Acclaim has switched to Credly, added confusion

[ashkir]

Personally I like the new system and Acclaim.

I work for a tech company, this company has used Acclaim for a few years before ACE got added. So, these badges are already common in our world. I actually am required at work to have my licensure badges in my signature for all emails so clients can be aware I am "licensed" in them. 

ACE using Acclaim isn't a big jump, when Acclaim has become the standard for business / tech industry to "reward" users for learning a complex topic.

You don’t have to use ACE. this is what ACE decided to do. Now it’s free and the three universities I sent acclaim to had no issue with it.
But licensing/certification badges aren't the same as academic courses for credit. Those belong on a standard transcript. I recently had to convince someone in admissions that these "badges" meant something. When many of us were having trouble getting certain Sophia badges added to Acclaim, it was hard to explain that I took and passed the courses but Sophia couldn't generate badges for them... the admissions person was like "We don't care about badges, we just need to see an official transcript with a passing mark." I had to explain that these badges ARE the transcript now. It was ridiculous. Like I was in grade school talking about gold stars and smiley faces on my test papers.

If Acclaim/Credly wants to award badges to display on LinkedIn or what have you, fine. But they shouldn't REPLACE the transcript. We should be able to choose to send traditional transcripts to educational institutions or generate badges for other uses.

Personally I like the new system and Acclaim.

I work for a tech company, this company has used Acclaim for a few years before ACE got added. So, these badges are already common in our world. I actually am required at work to have my licensure badges in my signature for all emails so clients can be aware I am "licensed" in them. 

ACE using Acclaim isn't a big jump, when Acclaim has become the standard for business / tech industry to "reward" users for learning a complex topic.

But licensing/certification badges aren't the same as academic courses for credit. Those belong on a standard transcript. I recently had to convince someone in admissions that these "badges" meant something. When many of us were having trouble getting certain Sophia badges added to Acclaim, it was hard to explain that I took and passed the courses but Sophia couldn't generate badges for them... the admissions person was like "We don't care about badges, we just need to see an official transcript with a passing mark." I had to explain that these badges ARE the transcript now. It was ridiculous. Like I was in grade school talking about gold stars and smiley faces on my test papers.

If Acclaim/Credly wants to award badges to display on LinkedIn or what have you, fine. But they shouldn't REPLACE the transcript. We should be able to choose to send traditional transcripts to educational institutions or generate badges for other uses.

This x100. It's not as big a deal with schools that welcome alt credit with open arms - but try sending a Credly "transcript" to a school that rarely deals with ACE credit... they're just going to laugh at it.

I feel if the school rarely deals with ACE the chance of the, accepting it to begin with is rare. Which is why you should talk to them before enrolling.

[dbinghamjr]

I feel if the school rarely deals with ACE the chance of the, accepting it to begin with is rare. Which is why you should talk to them before enrolling.

It's more about getting a registrar's office to understand what you sent them... a traditional transcript, no problem, it'll be handled like anything else. A 25-page picture book from "Credly"... not so much.

I just feel like ACE devalued what they do drastically with this transition, but, oh well, there's nothing anyone here can do.

[natshar]

I went to a B&M state school that does accept ACE. But you need an official copy of the syllabus and an official ACE transcript. They do rarely deal with it, but I was told that students in the past have gotten credit for ALEKS and Straighterline via ACE. Ultimately the process seemed complicated, but it seemed like the more "official" looking everything looked the more likely it would be accepted.

[monchevy]

To me, badges give the impression of MOOCs or Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning courses. They don't convey the legitimacy of academic credit. Credly should offer us the option of a regular transcript to be sent to colleges/universities. But knowing them, they'd use Comic Sans. I just don't understand why everything has to be dumbed down and infantilized in our society these days. Adults don't (or shouldn't) need everything reduced to a video game or comic book mentality. Especially not higher education.

[ashkir]

The ACE decision to move to Acclaim was spearheaded by Lumina Foundation. https://www.luminafoundation.org/

The reason why was because they are moving to digital credentials, because it is relevant to the new market, as previous posts say for the tech market most notably. MicroCredentials are on the rise, and ACE wants to be involved in this. ACE being college credit is a bonus as well.

ACE's goal with Acclaim is to be closer to Employers not closer to Universities. They're targeting employers.

[monchevy]

The ACE decision to move to Acclaim was spearheaded by Lumina Foundation. https://www.luminafoundation.org/

The reason why was because they are moving to digital credentials, because it is relevant to the new market, as previous posts say for the tech market most notably. MicroCredentials are on the rise, and ACE wants to be involved in this. ACE being college credit is a bonus as well.

ACE's goal with Acclaim is to be closer to Employers not closer to Universities. They're targeting employers.

Microcredentials are fine, but they have nothing to do with taking ACE-recommended courses for college credit. Those of us who need transcripts for that purpose should not have cutesy badges forced on us with no option to choose a traditional transcript instead. 

We're not all 22 and we don't all work in tech. And if an employer really needs to see an image of a prize ribbon to comprehend that a course was passed, then we really have regressed as a society and become a nation of idiots.

[rachel83az]

Not all of my badges are "employer appropriate". Most employers do not need to see that I successfully passed Visual Communications or Macroeconomics at Sophia. Personally, I find the mixing of "public" and "private" badges to be somewhat embarassing.

[dfrecore]

The ACE decision to move to Acclaim was spearheaded by Lumina Foundation. https://www.luminafoundation.org/

The reason why was because they are moving to digital credentials, because it is relevant to the new market, as previous posts say for the tech market most notably. MicroCredentials are on the rise, and ACE wants to be involved in this. ACE being college credit is a bonus as well.

ACE's goal with Acclaim is to be closer to Employers not closer to Universities. They're targeting employers.

That doesn't mean they can't issue college credit on a transcript.  Otherwise, what's the point of something being worth COLLEGE credit?  Most employers don't want to see that you've taken Sociology.  They want a credential that means something, or a college degree.  Simply passing a course means zero to an employer.

[ashkir]

It is the direction ACE has decided to take. If you don't like their new direction contact them on their website: https://americancounciloned.formstack.co...ce_contact

[monchevy]

The ACE decision to move to Acclaim was spearheaded by Lumina Foundation. https://www.luminafoundation.org/

The reason why was because they are moving to digital credentials, because it is relevant to the new market, as previous posts say for the tech market most notably. MicroCredentials are on the rise, and ACE wants to be involved in this. ACE being college credit is a bonus as well.

ACE's goal with Acclaim is to be closer to Employers not closer to Universities. They're targeting employers.

That doesn't mean they can't issue college credit on a transcript.  Otherwise, what's the point of something being worth COLLEGE credit?  Most employers don't want to see that you've taken Sociology.  They want a credential that means something, or a college degree.  Simply passing a course means zero to an employer.

Exactly. Badges are for LinkedIn or email signatures. Transcripts are for college credit. There's no reason Credly can't separate the two purposes. You want to show off your certification on LinkedIn with a badge, have at it! But college courses taken for credit and sent to a school should be on a transcript. It can't be too hard to offer the option to choose which format you want to use for which type of credential.

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It is the direction ACE has decided to take. If you don't like their new direction contact them on their website: https://americancounciloned.formstack.co...ce_contact

We have chosen to discuss it here, in a thread that was started for that purpose.