By Michelle Mott, AACRAO Consultant, Innovative Credentials Project Manager
The recent 1EdTech Consortium Digital Credentials Summit in Philadelphia, PA, brought together institutions, technologists, and policy leaders focused on the future of digital credentialing. And AACRAO members were front and center.
Across three sessions, AACRAO representatives and institutional partners shared practical progress on the Project Infuse, the GitLab AI for Economic Opportunity, and LER Accelerator initiatives. The message was clear: digital credentials are no longer theoretical. The work is happening in registrars’ offices, IT systems, curriculum committees, and cross-campus coalitions.
Here’s what AACRAO members need to know.
Project Infuse: Building Foundational Infrastructure
Project Infuse is AACRAO’s effort to create a public-good infrastructure for digital credentials, an interoperability layer that works across institutions and credential types. The goal is straightforward: make credential exchange as seamless as possible, whether the record represents a degree, certificate, badge, or verified skill.
The model follows five core steps:
Ingest and transform institutional records into digital credential objects.
Infer learning outcomes and competencies from existing curricular data using AI.
Issue credentials with transparency about what is institution-validated versus AI-derived.
Register credentials for public verification.
Place them into learner-controlled wallets.
For AACRAO members, one point resonated strongly: institutions do not need to redesign their curriculum or replace core systems to begin. Project Infuse starts with what institutions already produce—transcripts, degrees, and certificates—and builds from there.
GitLab: Supporting the 37 Million Some College, No Credential Learners
AACRAO also highlighted progress on its GitLab AI for Economic Opportunity initiative, which focuses on the approximately 37 million learners who attended college but did not complete a credential. Using AI, the project extracts learning outcomes from course catalogs and syllabi and builds a registry of course-level skills. A student’s academic history can then be matched against that registry to generate a skills profile, even years after they stopped out.
For registrars and enrollment leaders, this work reframes the transcript as a starting point rather than an endpoint. It offers a way to translate existing academic records into something more legible to employers and more actionable for learners.
A key lesson from early pilots: implementation requires student education and institutional alignment. Technology alone is not enough. Learners must understand what a skills profile is and how to use it.
LER Accelerator: What It Really Takes on Campus
Perhaps the most candid and connective session of the summit brought together institutional partners from the LER Accelerator to talk honestly about what it actually takes to move this work on a campus. The conversation featured Insiya Bream, Registrar and Associate Vice President at University of Maryland Global Campus, Keisha Campbell, University Registrar and Executive Director at Morgan State University, and Julia Spears, Assistant Provost of Online Education and Certification, Academic Affairs at Marshall University—each institution at a different stage, each navigating different obstacles, and each offering hard-won perspective.
Three themes stood out:
- This is cross-campus work.
Successful institutions are engaging registrars, IT, provost offices, workforce leaders, and general counsel. Framing the work around strategic goals — student success, workforce alignment, evidence of learning — helps broaden support. - The biggest barriers are procedural, not philosophical.
Few policies explicitly prohibit innovation. More often, legacy system configurations, historical data practices, and inherited workflows create friction. Mapping those systems is foundational work. - Pilots surface clarity.
Institutions shared examples ranging from recognizing durable skills in workforce programs to unbundling courses into industry-aligned certifications. Working with real students in real systems quickly reveals what must change.
The 1EdTech Consortium standards framework was discussed as an important scaffolding for ensuring stackability and interoperability across these efforts.
Why This Matters for AACRAO Members
Across all sessions, one theme connected the work: infrastructure and practice must move together. Digital credentials are not simply new artifacts. They touch transcript policy, system architecture, data governance, academic approval processes, and learner communication: core areas of AACRAO expertise.
The work shared in Philadelphia demonstrated that meaningful progress is possible without wholesale institutional redesign. It begins with careful mapping, cross-functional coalitions, and a willingness to pilot. AACRAO will continue advancing this work alongside members. If you are exploring digital credentials, skills articulation, or Learning and Employment Records on your campus, we welcome the conversation.