This document provides a brief description of the 1EdTech Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) standard, sample statements for inclusion in an institutional RFI/RFP document, additional guidelines, and a sample set of requirements for a CLR-conformant credential management platform.
What is the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR)?
The CLR standard is a new generation of secure verifiable digital records for learners, supporting all types of learning experiences and achievements including degrees, courses, credentials, badges, skills, competencies, co-curricular achievements, prior learning, internships, and experiential learning.
CLR is designed to support traditional academic programs as well as co-curricular, competency-based education, and mastery-based learning to capture and communicate a learner's achievements in verifiable, digital form. Based on 1EdTech's work in digital credentials, and closely following the guidance and recommendations of AACRAO, the outcome is an example of a modern, web-friendly, machine-readable learner record, structured yet flexible enough to meet the needs of learners, registrars, and employers.
RFP Language and Resources for Procurement
The RFP/RFI process is an ideal time to ensure a commitment to open standards by an institution’s technology suppliers. The 1EdTech certification process guarantees that products are conformance certified for specific 1EdTech standards to ensure the interoperability of data between other similarly certified platforms. 1EdTech certification also indicates that the suppliers of certified products are committed to resolving issues related to their adoption of 1EdTech standards.
The following statements are recommended for use in RFPs. There
[Institution name] is committed to a digital teaching and learning digital ecosystem built on open standards for data interoperability.
and
The CLR platform must be certified by 1EdTech Consortium as conformant to the latest Comprehensive Learner Record standard available at https://www.imsglobal.org/clr. The vendor is also required to remain current with the subsequent Comprehensive Learner Record versions and receive certification within a “reasonable” time period.
or
We require [vendor/product] to obtain certification by 1EdTech Consortium as a CLR data [provider/consumer/both] as defined by the latest version of the CLR standard no later than [insert specific date]. The vendor is also required to remain current with the subsequent Comprehensive Learner Record versions and receive certification within a “reasonable” time period.
Additional Guidelines
- Verify at 1edtechcert.org that the supplier is 1EdTech certified for the Comprehensive Learner Record standard and have the supplier provide their certification number as listed in the 1EdTech Product Directory.
- An additional RFP resource is the Statement of Intent to Adopt 1EdTech Standards in a Timely Manner, created for institutions to use when guiding suppliers to support the most up-to-date features of the standard now and as the standard evolves.
- Request details from the supplier as to how their system/platform meets current industry standards for accessibility.
- As with all educational technology products, educational institutions are obligated to obtain and review the supplier’s policies and practices regarding issues such as terms of use, data privacy, information security, data ownership, data retention, accessibility, and more.
Resources
Comprehensive Learner Record, 1EdTech Consortium
AACRAO Guidance on the Review of the Comprehensive Learner Records (CLR) Standard
Procurement Guidance for Comprehensive Learner Record Systems
This document provides a brief description of the 1EdTech Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) standard, sample statements for inclusion in an institutional RFI/RFP document, additional guidelines, and a sample set of requirements for a CLR-conformant credential management platform.
SAMPLE RFP WITH REQUIREMENTS
Credential Management Platform for Comprehensive Learner Records
Request for Proposal Minimal Requirements
[Education provider] seeks to recognize and record its learners’ knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA’s) using interoperable and verifiable digital credentials that adhere to an open interoperable standard, the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) published by 1EdTech Consortium.
The education provider will be referred to in this document as the record publisher (“Publisher”). The CLR Publisher seeks to license software in the form of a Credential Management Platform (“Platform”) to create and manage its comprehensive learner records on behalf of its learners.
The Platform will serve as a central hub for the Publisher’s digital credentials, collecting achievement assertions from source systems, organizing the assertions into a CLR and publishing the standard format CLR record so each achievement is verifiable, manageable, and shareable online per the CLR standard implementation requirements.
Access to the CLR will be provided via computer or mobile device (“Wallet” via application or browser) for the learner to view, control, and securely share some or all of their achievements with others, such as employers, other education providers, and their social media networks.
