By Mike Simmons, Ph.D., Associate Executive Director, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships Division
Key Takeaways
As stewards of institutional records, registrars bring essential expertise to microcredentialing programs. Their involvement ensures digital credentials are developed with the same structure, transparency, and trust as traditional degrees—critical for legitimacy and learner mobility.
Innovative credentials like Open Badges and the Comprehensive Learner Record provide verifiable, skill-rich documentation that maps learning outcomes directly to workforce needs. They help learners showcase job-ready competencies while giving employers deeper insights into candidates' capabilities.
Digital credentials are no longer an innovation on the sidelines; they're becoming a defining feature of modern higher education and a promising way to support learner mobility. As custodians of institutional credentials, registrars bring unique and valuable insight to microcredentialing programs, while those programs can amplify efforts to support learner mobility.
To provide the value they promise, these new forms of recognition demand the same level of integrity, structure, and trust that traditional degrees have long carried. Involving registrars while developing these programs ensures that microcredentials are implemented with the consistency, transparency, and alignment needed to truly serve students and stand up to real-world scrutiny.
Meeting the Needs of Learners and Employers
The efforts around learner mobility and digital credentials are gaining momentum because they prioritize the needs and interests of learners today and into the future. They do this by creating direct connections between what students learn and the skills and competencies employers are looking for.
With digital credentialing standards like 1EdTech’s Open Badges and the CLR, institutions can issue verified, data-rich credentials that employers can trust. These credentials enhance a learner’s story, giving additional context to their academic and co-curricular achievements.
A Credential is a Credential
It is important to note that these credentials can be used to enhance and expand the traditional transcript, not replace it. The shift towards learner-focused records signals a move towards empowering individuals with greater agency over their learning journeys and the documentation thereof, potentially disrupting traditional institutional control over educational records. This evolution emphasizes a more holistic view of learning, capturing a wider array of skills and experiences directly relevant to the learner's goals.
By recognizing achievements in and out of the classroom as they’re earned, learners can immediately reap the benefits of those achievements; by validating skills gained outside of the classroom, employers get a fuller picture of the learners’ abilities; credentials allow learners to see the benefits and value of the education they are receiving in real time; and they give institutions more flexibility to support degree completion on the learner’s schedule.
Registrars, as the keepers of institutional records, are perfectly positioned to guide credentialing strategy. To provide all the benefits listed, credentials must carry the same clarity and weight as degrees, and they must integrate cleanly with existing records, all of which registrars are uniquely familiar with.
Case Study: University of Texas Austin
We can see the benefit registrars bring to the microcredentialing conversation at UT Austin, where the initiative moved from Extended Education Ventures to Academic Affairs and now lives in the Registrar’s Office. The university formalized its badging process, even though the badges aren’t for credit or part of degree programs, ensuring that all credentials represent assessed mastery and verified achievement.
To ensure quality, UT Austin implemented:
A “Care of Terminology” document
Required training for all badge issuers
Standardized templates for badge design
A community of practice to guide and support faculty and staff
These practices have enabled UT Austin to offer digital credentials that enhance, rather than dilute, the value of their degrees.
UT Austin now offers badges like:
Texas Educator Mental Health Training, fulfilling a requirement for teacher licensure
Data Analytics for Advertising and PR, showcasing job-ready skills
A five-badge pathway for student mentors, recognizing interpersonal and leadership abilities
These digital credentials provide targeted value for learners and employers while upholding academic rigor and trust.
It’s Time to Get Involved
The LER Accelerator (both 1EdTech and ̽»¨Â¥ are members) recently released a calling for clearer communication between educators, learners, and employers. This requires educational institutions to adequately translate learning into skills and competencies that learners can demonstrate to employers, empowering individuals to manage and share their credentials throughout their careers.
reinforces the importance of registrar input across all stages of planning and implementation.
Both and ̽»¨Â¥ host opportunities to learn more about credentials and how to implement a microcredential program year-round. Visit their websites for more information.
About the Authors
Kelly Hoyland is the Director for Postsecondary Education & Workforce Programs at 1EdTech, where she leads initiatives to advance digital learning and credentialing. In this role, she collaborates with members to address the challenges they face in the evolving digital learning landscape, focusing on making life achievements more accessible, personalized, and equitable for all learners across K-12, higher education, and corporate sectors.
Mike Simmons, Ph.D., is the Associate Executive Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at ̽»¨Â¥, where he manages a portfolio of external grants and special projects, with a particular focus on CLRs.