markers of virtue, legitimacy, or power, depending on sociopolitical context. By integrating insights from Randall Collins, Pierre Bourdieu, Confucius, and Mao Zedong, this paper repositions credentialism as a culturally contingent system of authority and control, raising new questions for leadership, equity, and educational reform.
Developing Student Support for Prior Learning Portfolios
This round table presentation will focus on a discussion of how program assessment can lead to the development of more efficient and effective student support for PLA portfolios. This presentation will focus on the experiences of DePaul’s Office of Prior Learning Assessment during a time of program change. The presentation will include a discussion of decision points that led to the development of improved of student support.
From Grant Funded to Revenue Generating: Adapting Workforce Development Microcredentials in Healthcare
This roundtable presentation will give audience members the opportunity to learn about our experience transforming six microcredential courses from a grant-funded project to revenue-generating continuing education offerings. We plan to discuss design decisions involved in adapting these hybrid courses to an asynchronous format, navigating usage rights for content created through grant-funded work, developing data tracking and registration processes, as well as pricing and marketing. This roundtable is appropriate for professionals who are interested in learning about the application of microcredentials under two different budget models and the pedagogical decisions that may accompany shifting between them.
From Mastery to Mobility: Communicating Skills and Outcomes in Undergraduate and Graduate CBE Programs
This presentation highlights how UMass Global’s competency-based education (CBE) programs support learner mobility, measurable outcomes, and students’ ability to communicate their skills effectively. Drawing from undergraduate and graduate program examples, the session will explore how authentic assessments, intentional curriculum design, and integrated support systems help students progress academically and professionally. Attendees will gain insights into how CBE models can promote equity, ensure rigor, and prepare learners to articulate their competencies in meaningful ways. The presentation will offer practical strategies for institutions seeking to enhance student success, skill transparency, and alignment with workforce and graduate education expectations.
Micro-Credentialing Pathways: Leveraging Systems for Enrollment & Workforce Growth
Designed for continuing education leaders and program developers, this session introduces a framework for building stackable, non-credit micro-credentials that support learning progression and workforce development. Learn how to leverage the learning management system, badging platform, and registration software to guide learners through intentional course sequences, incentivize completion, and track engagement. The presentation highlights how to align enrollment behaviours with credentialing goals to identify high-impact pathways for program development, credit articulation, and student success—especially in high-demand industries.
Online Learners’ Perceptions of AI: Are They Seeking AI Microcredentials?
The goal of this presentation is to discuss a case study conducted at a liberal arts institution in the United States exploring online students’ understanding and perceptions of Artificial Intelligence (AI tools) and if they are seeking AI-focused microcredentials as part of their degrees. In particular, this study seeks to understand the needs and expectations of online learners in the context of a rapidly changing workforce that requires them to upskill, reskill, and possess AI literacy skills. Importantly, higher education institutions must effectively assess their programs and develop curriculum and credentials to meet the requirements of the job market.
“Micrometrics” Matter: Evaluating the Impact of Industry Credentials on Job Outcomes
This presentation will provide a detailed overview of the University of Texas System’s current data gathering and research methodologies that are being used to evaluate the job outcomes of alumni who have earned industry credentials to determine if such credentials improve such outcomes compared to alumni who do not earn non degree credentials.
AI-Powered Tutoring & Holistic Support: Enhancing Retention in First-Year STEM Courses
This presentation explores how an AI-powered tutoring system, developed in collaboration with faculty, advisors, and instructional designers, enhances student engagement and retention in first-year Biology courses. Through real-time student analytics, interactive AI-driven learning activities, and advising interventions, this model supports first-time college students and at-risk learners. Attendees will learn how to integrate AI tutors into their courses, use AI-driven assessments, and collaborate with advisors to create a holistic academic support ecosystem that improves STEM persistence and success rates.
Capella & Sophia Admissions Pathway: Boosting the Success of Less Prepared Learners
Capella partnered with Sophia to replace existing admissions pathways for both its traditional online programs, GuidedPath, and its competency-based programs, Flexpath. Sophia and Capella will share outcomes for the admissions pathway and for Sophia students in general compared to the populations in GuidedPath and Flexpath. And Capella will share practical tips for implementing the admissions pathway and promoting CPL opportunities for students and measuring the results. Come learn practical techniques to engage students in credit for prior learning opportunities associated with higher retention and graduation rates.