The Platform must be capable of importing and/or creating, hosting, managing, curating, and sharing and exporting CLR records in whole or in part under the learner’s control. The Platform will be integrated with the Publisher’s administrative data systems via published open integration standards. The Publisher may choose to make the Platform available to the learner after their enrollment or employment as applicable.
The Platform shall allow the Publisher to elect the applicable form of record security among the options of a digital signature, hosted verification, or blockchain verification.
Work products created by the learner as evidence and demonstration of their knowledge, skills, and abilities will be stored within the access and control of the learner for an explicit time period and accessible from the Platform as embedded content or via link sharing.
At its discretion, the Publisher may also record certain achievement assertions as Open Badges in a form the learner can share via social media platforms.
Requirements for Credential Management Platform
1.1 Importing Achievement Assertions–the Platform will:
1.1.1 Integrate with Publisher’s student information system to populate eligible learners upon enrollment/employment and changes to their status
1.1.2 Integrate with the Publisher's official data source for student-specific academic data to populate academic achievement assertions at the time they are updated in the system of record, preferably using the standard REST-based API. Achievement Types: Course Completions, Certificates, Degrees
1.1.3 Integrate with Publisher’s learning system(s) and tools that evaluate competencies and co-curricular achievements (Achievement Evaluation System), preferably using standard REST-based API. Achievement Types: Competencies, Co-Curricular, Assessments, General Achievements
1.1.4 Support the capture via user interface of all achievement types that are not available in the systems above
1.1.5 Consolidate individual achievement assertions imported from source systems into a single CLR record per learner per Publisher
1.1.6 Verify the authenticity of achievements assertions issued by Publisher via industry-standard Digital Signature, Host-Response or optionally, Blockchain verification
1.2 Provide Learner Curation Capability–the Platform will:
1.2.1 Provide a viewer for the learner to see their achievement assertions and related data
1.2.2 Provide the learner the ability to create one or more “Custom Collection” CLR’s containing achievement assertions created by an official issuer or self-asserted.
1.2.3 Provide the ability to create self-assertions that are not verifiable
as officially issued assertions but are available in a Custom Collection
1.2.4 Provide the learner the ability to export their CLR data in standard form into an offline file in the event they wish to no longer use the Credential Management Platform
1.3 Sharing–the Platform will:
1.3.1 Provide the ability to share an officially published CLR or a self-published CLR with a 3rd party via link protected using industry-standard authorization methods
1.3.2 Provide a CLR viewer to parties that receive links to CLR records from the learner
1.3.3 Provide indicators and counts of access when shared CLR records are viewed
1.4 Technical Requirements–the Platform will:
1.4.1 Import, export, and shared in JSON-LD format adhering to the 1EdTech Comprehensive Learner Record standard now-current version
1.4.2 Sharing shall be performed using OAuth2 and security specified in the 1EdTech CLR Specification
1.4.3 The Platform shall possess for the duration of the license term an up-to-date Certificate of Compliance issued by 1EdTech Consortium demonstrating the CLR records it exports and shares are 100% interoperable with other Platforms.
Optional Elements
2.1 The Platform will issue an Open Badge for achievement assertions selected by the Publisher for visual recognition and learner’s sharing on social platforms. Such achievements will also be within the CLR record.
2.2 Connect to Publisher’s student information system using 1EdTech OneRoster to populate eligible learners upon enrollment
2.3 The Platform will provide for blockchain-based verification of the CLR’s ownership
2.4 The Platform will support the emerging W3C Decentralized Identifiers specification 2.5. The Platform will support the W3C Verifiable Credentials “Envelope” specification with 1EdTech Comprehensive Learner Record as the “Letter”
SAMPLE RFP WITH REQUIREMENTS
Credential Management Platform for Comprehensive Learner Records
Request for Proposal Minimal Requirements
[Education provider] seeks to recognize and record its learners’ knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA’s) using interoperable and verifiable digital credentials that adhere to an open interoperable standard, the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) published by 1EdTech Consortium.
The education provider will be referred to in this document as the record publisher (“Publisher”). The CLR Publisher seeks to license software in the form of a Credential Management Platform (“Platform”) to create and manage its comprehensive learner records on behalf of its learners.
