This is the seventh and final post in our series on the new LER briefs.
Over the past several weeks, we've looked at UMBC's microcredential work through five different lenses — faculty, students, advisors, employers, and the state and federal policy landscape. If you've been following along, thank you. If you're just catching this now, here's the whole series in one place:
Why it took six briefs to say one thing
Here's what stands out looking back across all of them: every audience is describing the same underlying shift, just from where they're standing.
A faculty member sees it as finally having a way to document work they were already doing. A student sees it as proof, not just a claim. An advisor sees it as a new data point in a conversation they already know how to have. An employer sees it as a faster, more trustworthy answer to the question, "Can this person actually do the thing?" And at the state and federal levels, it's a piece of infrastructure that doesn't fully exist yet; one that Maryland, and UMBC specifically, is well positioned to help build.
None of those framings contradict each other. They're the same credential, doing the same job, just showing up differently depending on what you need from it.
Where this goes next
This series covered where things stand today, but the work itself keeps moving. UMBC's Microcredential Advisory Committee is standing up new subcommittees this year focused on design quality, earner experience, and employer engagement: three areas that map almost exactly onto the audiences we covered in this series. And nationally, the LER Accelerator cohort work, Workforce Pell, and the MATCH Act conversation are all still very much in motion.
If any of the six briefs raised a question we didn't answer, or if you want to get more directly involved — proposing a microcredential, joining the MAC or the MRB, connecting us with an employer partner, or just understanding what's on your own advisee's transcript — the door's open.
Thanks for reading along.
Questions? Submit a support ticket or reach out to the DCI team directly.
]]>This is the sixth post in our series on the new LER briefs. Catch the intro post here if you missed it.
Over the last several posts, we've looked at microcredentials from the vantage point of students, faculty, advisors, and employers. This one zooms out to the state and federal level — because the individual pieces we've covered are actually part of something bigger.
The problem, briefly
The traditional resume — degrees, titles, past employers — is losing ground as the main way to signal what someone can actually do. Employers report difficulty finding qualified candidates even as resumes pile up, and workers who built real skills outside traditional degree paths often go unrecognized.
The Learning and Employment Record (LER) is the response to that gap: a verified digital record of a person's skills, credentials, and experiences that travels with them across institutions and employers, whether those skills came from a classroom, a co-op, the military, or the job itself.
This isn't a niche idea anymore. In December, the U.S. House held a bipartisan hearing on how LERs empower workers and expand opportunity. In April, Congress introduced the MATCH Act, aimed at building state-led talent marketplaces around verified credentials. Globally, a large majority of employers now use skills-based hiring, and states like Alabama and Indiana have already stood up their own credential marketplaces.
Maryland doesn't have that infrastructure yet. UMBC is helping build it.
What UMBC has already built
Since 2015, UMBC has issued verified digital microcredentials across curricular, co-curricular, and work-integrated learning, now over 200 active credentials, with 84 new ones added just in the past year. That work is backed by real governance: the Microcredential Advisory Committee sets strategy, and the Microcredential Review Board evaluates every proposal against a published rubric. That governance model has been cited by institutions including Kennesaw State, the University of Colorado Boulder, UMGC, and the University of Florida.
This past year, UMBC was also selected as one of only 25 institutions nationwide for the inaugural LER Accelerator cohort, and Maryland had more institutions represented in that cohort than any other state.
The Maryland opportunity
Maryland's Higher Education Commission has already urged institutions to address degree inflation and build alternative credential pathways. The University System of Maryland's Vision 2030 identifies credential issuance as a priority, and its Alternative Credentials Task Force has been developing guidance shaped largely by UMBC's model.
What's still missing: a shared credential registry, a statewide coordinating body, and a common framework connecting higher ed, workforce agencies, and industry. Conversations between AACRAO and state agencies such as MHEC and the Maryland Department of Labor have begun but haven't yet become a coordinated effort. That window is open right now, and Maryland's four LER Accelerator institutions (UMBC, UMGC, Johns Hopkins, and Morgan State) provide the state with a ready-made network to build on.