Capturing ALL Credential and Related Skills through Learning and Employment Records
Imagine a world where everyone is empowered to capture and communicate the skills and competencies they’ve acquired across their entire learning journey — from education to experience to service. A world where employers can tap into a wider talent pool and better match applicants to opportunities with verifiable credentials that represent skills, competencies and achievements. This world is possible through an interoperable, well-governed ecosystem that leverages learning and employment records (LERs). LERs are digital records of learning and work experiences linked to and controlled by learners and earners. To build a more equitable skills-based hiring system using LERs, we must implement the right technology and overcome barriers to adoption for key stakeholders. Join us to hear from the SkillsFWD lead evaluator who will share insights into bold LER initiatives with the mission to catalyze a skills-based future. Learn what’s needed to make skills-based hiring and LER ecosystems work for all learners and earners.
Creating a Framework for Offering Alternative Credentials at Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University is developing a structured framework for offering alternative credentials, ensuring consistency in creation, evaluation, and scalability. This presentation explores the research, methodology, and practical implementation behind designing a system that aligns with industry needs, supports workforce development, and enhances lifelong learning opportunities. Attendees will gain insights into best practices for integrating micro-credentials into higher education and how a well-defined framework can serve as a guiding model for institutions seeking to expand their credentialing strategies.
Credentials of Value? Refining a System-Level Approach to Include Non-Credit Learners
Beginning with Digital Promise’s suggestion that “learner-centered credentialing tools are key to providing historically excluded learners with opportunities for empowerment,” this session focuses on how institutions can best put that idea to practice. The Technical College System of Georgia offers the case study. With 337,000 micro-credentials issued to students since 2022, 95% have been issued to students in credit-bearing degree programs. At the same time, students in non-credit programs comprise 56% of TCSG’s total enrollment. Conversation will focus on building custom, credential-based training packages for employer partners and designing non-credit to credit pathways—both of which aim to transform students into lifelong learners.
Empowering Career Success: Building Strategic Campus Partnerships for Micro-Credentialing at Texas Christian University
This conference proposal presents an opportunity for higher education professionals to come together and discuss the importance of building strong campus partnerships to support student career skill development through micro-credentialing at Texas Christian University (TCU). Through collaboration between Athletics, Career Services, Human Resources, Office of the Chancelor, Office of Financial Aid, Office of the Registrar, Neeley Professional Development, and Student Affairs, TCU can establish a comprehensive and impactful approach to micro-credentialing that enhances the learning experience for our students and prepares them for the challenges of the 21st-century job market.
Faculty Perceptions of and Motivation for Involvement in Alternative Credentials
Faculty have various motivations for being involved in alternative credentials in higher education. Throughout this presentation, those motivations will be highlighted. Recommendations will be made to explore recommendations for administrators looking to implement alternative credentials or to increase faculty buy-in for implementing alternative credentials in higher education.
Faculty Perspectives on Micro-credentials: A Case Study at Appalachian State University
This presentation examines faculty perspectives on developing competency-based micro-credentials at Appalachian State University. As higher education institutions respond to workforce demands for flexible learning options, understanding faculty viewpoints is crucial for successful implementation. This qualitative case study investigates how instructional designers, faculty, and administrators perceive micro-credential development across diverse disciplines, including special education, teacher leadership, and 3D cinder-block printing. The session explores how faculty adapted traditional instructional frameworks, addresses faculty concerns, and discusses innovative approaches for developing micro-credentials. Attendees will gain evidence-based recommendations for faculty engagement while maintaining academic quality and balancing industry relevance with academic integrity.
Responsive Skill-based Program Development
The presentation explores pragmatic approaches to innovation in professional development programming at two institutions. It highlights program design, modality shifts, and stakeholder engagement. The University of Minnesota launched a new format to integrate flexibility, connectedness, and competency-based education principles. Meanwhile, the CUNY Graduate Center developed asynchronous content with interactive elements to support graduate students and professionals seeking cross-industry skills. Presenters will share research-informed strategies, approval processes, and lessons learned in adapting university resources for evolving professional needs. Attending practitioners will gain practical insights into designing and implementing noncredit programs
Tec de Monterrey Curricular and Alternative Credentials: From High School to Higher Education
This session presents how competencies are evaluated along the achievement path for undergraduate students and how these records are the input for credentials emission. Key performance indicators for digital credentials monitoring are shared, and how graduates use them to speed up the beginning of their labor career. First insights will be shared about the institution’s digital credentials strategy expansion to high school and graduate programs.
The ACE Exchange: Empowering Learners Through Credit Transparency
Explore The ACE Exchange—a groundbreaking CPL data repository designed to show learners exactly how their prior learning counts. Learn how this tool supports informed decision-making, improves credit mobility, and helps students save time and money on the path to credential completion. Stop by to share your insights and help curate the next MVP of The ACE Exchange. Your input will shape its future impact.
