Competencies and skills are fast becoming the currency of the labor market and it is something that the cannabis industry needs to keep in mind. To build a framework for recognizing and validating skills, from corporations to universities, and K-12 schools are turning to digital credentials. Developing a robust digital credentialing program takes some planning, but a thoughtful approach can bring big benefits.
Credentialing services help trace learning outcomes, possibly across businesses and platforms, in a standardized, evidence-based way that should also be subject to public scrutiny. Since we know what they are, perhaps the better question to ask today is: How are these credentialing services helping to overcome the many challenges facing training today?
Taking a look at Credly or Badgr, some of the more popular credentialing systems can give us a sense of their value today, even if their results are not very inspiring. Many of the same lessons used to apply to Mozilla Backpack, an open-source solution that as of this month is no longer a priority for the open-source development organization.
Badge Best Practices
It’s not that digital badges are not welcomed. Many companies have excelled at creating seamless integrations in systems such as Moodle for a long time. If the ecosystem is properly built, badges do add value to the existing experience.
Organizations can trust the badges they award to keep track of the upskilling processes and the professional development programs they offer to employees.
Badges and Certificates… and Blockchain?
Using badges (or any type of credential) can add transparency, and quality, and even correlate with engagement in the cannabis industry. A credentialing solution can bridge the many understanding gaps between employees and their training and would certainly have a winning advantage.
These different methods will validate learning through track recording, but requirements in quality, effort, or legitimacy still vary widely. For better or worse, knowing the basics of blockchain technology is enough to influence the judgment over credentialing, given their evident overlap.
There is nothing you cannot do without, in terms of building ledgers of past transactions, and in this regard, virtually everyone stands to benefit one way or other. This means the current situation can be frustrating on either side, but widespread acceptance continues to be their biggest challenge.
Tackling Critical Skills
But let’s focus on chairs for a minute. If chairs, where scientists sit to write their papers, became a million times cheaper, how many times over should we expect the rate of scientific discovery to multiply?
No, but it can be similarly misleading to claim that digital credentialing solutions will play an essential role in the spread of critical thinking or future-proof skills.
They may make it easier to post badges on LinkedIn, but it is unclear how users are unfamiliar with the training provider‘s reputation to be able to confidently validate a given credential presented to them.
Credentials & Reputation Systems
Another possible limitation of credentialing systems currently is the dependence on current reputation systems.
If all they amount to do today is streamline the issuing and storage functions of already reputable organizations, it is hard to argue that we are witnessing a ground-breaking technology that would benefit smaller, evidence-based learning organizations.
Do They Work w/ Moodle?
The Credly plugin for Moodle integrates with your Credly Open Credit API, it is an independent plugin and it is compatible with Moodle.
Let us know what you think.
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