Validating Students' "Career-ready Skills": Lessons Learned (So Far) From a System-wide Digital Badging Initiative
Concurrent Session 5
Brief Abstract
Lessons learned from a 2-year, system-wide project that is collaboratively exploring the feasibility of digital badges, both for our students and for prospective employers.
Presenters
Extended Abstract
Traditional college transcripts communicate very little to prospective employers beyond the fact that a graduate has been taught a particular course and received a particular letter grade. As a more "granular" means for validating and representing what an individual knows and is able to do, digital badges promise to communicate to prospective employers what students have learned instead of just what students have been taught.
The University System of Maryland (USM) sees great potential in digital badges to help us validate and present the career-ready skills our graduates attain that are not particularly well illustrated by a university transcript, resume, and cover letter. The purpose of the USM Digital Badging initiative is, therefore, to collaboratively explore the feasibility of digital badges, both for our students (the badge earners) and for prospective employers (the badge consumers).
We recognize that not all students graduating from our institutions are sufficiently "career ready." Those who are often are unable to articulate and/or demonstrate the skills they possess. Our initiative goal is, therefore, to design, implement, and evaluate a constellation of complementary digital badges aimed at validating and communicating our graduates' career-ready skills. We are initiating this work because:
ï We want to motivate and incentivize students to obtain the requisite career-ready skills throughout their time with our institutions.
ï We want our students to be able to better communicate what they know and are able to do, translating their educational experiences to career-ready skills.
ï We want our institutions to be able to better communicate to employers what our students know and are able to do.
ï We want students to be able to differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace.
ï We want to help employers make better hires by improving fit and match between our students and open positions.
Our diverse project team is made up of a variety of career-placement, student affairs, academic affairs, instructional technology and innovation professionals from each of the five system institutions that are actively participating in the design process (Towson University, University of Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Maryland University College, and the Universities at Shady Grove). We are beginning this year by collaboratively developing one badge for testing as a proof of concept in AY 2016-17 at each of the USM institutions, including those not participating in the design process, if they are interested.
We are operating under the following "guardrails" or assumptions, which will likely be modified as we move through the process:
ï We have agreed to share information, insights, resources across institutions throughout this initiative.
ï We will work to assure this badge and potential future badges are "as open as possible." The badge(s) created will be open to all USM to start. The degree of "openness" may change over the course of the initiative.
ï The badges we create will address career ready skills, defined as the "resume worthy" competencies needed to obtain employment after college.
ï Badges will be created in collaboration with employers.
ï Any skill selected for badging will be one that is valued by employers for use in the hiring process.
ï Badges may be scaffolded or include a progression of skill development.
ï Evidence for earning badges will largely come from co-curricular experiences, and may also come from curricular experiences.
ï Badges developed will include a validation process (whether external or internal).
By April 2016, we will have decided which badge we will pilot, determined the criteria for earning the badge, created an assessment process, chosen a platform delivery, and developed an implementation strategy and communications plan.
In this session, a panel of project team members will share insights into how we identified the appropriate badge to pilot and discuss the design processes that went into creating the badge criteria and assessments. Panelists will also address both the opportunities and the barriers we have encountered along the way. Our plan is for the panelists to present for no more than 30 minutes total, sharing their unique perspectives from their diverse institution types. We will leave at least 15 minutes for active discussion and question and answers with the audience.
Panelists:
MJ Bishop
Director, Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, University System of Maryland
Beth Mulherrin
Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success, Center for Innovation in Learning and Student Success, University of Maryland University Center
Sherri Braxton-Lieber
Director of Instructional Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Paul Walsh
Assistant Vice President for Academic Innovation and Instructional Support, University of Baltimore
Jane Neapolitan
Assistant Provost for Academic Innovation, Towson University
Mary Lang
Chief Strategy Officer, Universities at Shady Grove