Alternate Credential Forum to Challenge the Thinking of Educators

BOSTON - May 27, 2014 - PRLog -- What is a degree?  What is a badge?  What credential really acknowledges you know what you know?   Is there a new way to measure learning?   That is the subject of a forum being held on the campus of UMass Boston on Thursday June 12.

Presented by the Center for Innovation and Excellence in eLearning (CIEE), housed in the College of Advancing and Professional Studies, the Forum will be exploring new forms of credentialing within a higher education context and will provide forum participants with the opportunity to discuss how the Alternate Credentialing Movement is shaping new ways colleges and universities are preparing people for careers and professional advancement through the use of flexible, open, portable symbols of an accomplishment, skill or competency.

Under the direction of CIEE director Alan Girelli, the forum will feature keynote addresses by Erin Knight, formerly of Mozilla Foundation and now Executive Director of Badge Alliance and Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and CEO of Credly.

The Mozilla Foundation and Credly are deeply involved with the digital badge movement and how competencies are measured.  Badges are gaining traction with employers and education institutions as a new currency in competencies.

“This is a natural progression from the MOOCs UMass Boston has developed and offered and is an important part of the discussion of Open Resource Education,” says Girelli.   “From personal growth to being able to present a verifiable set of credentials to an employer, the Alternate Credentialing movement is picking up steam."

"We plan to gather data, publish research in our newly launch CIEE journal and to lead the conversation," he adds. "This forum and our research will advance the thinking of educators, corporations and students toward a better definition of what being an educated adult means.”

For more information http://www.umb.edu/academics/caps/centers/ciee/events