The Platform will serve as a central hub for the Publisher’s digital credentials, collecting achievement assertions from source systems, organizing the assertions into a CLR and publishing the standard format CLR record so each achievement is verifiable, manageable, and shareable online per the CLR standard implementation requirements.
Access to the CLR will be provided via computer or mobile device (“Wallet” access via application, browser, or both) for the learner to view, control, and securely share some or all of their achievements with others, such as employers, other education providers, and social media.
The Platform must be capable of importing and/or creating, hosting, managing, curating, and sharing and exporting CLR records in whole or in part under the learner’s control. The Platform will be integrated with the Publisher’s administrative data systems via published open integration standards. The Publisher may choose to make the Platform available to the learner after their enrollment or employment as applicable.
The Platform shall allow the Publisher to elect the applicable form of record security among the options of a digital signature, hosted verification, or blockchain verification.
Work products created by the learner as evidence and demonstration of their knowledge, skills, and abilities will be stored within the access and control of the learner for an explicit time period and accessible from the Platform as embedded content or via link sharing.
At its discretion, the Publisher may also represent / record certain achievement assertions as Open Badges in a form the learner can share via social media platforms.
Requirements for Credential Management Platform
1.1 Importing Achievement Assertions–the Platform will:
1.1.1 Integrate with Publisher’s student information system, or other system of record to populate eligible learners upon enrollment/employment and changes to their status
1.1.2 Integrate with the Publisher's official academic gradebook or other system of record to populate academic achievement assertions at the time they are updated in the system of record, preferably using the standard REST-based API. Achievement Types: Course Completions, Certificates, Degrees
1.1.3 Integrate with Publisher’s learning system(s) and tools that assess competence around knowledge, skills, abilities, including academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular achievements (Achievement Evaluation System), preferably using standard REST-based API. Achievement Types: Competencies, Co-Curricular, Assessments, General Achievements
1.1.4 Support the capture via user interface of all achievement types that are not available in the systems above
1.1.5 Consolidate individual achievement assertions imported from source systems, including those issued from other credentially tools into a single CLR record per learner per Publisher
1.1.6 Verify the authenticity of achievements assertions issued by Publisher via industry-standard Digital Signature, Host-Response or optionally, Blockchain verification
1.2 Provide Learner Curation Capability–the Platform will:
1.2.1 Provide a viewer for the learner to see their achievement assertions and related data
1.2.2 Provide the learner the ability to create one or more “Custom Collection” CLR’s containing achievement assertions created by an official issuer or self-issued.
1.2.3 Provide the ability to create self-issued assertions that are not verifiableas officially issued assertions but are available in a Custom Collection
1.2.4 Provide the learner the ability to export their CLR data in standard form into an offline file in the event they wish to no longer use the Credential Management Platform
1.3 Sharing–the Platform will:
1.3.1 Provide the ability to share an officially published CLR or a self-published CLR with a 3rd party via link protected using industry-standard authorization methods
1.3.2 Provide a CLR viewer to parties that receive links to CLR records from the learner
1.3.3 Provide indicators and counts of access when shared CLR records are viewed
1.4 Technical Requirements–the Platform will:
1.4.1 Import, export, and shared in JSON-LD format adhering to the 1EdTech Comprehensive Learner Record standard now-current version
1.4.2 Sharing shall be performed using OAuth2 and security specified in the 1EdTech CLR Specification
1.4.3 The Platform shall possess for the duration of the license term an up-to-date Certificate of Compliance issued by 1EdTech Consortium demonstrating the CLR records it exports and shares are 100% interoperable with other Platforms.
Optional Elements
2.1 The Platform will issue an Open Badge for achievement assertions selected by the Publisher for visual recognition and learner’s sharing on social media platforms. Such achievements will also be represented within the CLR record.
2.2 Connect to Publisher’s student information system using 1EdTech OneRoster to populate eligible learners upon enrollment
2.3 The Platform will provide for blockchain-based verification of the CLR’s ownership
2.4 The Platform will support the emerging W3C Decentralized Identifiers specification 2.5. The Platform will support the W3C Verifiable Credentials “Envelope” specification with 1EdTech Comprehensive Learner Record as the “Letter”