Dive Brief:

• The IMS Global Learning Consortium has announced a new initiative to support digital credentials like Mozilla’s badges.
• Campus Technology reports the IMS Digital Credentialing Initiative will promote the “adoption, integration and transferability of digital credentials."
• The learning consortium’s work will ensure the evolution of digital credentials meets the needs of education institutions as well as employers making hiring decisions based on such badges.

Dive Insight:

Badges and other digital credentials may provide the biggest challenge to traditional higher education’s market dominance yet. One of the major drawbacks of nontraditional coursework is the lack of brand recognition by employers. If employers can gauge the actual skillset of prospective employees with detailed digital proof of their proficiencies, the need to know and trust the credential-granting institution lessens. Some argue that will shift the balance of power in higher education. At the very least, the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s latest initiative will speed up the progress toward successful digital credentialing.