EWU Works to Implement Digital Credentialing

Eastern Washington University is working to implement a new Learning and Employment Records (LER) system to optimize digital credentialing to support student employment opportunities and lifelong learning.

EWU is now part of the LER Accelerator, a coalition of 13 higher education organizations that provided grant funding to 25 universities for a yearlong project to advance the development and adoption of LERs in postsecondary education. The project seeks to modernize how learning achievements and job skills are documented and recognized.

EWU’s project description says it will create “non-credit, micro-credentials aligned to high-demand degrees.” Those credentials will address employer-defined skills shortages and integrate a digital achievement wallet to provide secure, verifiable digital credentials that match students’ skills to job opportunities.

Dr. Christi Harter, assistant vice president of professional and continuing education at EWU, says the LERs provide a verified, digital record of a person’s learning and employment credentials.

“It’s like a resume on steroids,” Harter says.

The move to LER (verified credentials) technology aims to better align student records with skills-based hiring practices that are taking place throughout the country, she adds. The digital records can be transferred from one platform or digital wallet to another. They can also be used on application platforms for higher education or employment.

Eastern’s Professional and Continuing Education unit is currently in the early phases of providing digital credentials for all the certificates offered across EWU. In addition, the project will help develop a system to identify “micro-credentials” – skills gained through individual courses, research, internships and experiences.

“Our students attain applied learning experience – that’s part of what we’re doing as a polytechnic. We want to be able to document that experience as well as the skills earned through verified, digital credentials,” Harter says.

Digital LERs will provide students with lifelong ownership of their verified credentials, eliminating the need to order and pay for sealed transcripts. An added benefit is that the records can be built out over time to reflect skills gained over a lifetime.

Over the next year, the EWU Credentialing Committee, with IT’s approval, will evaluate which digital credentialing system best serves EWU students and the university. LER pilots have already taken place at EWU through technology companies IQ4 Corporation and Merit, and the digital badging technology Canvas Credentials is in the works to be contracted for a fall 2025 implementation through PCE. (Check out this video highlighting the EWU iQ4 pilot.)

“Really good digital wallets actually have an employer warehouse for the user to be able to apply for jobs inside of that platform,” Harter notes.

Harter says a representative of a major biotech company recently told an EWU faculty that students who have taken this one specific course have an advantage during the hiring process.

The digital credentialing provides degree-seeking students with “evidence of what they’ve been doing along the way so they can attain better employment as they are working toward their degree completion,” Harter explains.

For employers, digital LERs provide ready access to verified, tamper-evident records, combating fraud and improving hiring efficiency by potentially shaving weeks off the verification process for positions like nursing.

“I really think this will change lives and change how we approach not just post-secondary education but how we approach education and employment,” Harter says.

To learn more about other LER projects taking place throughout the United States, visit the LER Project Showcase website that Harter helped to develop.