Credential Engine Technical Site

Opportunity to Provide Input

Credential Engine is convening a focus group of subject matter experts to review and provide feedback on a proposed approach to enhancing the way the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) describes different types of credentials and qualifications.

The goal is to ensure that CTDL fully represents the many distinct credential and qualification types defined within national and regional qualification systems worldwide.

Background

In many parts of the world, the terms credential and qualification are used interchangeably. Most countries have qualification systems that define types of credentials, describe their key characteristics, and position them within a progression of learning or occupational levels.

The CTDL already includes numerous, well-defined types of credentials and qualifications—such as degrees, diplomas, certificates, badges, and licenses. These high-level classes support broad, consistent descriptions across learn and work ecosystems, helping systems, platforms, and stakeholders understand and connect different types of credentials

See the CTDL Types List

However, many countries define credential and qualification types in ways that are unique to their systems, even when the names are similar. Our recent work with the Qualifications Frameworks as Data Global Task Group made it clear that CTDL must be able to reflect these differences to support global transparency, comparability, and alignment.

Focus group participants

Participants in this focus group will help shape how credential types are described in CTDL by:

• Reviewing and commenting on a proposed solution for how CTDL can represent these distinctions
• Helping ensure the model supports global flexibility, accuracy, and usefulness
• Sharing examples of credential and qualification types defined by authorities in their countries and sectors
• Identifying the defining features that distinguish those types—such as level, purpose, legal recognition, or learning context

What to Expect

• Time commitment: 1–3 hours total over 4–6 weeks
• Format: Up to two Zoom meetings (each 60 minutes), plus optional review of draft
• Scheduling: Meetings will be offered at different times to accommodate global participants
• Optional: A third meeting may be added if additional discussion is needed

Credential Engine will provide all materials and present solutions for feedback. The focus group will respond with examples and suggestions, and help refine the approach to ensure that it works for diverse use cases around the world.

Who Should Participate

We welcome participation from:

• National and regional qualifications authorities responsible for defining or managing qualifications
• Quality assurance agencies that accredit or validate qualifications with respect to government defined qualifications
• Credential evaluators and others who rely on clear definitions of qualification types
• Education professionals and providers who offer credentials aligned to national or system-defined requirements

Anyone with expertise in how government-defined credentials or qualifications are structured and used

Sign Up to Participate

If you would like to join the focus group or learn more, please complete this short form and select all of the meeting dates and times that work best for you:

Sign up here

If someone else in your organization is better suited to participate, feel free to share the link with them.

For questions, please contact us at info@credentialengine.org

This announcement is also available on the Credential Engine website.

The Credential Registry publishing system has been enhanced to support more types of education and employment outcomes metrics, making it easier to publish, access, and use these valuable data sets. The Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) serves as the schema for describing these metrics, ensuring outcomes data is both transparent and actionable. Personally identifiable information (PII) is not published to the Registry; however, systems that use PII to create metrics can use CTDL to output aggregate data that protects individual privacy.

Whether you're ready to publish your data or want to explore how to use CTDL-published outcomes, this webinar will provide the essential knowledge and resources you need.

Education and employment outcomes metrics provide critical insights to:

• Showcase results such as graduation rates, employment outcomes, and earnings.
• Support transparency for programs, credentials, and pathways.
• Enable informed decision-making for learners, employers, educators, and policymakers.

During this webinar, you will:

• Gain insights into the various types of education and employment outcomes metrics described using CTDL.
• Discover options for publishing education and employment outcomes as CTDL-linked open data.
• Explore ways to utilize education and employment outcomes data published to the Credential Registry.
• Receive step-by-step instructions on publishing education and employment outcomes metrics to the Credential Registry.
• Learn about publishing guidance available to everyone for creating and sharing education and employment outcomes metrics

Webinar Details:

• Date: January 28, 2024
• Time: 2:00 pm ET (See the WorldClock for your time zone)
• Location: Virtual via Zoom
• Audience: Professionals involved in creating, sharing, analyzing, and using education and employment outcomes metrics, as well as anyone interested in how CTDL and the Credential Registry can support transparency and decision-making in credentialing ecosystems.
• Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2-QEqEDfSuifgEVXMt3fww

Stay ahead in education and workforce data transparency. Join us to see how publishing and utilizing outcomes metrics with CTDL can benefit credentialing ecosystems, learners, and stakeholders alike.