The bottom line
UMBC isn't starting from scratch here; a decade of credentials, governance, scholarship, and statewide networks (including the Maryland Digital Credentialing Community of Practice) are already in place. With federal legislation moving and Maryland agencies naming the gap, what's needed now isn't more program-building at UMBC. It's state-level coordination that brings institutions, employers, and agencies together to turn strong individual programs into a functioning talent marketplace.
That's a bigger conversation than any one office can carry alone. If your work touches on state policy, employer partnerships, or workforce development, this is a good time to pay attention.
Want the full brief? Read it here.
Questions? Submit a support ticket or reach out to the DCI team directly.
]]>This is the fifth post in our series on the new LER briefs. Catch the intro post here if you missed it.
Every resume you read makes claims: "data analysis," "project management," "cross-cultural communication." But a bullet point doesn't tell you what someone actually did, how it was assessed, or why you should trust the claim in the first place.
Research on hiring practices has found that employers consistently ask four questions about any candidate:
What skill is being claimed?
What did the individual actually do?
How was that skill assessed?
Why should I trust this claim?
A resume rarely answers any of these well. And the problem is getting worse: as AI-generated applications become the norm, hiring teams are facing hundreds of polished, plausible submissions that are nearly indistinguishable from one another. The result is longer interview cycles, more reference checks, and more cost, just to get basic confidence in a candidate.
What a UMBC-verified microcredential actually answers
Since 2015, UMBC has issued verified digital credentials across research, internships, leadership, and service-learning — now more than 200 active credentials. Each one is built to directly answer the four questions above:
The skill maps to specific competencies informed by labor market data, aligned with the terminology your recruiting team already uses.
The evidence shows what the student actually did: the project, the task, the deliverable, not just a course title.
The assessment is published and consistent: criteria are set in advance, applied the same way to every student, with no ambiguity or grade inflation.
The issuer is UMBC. The credential is digitally verifiable and can't be self-reported or fabricated.
In practice, that means when a candidate shares a badge, it links to a record showing the specific competency, what they did to earn it, how it was evaluated, and who's standing behind it. That's a meaningfully different signal than three resume bullet points. For example, a hiring manager evaluating two candidates with similar resumes may gain additional confidence from a credential that shows exactly what work was completed and how it was assessed.
Why this is picking up speed
Skills-based hiring is now standard practice for the vast majority of employers worldwide, and the infrastructure to support it at scale is still being built. Congress held a bipartisan hearing this past December specifically on Learning and Employment Records, and legislation introduced this spring aims to build state-level talent marketplaces around verified credentials. UMBC was selected as one of 25 institutions nationwide for the inaugural LER Accelerator cohort, and Maryland had more institutions represented than any other state.
Where employers fit into building this
Credentials designed with employer input are more trusted and more useful in practice. When employers help define what skills matter and how they should be demonstrated, the credential becomes something your team can actually act on. A few ways to get involved, with minimal time investment:
Join a focus group on skills-based hiring to help shape which competencies UMBC credentials measure.
Review a draft credential aligned to roles you hire for and give feedback.
Co-design a credential pathway tied to an internship or other work-integrated learning experience.
Join an advisory conversation on how verified skills data could change your hiring process.
You already know UMBC students. This is a chance to help shape what they can show you before they ever walk through the door.
Want the full brief? Read it here.
Questions? Submit a support ticket or reach out to the DCI team directly.
]]>This is the fourth post in our series on the new LER briefs. Catch the intro post here if you missed it.
Here's a scenario that's becoming more common: an advisee mentions they earned a microcredential, or asks whether they should pursue one. Do you know what to say?
If not, you're not behind; this is genuinely new territory for many advisors. But it's worth getting comfortable with because, in a planned update, students' earned microcredentials will start appearing directly on their myUMBC profiles, right alongside the information you already use in advising conversations: major, GPA trends, stated career goals.
Hopefully not, and that's the point. You're not being asked to track which courses or programs include microcredentials, recommend specific ones, or manage any part of the process. The ask is much smaller: know that they exist, know where to point students, and don't get caught flat-footed if a student brings one up.