The Transdisciplinary Power of Audit: Bridging Skills Across All Learning Pathways
Explore how audit—powered by ISACA’s industry-leading credentials—is becoming a versatile, transdisciplinary framework for higher education. This presentation demonstrates how institutions can integrate IT Audit, Risk, and Security certifications into various academic disciplines to promote learner mobility, employer engagement, and scalable credential innovation. Participants will gain insights from real-world case studies and a practical roadmap for building noncredit-to-credit bridges aligned with professional standards and workforce demands
Unlocking Career Growth: Alumni Mobility Through Noncredit Learning
Discover how The Chico State Alumni Association launched a micro-credentials program so successful it reached capacity within a day, creating an immediate waitlist. Building on this demand, the program expanded in its second year, doubling in size and broadening its offerings. This digital initiative supported alumni career mobility and strengthened engagement, with many participants becoming donors. The program shows how noncredit learning fosters alumni success, increases philanthropic support, and demonstrates the university’s investment in graduate professional growth and social mobility. Learn how your institution can create a similarly impactful program to drive alumni engagement and career success.
Accelerating and Expanding Institutional Capacity for Employer Engagement in Credential Innovation
Curious about the work of the UPCEA team of Peer Learning Leaders who’ve spent the past year focused on the intersection of employer engagement and human centered design in credential innovation? Join us as we share highlights and lessons learned on the journey that can help you identify strategies to expand employer engagement. Using the Hallmarks of Credential Innovation, while taking a design-thinking approach, this team of practitioner leaders will share more about this grant funded work that included design sessions, peer mentorship, and course development. Attendees will leave this session with a greater understanding of the state of credential innovation and best practices to deploy in expanding institutional capacity for deeper employer engagement. Whether you’re just getting started or ready to expand your existing work, you’ll find resources you can apply immediately.
DCC Technology and Verifiable Credential Learner Experience
In this workshop, experts from the DCC will share how it operates as a collaborative global network of higher education institutions to develop and implement standards-based technology that enables the secure issuing and sharing of data rich W3C Verifiable Credentials (VCs). Presenters will engage attendees in a walk through experience of claiming, receiving and verifying a VC using the DCC open source Learner Credential Wallet.
Designing Trust: Making Non-Credit Credentials Clear to Learners & Employers
Join Auburn University and the Alabama Talent Triad for a hands-on design thinking workshop exploring how to better communicate the value of non-credit credentials. Participants will engage in a unique ideation workshop to generate creative solutions that clarify the meaning, quality, and relevance of non-credit learning for both learners and employers. The session draws on real-world examples and Alabama’s statewide Talent Triad initiative to guide collaborative problem-solving.
Graduate and Professional Partnership Collaboration: Proven Success with Measurable ROI Results
Elizabethtown College’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies (SGPS) embarked on an initiative to become more connected with local and regional businesses to establish a working relationship in improving the needs of the workforce and community. SGPS will share in a case study format through a small panel discussion their partnership model, initial metrics, results, along with benefits from various perspectives.
Identifying Trusted Technologies for Skills and Competency Forward Learning
C-BEN, 1EdTech, and Unicon are partnering to increase transparency for institutions seeking technology solutions to support their competency and skills-first credential programs. This partnership aims to develop a “skills” endorsement to assist institutions in making informed procurement decisions.
If You Build It, They Will Come: A Microcredential Development Workshop
Microcredentials are taking the world by storm with their fast-paced development and rapid scalability. They address long-standing concerns about keeping up with rapidly evolving industries by staying relevant and upskilling the workforce. But how do you create a microcredential? Join Workcred, an affiliate of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), for this interactive workshop, where they will guide you step by step using structured prompts to explore the fundamentals of developing a microcredential at your organization.
Infrastructure: The Skeleton Key of Credential Innovation at Scale
Learn how the University of Arkansas built a new, operational technology system to scale professional and workforce development programming and nurture credit-bearing pathways – all in less than a year! This session explores how shifting regulatory demands, surging enrollments, and third-party integrations pushed a team to replace outdated processes with a unified system built on Slate, automation, and a forward-thinking data model. Discover how design thinking and agile methods helped shift traditionalist culture, strengthen cross-campus collaboration, and enable scalable, learner-focused credentialing. Ideal for leaders focused on infrastructure, interoperability, and the future of credential innovation.
Partnering with Purpose: Navigating Third-Party Content in Workforce
Learn how to strategically evaluate and manage third-party educational content for noncredit and workforce programs. This session offers tools and real-world examples to help you build strong, mission-aligned partnerships that meet learner and employer needs.
Start-Up Stories: Influential Decisions When Launching a Credentialling Initiative
Institutions starting credentialing initiatives can benefit from hearing about different ways of approaching this challenging task from others. Listen to quickfire presentations from several institutions who have recently implemented a credentialing initiative. They will share what they are doing and the foundational decisions that were made to help their institutions achieve their success. Presentations will be followed by a 10-minute discussion based on questions posted by attendees. Participants will be invited to continue the conversation by joining a listserv for early implementers.