See This Information on Our Website here.

Contact Us: For additional questions or information, email us at publishing@credentialengine.org. This email is checked during normal U.S. business hours.

On December 17, 2024, Credential Engine hosted the CTDL Terms Proposal for Representing Qualifications Frameworks as Linked Open Data webinar. The event followed the work of the Qualifications Frameworks as Data Global Task Group, bringing together stakeholders to explore how the proposed updates to the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) can enhance the representation and use of qualifications frameworks as structured, linked open data.

What the Webinar Covered

The webinar highlighted:

• The CTDL update process and outcomes from the Qualifications Frameworks as Data Task Group.
• The global significance of qualifications frameworks in supporting learner mobility and international credential recognition.
• How the proposed CTDL terms can represent progression levels, alignments between frameworks, and relationships to credentials, assessments, and other resources.
• The potential for these capabilities to improve transparency, interoperability, and usability across education and workforce systems worldwide.

Access Webinar Materials

Whether you attended or registered for the webinar, you can now access the materials to explore the proposal in more detail:

• Webinar Recording: Video, Audio, Transcript, Chat
• Presentation Deck: Public Webinar: 17-December-2024: Qualifications Frameworks Terms Proposal
• Draft CTDL Qualifications Frameworks Terms Proposal: V2.0 Qualifications Frameworks as Data Terms Proposal 21-November-2024

How to Provide Feedback

Your input is critical to ensuring the proposed terms meet global needs. Feedback on the CTDL Qualifications Frameworks Terms Proposal is welcomed until January 10, 2025. Share your input using any of the following options:

• Google Docs: Contribute suggestions to the V2.0 Qualifications Frameworks as Data Terms Proposal 21-November-2024 document, focusing on the yellow-highlighted new terms.
• GitHub: Add comments via GitHub Issue #970.
• Email: Send feedback to info@credentialengine.org.

Why Your Feedback Matters

Your contributions will help refine these terms to support clear, standardized, and interoperable data about qualifications frameworks. By improving how frameworks are represented and connected as linked open data, we can empower learners, workers, and systems worldwide to make better-informed decisions.

View on our Website here.

Contact Us: Contact us at info@credentialengine.org. This email is checked regularly during normal U.S. business hours.

Introduction

In today's digital age, ensuring the authenticity of credential issuers is crucial for empowering decision-makers who rely on accurate credential information. The Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC) and Credential Engine are collaborating on a joint 2024-2025 project to explore the governance and technology needs for issuer registries being used within Learning and Employment Record (LER) ecosystems. This initiative aims to enhance trust in LERs by creating a model for interoperable issuer registries.

We are convening a targeted advisory group of subject matter experts. The group’s recommendations, expertise, and guidance will be instrumental in developing an issuer registry proof of concept through open community input. Participation in this advisory group will yield guaranteed outcomes and significantly impact the digital credentials ecosystem.

An issuer registry is a secure, trustworthy digital list containing verifiable information about organizations that issue credentials. Types of credentials could include LERs for academic achievements like degrees. These organizations, which could include associations, education and training institutions, government agencies, or others, usually have a common set of frameworks or criteria that must be met before they will issue a particular credential. An issuer registry ensures that anyone can near-instantly and easily confirm that an organization is authorized to issue the specified credentials.

Purpose and Benefits

The project will provide a foundation for replicable and scalable solutions for issuer registries. Some of the benefits of aligning on standards and frameworks for issuer registries include:

• Increased Transparency: Providing clear, accessible, and standardized information about credential issuers will help stakeholders make informed decisions.
• Supported Mobility: Standardizing a shared, open structure for issuer data transparency will facilitate the recognition and validation of credentials globally, supporting the mobility of learners and workers.
• Improved Trust: By verifying the identity and key characteristics of credential issuers along with governance models, we can help ensure that LERs are reliable representations of skills and achievements.