Treat it like you would any other elective, research opportunity, or co-curricular activity: "yes, if it fits." A microcredential doesn't replace coursework or change degree requirements; it's just one more way for a student to document and communicate what they're already doing. The real conversation is the one you're already equipped to have: does this align with where the student is trying to go?
Two places right now. Some are built directly into for-credit coursework: a student completes certain assignments, and the badge comes alongside the grade. Others are tied to co-curricular experiences: Shriver Center service-learning programs, student leadership roles, undergraduate research. Co-curricular ones tend to be easier to spot upfront (if a program includes a microcredential, it's usually stated clearly). Course-embedded ones are less visible in current systems, something DCI is actively working to improve. If you're ever unsure whether a specific course or program includes one, DCI can tell you.
Ask them directly. Students can share their Accredible digital wallet: think of it like sharing a portfolio, which can surface things you wouldn't otherwise catch in conversation. A student who's quietly earned several microcredentials in data analysis, for instance, might be a stronger fit for a research opportunity or career path than either of you had considered.
Since 2015, UMBC has developed more than 250 active microcredentials across academic, student affairs, research, and co-curricular programs, and was recently selected for a national cohort focused on Learning and Employment Records. Employers and grad programs are increasingly recognizing this kind of verified skills documentation, and students who can talk about what they've earned have a real edge. Advisors are often the first to help students make that connection.
Ask a current advisee whether they have any microcredentials and, if so, have them share their Accredible wallet with you, just to see what it looks like in practice.
Browse the UMBC badge portfolio to get a sense of what's currently available.
If you advise students in programs with active Shriver Center, research, or leadership-based opportunities, reach out to DCI to find out what's on offer.
If you'd like a deeper orientation for yourself or your advising team, DCI offers consultations and training.
Want the full brief? Read it here.
Questions? Submit a support ticket or reach out to the DCI team directly.
]]>This is the third post in our series on the new LER briefs. Catch the intro post here if you missed it.
If you've earned a UMBC microcredential, do you know what's actually in it?
Not the badge image, the record behind it. Because it's more than a nice-looking icon for LinkedIn. Every UMBC microcredential is built from four specific pieces:
The skill — a specific, named competency. Not "teamwork," but something concrete, like "facilitated cross-functional team decision-making."
The evidence — a description of what you actually did to earn it: the project, the task, the work you produced.
The assessment — how it was evaluated, the criteria you had to meet, and confirmation that you met them.
The issuer — UMBC. Which means anyone who looks at it can verify it's real, not just self-reported.
That combination is the whole point. It's the difference between saying you can do something on a resume and actually proving it.
Employers are leaning more heavily on skills-based hiring than ever, focusing on what candidates can actually do, not just where they went to school. And with AI-generated resumes and cover letters becoming the norm, a verified, UMBC-backed record of what you did and how it was assessed carries more weight than another bullet point that reads like everyone else's.
Add it to LinkedIn. Accredible makes this simple: it appears as a clickable, verified credential.
Use it in applications. "I have a UMBC-verified credential in [skill]" lands differently than "I'm familiar with [skill]."
Bring it up in interviews. It hands you a concrete story: what you did, how it was assessed, what you learned. That specificity is what people remember.
Put it in grad school or scholarship applications. A verified competency makes a stronger case than a course title ever could.
Include it in your digital portfolio. Verified credentials can help demonstrate skills alongside class projects, internships, and research experiences.
Some microcredentials are built directly into coursework; complete the assignments, and the badge comes with your grade. Others live outside the classroom entirely: Shriver Center programs, student leadership roles, research opportunities. If you're not sure what's available to you, your academic advisor is a good place to start.
This is yours. It doesn't expire when you graduate, and it doesn't depend on anyone else remembering what you accomplished. Whether you've already got one or you're just learning this exists, it's part of your story — worth telling.
Want the full guide? Read the full student brief here.
Questions? Submit a support ticket or reach out to the DCI team directly.
]]>This is the second post in our series on the new LER briefs. Catch the intro post here if you missed it.
