Dive Brief:

• Learning Machine, an ed tech company that offers data-driven software to help admissions officers shape their incoming classes, has partnered with Credly, which created a platform to give, receive and display digital badges and credentials.
• Campus Technology reports the partnership will give admissions officers the opportunity to consider competency-based learning experiences from prospective students.
• Dan Hughes, president and COO of Learning Machine says he expects digital credentials to become a standard part of the admissions process and “the common currency of a global job market.”

Dive Insight:

With a variety of ways to earn badges and credentials for skill and knowledge acquisition, today’s students need more opportunities to display their learning and experiences than traditional resumes or transcripts allow. Learning Machine’s expansion into the world of digital portfolios will give the users of its software a new way to consider them.

The Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success is pushing a portfolio approach to preparing for college admissions, giving students access to a digital locker in which to save their best work throughout high school and pull from it as they compile their college applications. While the locker can store videos and other types of multimedia work, many colleges will not accept any elements through the Coalition app that are not accepted through their traditional application process, so students applying in one system do not get an unfair advantage.