This is an update to the original blog published on February 15, 2024.
With the increased interest in skills- and competency-based hiring and evolving expectations being put on educational institutions, learners need a better way to share their knowledge, skills, and achievements. At 1EdTech, we believe flexible, verifiable credentials that capture a learner's entire journey, from K-12 to college and career, are the best way to support learner success. Three technical standards serve as the pillars of digital credentials: Open Badges 3.0, CLR Standard® 2.0, and CASE® 1.1. They form the foundation for a trusted and interoperable ecosystem that empowers learners and unlocks new opportunities.
Let's explore how these three pillars work together and their significance:
Pillar 1: Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange® 1.1 (CASE) - The Standardized Exchange Format for Skills, Competencies, and Academic Standards
Imagine a world where learning standards, competencies, and skills are linked across platforms, applications, and organizations from a single official source. CASE provides a standard way to exchange information about academic standards, skills, and competencies, transforming the curriculum frameworks into both human and machine-readable formats. So, for example, your course learning resources and assessments can be aligned to your academic standards, competencies, or skills. With digital credentials, the badges and learner records can be aligned to the official issuer's framework of competencies, skills, and academic standards, and so can the verification of official knowledge and skills.
Technical Deep Dive: CASE utilizes the JSON format and its Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs), which can be used to metatag learning resources and credentials to standards, competencies, and skills. By embedding CASE GUIDs in Open Badges and CLRs, learners and issuing organizations can ensure their achievements clearly map to skills, competencies, and academic standards. This mapping facilitates automated validation and comparison across different learning contexts.
Learner Impact: CASE ensures the learner's achievements are connected to the official competency, skill, or standard. By embedding the corresponding CASE GUID in a verifiable credential, it draws a clear connection to the official issuer's curriculum framework. CASE also helps make it easier for educators to identify standards-aligned learning resources to design instruction, track progress and mastery, and provide supplemental resources for students who need it based on their organization's official learning standards, competencies, and skills. Academic standards, competencies, and skills translated into the CASE digital format can also be accessible through CASE Network 2, a central repository of academic standards.
Pillar 2: Open Badges 3.0 - The Visible Recognition
Open Badges are visual tokens of achievement that are easily shared and displayed in wallets, resumes, websites, and social media. The latest version of the standard offers enhanced security and flexibility, adopting W3C’s Verifiable Credentials (VCs) standard to ensure tamper-proof validation. Issuers can embed rich metadata describing the assessment, the earning criteria, and even evidence to support the achievement and the alignment to competency and skills frameworks. Digital Credentials also support endorsements of the issuer, the earner, and the achievement itself.
Technical Deep Dive: Open Badges 3.0 utilizes JSON-LD data formatting. Using CASE to connect published skills, competency, and academic standard frameworks to badge metadata is crucial for linking achievements to specific learning standards. This allows employers and institutions to gain greater context to the knowledge and skills represented in the badge in a machine-readable format, facilitating accurate competency assessments.
Learner Impact: With Open Badges 3.0, learners gain an acknowledgment of their accomplishments, showcasing their skills and expertise to potential employers or additional education institutions. They control the sharing of their badges and the valuable data within, empowering them to curate and present their learning journey on their terms.
Pillar 3: Comprehensive Learner Record Standard™ 2.0 (CLR Standard) - The Comprehensive Narrative
Imagine a personal learning portfolio that goes beyond traditional transcripts. CLR Standard 2.0 acts as a secure container for all learning experiences, including badges, courses, certifications, and even informal learning activities. This holistic record paints a detailed picture of a learner's skills, knowledge, and progress over time. You might even have more than one CLR over your learning and employment journey!
Technical Deep Dive: The CLR Standard 2.0 also utilizes the Verifiable Credentials (VCs) Data Standard, ensuring secure and verifiable data exchange. The CLR Standard contains a variety of credentials and also allows for explaining the relationship between the items in the CLR. For example, giving credit for various courses while showing how they add up to a degree. Integrating CASE links allows the learner, issuer, or receiver to align learning experiences with relevant academic standards, competencies, and skills frameworks, adding contextual richness to the CLR.
Learner Impact: CLRs empower learners with ownership of their learning history. They can curate their CLR along with other credentials and share them with potential employers or institutions, tailoring their narrative to specific opportunities. This comprehensive record demonstrates transferable skills and lifelong learning journeys, highlighting their diverse skill sets.
Combining the Pillars: A Synergistic Powerhouse
Open Badges showcase achievements, CLR paints the narrative, and CASE helps provide the context through linked data (identifiers to the CASE frameworks). The combined power of these pillars creates a trusted, interoperable ecosystem for digital credentials. Imagine a learner earning an Open Badge for completing a microcredential aligned with specific CASE academic standards, competencies, or skills captured in their CLR. This powerful combination provides a clear, verifiable representation of their skills, instantly understood by potential employers and institutions.
A Call to Action
We urge our members to embrace and implement these standards.
We can build a robust ecosystem that empowers learners and simplifies credential evaluation by issuing high-quality Open Badges, contributing verifiable data to CLRs, and embedding CASE GUIDs associated with the original CASE framework. Let's work together to make this vision a reality, where every learner has the tools to share their journey and unlock their full potential.
You can learn more about our work and attend a boot camp that shows the connection between the standards at the Digital Credentials Summit in Phoenix, Arizona, March 3-5, 2025.
Find products certified in Open Badges, CLR, and CASE in 1EdTech’s TrustEd Apps™ Directory and TrustEd Apps Management Suite (TAMS).
To learn more about our standards, watch these new 5-minute videos!
- 1EdTech Open Badges 3.0 (in 5 Minutes)
- 1EdTech CASE Network 2 (in 5 Minutes)
About the Authors
Rob Coyle
As 1EdTech’s program manager for digital credentials, Rob Coyle is committed to expanding the success of digital credentials with Open Badges and the Comprehensive Learner Record Standard to support learning and acknowledge the skills and competencies mastered through formal and informal education and life experiences. Rob recognizes the limitless opportunities that arise from meaningful discussions between education institutions, edtech suppliers, and learning providers to understand the needs of all stakeholders.
Rob brings his experience working with a wide variety of educators and edtech suppliers from K-12, higher education, and corporate training and development. Rob’s career as a teacher and collaborator with other educators allowed him to help learners acquire knowledge and develop new skills through meaningful learning experiences in various disciplines. Rob is an avid supporter of meeting learners where they are and recognizing that not all learning occurs in a classroom with a textbook. These experiences made Rob an avid supporter of the open community, including open-source technologies and open education resources.
Rob graduated from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, with a Master of Education degree focused on education administration and edtech administration.
Susan Haught
Susan Haught is the digital curriculum program manager at 1EdTech. Her passion involves education technology leadership strategies that positively impact teaching and learning, supporting students and teachers in achieving their goals. She has 18 years of academic and technical professional experience working in K-12 and higher education, focusing on education technology leadership, instructional design, IT project management, professional learning, and classroom teaching.
Susan’s unique 360-degree perspective features diverse professional experience in education technology, including classroom instruction (K-12), student support services (higher education), and technology and operations (K-12 and higher education).
Susan holds an M.Ed. in Education Technology Leadership and a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies.