In January, six faculty members spent two days in UMBC's first Microcredential Mapping Bootcamp, a hands-on workshop for turning existing course learning outcomes into proposal-ready microcredentials. All six left either having submitted a proposal or actively planning one. Here's some of what they said afterward:
"I am very excited about some of the possibilities for what we can do with [microcredentials across my] program going forward."
"There was a lot covered that I did not anticipate but really appreciated... I plan to put provided language into the syllabus for this semester."
The overall sentiment: the experience felt energizing and practical, not bureaucratic. The most common request wasn't for less content; it was for more hands-on drafting time.
That reaction gets at something worth sitting with: faculty aren't being asked to do something new. If you write learning outcomes and design assessments, you're already doing the work a microcredential recognizes. The proposal process is really just about presenting that work in a format that travels with a student beyond a gradebook. For example, a student who demonstrates proficiency in data visualization, community engagement, or laboratory techniques can carry evidence of that learning beyond the course itself.
UMBC's microcredential ecosystem has been building since 2015, but the landscape around it has shifted fast in the past year. Employers are increasingly hiring on demonstrated skills rather than degree alone, a practice now used by a large majority of employers globally. Congress held a hearing this past December specifically on Learning and Employment Records, and new federal legislation introduced this spring aims to build state-level infrastructure around verified credentials. UMBC's decade of groundwork here is now shaping how other University System of Maryland institutions, and institutions across the country, approach the same problem.
None of that means faculty need to become workforce development experts. It just means the moment is good for making visible what your students can already do by the end of your course, not just what grade they earned.
Learn — Get familiar with how the program works. DCI offers consultations and an asynchronous, online microcredential design course launching soon.
Create — If your course has clear, measurable learning outcomes, you likely already have the foundation for a proposal. DCI supports the whole process, start to finish. Keep an eye out on this myUMBC group for more information about opportunities.
Advocate — Faculty who've been through the process are the most effective messengers to colleagues.
Review — The Microcredential Review Board is seeking faculty reviewers across disciplines, a role similar in spirit to serving as an editor or reviewer for a journal, conference, or grant panel.
Want the fuller picture? Read the full faculty brief here.
Questions in the meantime? Submit a support ticket or reach out to the DCI team directly.
]]>If you've bumped into the word "microcredential" on campus this year, in a course, an advising conversation, a hallway conversation, a Shriver Center flyer, you've probably noticed it means something a little different depending on who's saying it.
A student thinks about it as something to put on a resume. A faculty member thinks about it as an extension of the learning outcomes they already write. An advisor wonders if it's one more thing to track. An employer wonders if it's actually worth anything. And folks working in policy see it as part of a much bigger national conversation about how skills are recognized outside a transcript.
All of those framings are correct. But none of them are complete on their own.
So instead of writing one generic explainer and hoping it landed for everyone, the Digital Credential Innovation (DCI) team built five audience-specific briefs — each one answering the questions that particular audience actually asks, in the language they actually use.
Starting next week, we'll be featuring one brief a week here on myUMBC:
Faculty — Your Teaching Already Does This. Let's Make It Count.
Students — Your Skills, Verified.
Academic Advisors — Microcredentials and Your Advising Conversations
Employers — What Your Next Great Hire Can Actually Prove
Government Relations & Policy Audiences — Digital Credentials and Maryland's Workforce Future
Why now? UMBC was selected for the inaugural cohort of the national LER (Learning and Employment Records) Accelerator, one of only 25 institutions nationwide, and Maryland had more institutions represented than any other state. Congress held a bipartisan hearing on LERs this past December, and federal legislation introduced this spring aims to build state-level infrastructure for verified credentials. In other words, the work UMBC has been building since 2015 is increasingly relevant to a much bigger conversation, and it felt like the right moment to ensure every part of our community understands where they fit into it.
Each post in this series will pull out something worth knowing from that audience's brief, not just a summary, but the parts we think are genuinely interesting or useful, with a link to the full brief if you want to go deeper.
First up next week: faculty, and the case that you're probably already doing the work microcredentials recognize; you just haven't had a way to document it yet.
Questions in the meantime? Submit a support ticket or reach out to the DCI team directly.
]]>