What to Expect

As a member of this advisory group, you will contribute as a subject matter and/or technical expert. Together, we will define the advisory group's charter, generate use cases, identify governance criteria, contribute to an issuer and verifier data model and specifications, and provide guidance for decision makers and developers.

Join the Issuer Registry Advisory Group

Who Should Join

We are looking for experts and aspiring experts across various fields, including education, training, policy, government, research, industry, and business:

• Aspiring Subject Matter Experts: Individuals who want to learn and contribute.
• Subject Matter Experts: Individuals with experience in designing, developing, or implementing issuer registries.
• Users of Issuer Registries: Professionals and product providers interested in using issuer registries in their work.
• Verifiers of Issuers: Organizations and product providers responsible for verifying the authenticity of credential issuers.
• Technical Experts: Individuals familiar with existing standards or technical implementations for issuer registries.

Participation Details

Meeting Schedule: Monthly meetings via Zoom, beginning in September 2024 and concluding by May 2025. Use the World Clock for the meeting time at your location.

• Meeting 1: Wednesday, 2024-September-4, 11 am ET (World Clock)
• Meeting 2: Wednesday, 2024-October-2, 11 am ET (World Clock)
• Meeting 3: Wednesday, 2024-November-6, 11 am ET (World Clock)
• Meeting 4: Wednesday, 2024-December-4, 11 am ET (World Clock)
• Meeting 5: Wednesday, 2025-February-5, 11 am ET (World Clock)
• Meeting 6: Wednesday, 2025-March-5, 11 am ET (World Clock)
• Meeting 7: Wednesday, 2025-April-2, 11 am ET (World Clock)
• Meeting 8: Wednesday, 2025-May-7, 11 am ET (World Clock)

We understand that interested people may not be able to attend every meeting. All meetings will be recorded, and materials will be shared with all participants.

More Information

• Resources: Credential Engine and DCC will provide all necessary resources based on advisory group input and share them for ongoing feedback between meetings. All feedback and materials will be transparently available following an open development process.
• Outcomes: The final products will include expanded use cases, real-world data examples, a data model and specifications, and governance best practices. All final outputs will be public information available under open licenses.
• Processes: The advisory group will follow a defined process leading to specific deliverables and outcomes. Outputs will be reviewed via an open webinar for advisory group members and stakeholders.
• Contact Credential Engine: If you have any questions about this task group, please email info@credentialengine.org. This mailbox is monitored during normal U.S. business hours. Learn more via the Credential Engine Website.

Visit Credential Engine and the Digital Credentials Consortium websites:

• Credential Engine Website: Announcement
• DCC Wiki: Issuer Registry Advisory Group Invitation

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Education and Employment Outcomes Metrics (EEOM) Task Group and attended the July 10, 2024, CTDL EEOM Terms Proposal Webinar. The webinar recording, audio, transcript, and presentation are now available for your review. The presentation has also been attached to this email as a powerpoint, for those that cannot access Google docs.

Your input is highly valued, and we appreciate your contributions. Following the webinar, we are entering a comment period, and we invite you to provide feedback on the CTDL EEOM Proposal by Friday, July 31, 2024. You can share your feedback through any of the following methods:

• Direct Comments: Comment directly in the Draft V 2.0 CTDL Education and Employment Outcomes Metrics (EEOM) Terms Proposal. Highlight the relevant text, right-click, select “+Comment,” type your feedback, and click the blue Comment button to save.
• GitHub: Add comments via issue 951.
• Email: Send your comments to info@credentialengine.org. This account is monitored during normal U.S. business hours.

The updates to the CTDL EEOM terms are part of an organized process to enhance the CTDL Linked Open Data. Credential Engine's plan includes updating the CTDL and implementing these changes within the Credential Registry Publishing System. Further details on these updates will be provided soon.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@credentialengine.org.

This information is also available on our website here.