7 April, 2021
ARUCC is pleased to launch the MyCreds™ Reaching Higher Newsletter. This newsletter highlights the many activities and successes of MyCreds™ since June 2020 when the outcomes of the RFP process were first announced and the service partner was chosen to create the Made-for-Canada virtual credential wallet and document exchange highway.
“After speaking with well over 2,000 people across many sessions and meetings, I am proud to say that we have created, named, and launched MyCreds™ with the help of our community and have provided 30,000 credential wallets to learners,” says Charmaine Hack, Past President and Project Chair, ARUCC; Registrar, Ryerson University. “With five schools launched and more to come, we are truly excited by this next phase. Our thanks to everyone who helped get us this far. We look forward to continuing the journey.”
MyCreds™ supports official academic document and credentialing needs across the entire learner journey, from admissions through to and beyond graduation. Examples include
MyCreds™ provides 24/7 portable virtual wallets for learners to send documents and credentials anytime, anywhere.
Onboarded institutions
A taste of institutions launching soon
Georgian College, University of Calgary, Centennial College, Humber College, SAIT, University of Alberta, Lambton College, Red River College, University of Regina, University of Western Ontario, Lethbridge College, NAIT, Trinity Western University
Launched Nationally
Summer 2020 – Students name MyCreds™
Fall 2020 – Fully bilingual national network
March 2021 – 30,000 learners are provisioned with personalized and portable learner credential wallets and join an international network of 2M learners
Showcase Events
Feb 4th Reaching Higher showcase event with opening remarks from His Excellency, the Ambassador of Ireland to Canada, Dr. Eamonn McKee
March 24th CIO showcase panel of experts from across Canada’s schools
40+ national webinars from June to present day supporting close to 2,000 Canadian higher education representatives
On February 4th, 2021, we were delighted to host our Reaching Higher showcase event for the MyCreds™ platform, sponsored by ARUCC, Enterprise Ireland, and Digitary. With 250+ attendees, the event was a roaring success and united individuals from across Canada and around the world.
“To be here in 2021 with [MyCreds™] actively in place for a growing number of Canadian institutions is truly remarkable,” says Romesh Vadivel, President, ARUCC; Assistant Registrar and Director, Service Point, McGill University; Board Member, International Groningen Declaration Network
“[MyCreds™ ] is especially important for mature students, for newcomers, and for Indigenous students alike.”
“I’m really excited about [MyCreds™] …One of the lessons that we learned from COVID is that the governments, the societies, and the companies that are the most digitized are the most resilient.”
“The more institutions we have on board, the more useful MyCreds™ will be to our students and alumni,” says Kathleen Massey, Associate Vice President (Students), University of Lethbridge; Board President, International Groningen Declaration Network.
On March 24th, 2021, we were thrilled to present our showcase event for CIOs of Canadian post-secondary institutions. Over 200 guests from various registrarial and CIO teams were in attendance. The event consisted of an enlightening discussion panel featuring CIO experts from across the country and a presentation on the future of SSI by Digitary’s Chief Technology Officer, Takis Diakoumis. More information about the event and speakers can be found on our CIO Showcase event page.
The ARUCC executive provides overarching leadership and decision support, guiding the entire project through its past president and project chair, Charmaine Hack. This executive board includes representatives from all parts of Canada.
A steering committee steers the project and includes representatives from the Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC), the Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO), the Canadian Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council User Group (CanPESC), and the Pan-Canadian Consortium on Admissions and Transfer (PCCAT). The leadership is engaging in a retrospective and focusing on identifying and confirming priorities and a plan of action for moving this committee into its next phase.
This group includes registrars from early adopter schools, a representative from one of the provinces data hubs, a recent graduate, ARUCC members, and participants from Digitary, ARUCC’s service partner supporting MyCreds™. This committee is responsible for guiding communications and marketing needed to support school onboarding and stakeholder outreach.
This group handles all aspects of the technical and project needs to ensure timely and agile onboarding and a focus on continuous improvement. In partnership with its service partner, ARUCC is leading customized implementation processes for each college and university following an agile methodology. The team’s success is resulting in schools onboarding and launching within 8 to 11 weeks.
This group included membership from post-secondary institutions, government, and application centres from across Canada. It spent much of the summer reviewing the overarching privacy impact assessment needs and high-level architecture during the creation of MyCreds™. Its work finished in early fall 2020 with the finalization of a Privacy and Impact Assessment report which ARUCC formally adopted. This group remains on standby should additional privacy related needs arise.
This group included security experts from post-secondary institutions and hubs from across Canada. Led by a CISO expert from one of Canada’s universities, the group conducted vulnerability testing on the new MyCreds™ platform which resulted in a national level security findings report formally adopted and approved by the ARUCC executive. They finished their work in fall 2020 and are available should additional security testing advice be needed to support ARUCC.
This group included students and alumni from various pilot schools who provided functional testing support for the new MyCreds™. While their work was successfully completed with the launch of the Network in October/November 2020, some of these students and graduates remain on call to provide advice and support. Our schools are bringing together their own student groups as they move through the onboarding process to ensure even more engagement.
This working group is focused on operational and systems integration. The IWG serves as the main group for supporting schools, including registrars and CIOs, with developing API connectors to enterprise student information systems. It maintains ties to the CanPESC community through its co-chair to support interoperability using standards-based data exchange.
Twice a month, ARUCC, with support from its service partner Digitary, is leading a Technical User Group Forum to help schools with all their technical needs and questions through the onboarding process and beyond. The Integrated Working Group will be using this forum as a regular venue to support its integration and best practices work for building API connectors to enterprise student information systems and aligning with standards bodies. This is a closed group for institutions who are moving through the onboarding process.
ARUCC has established a new Registrars’ Advisory Group to support those early adopter schools that are launched or soon to launch. This group supports a focus on continuous improvement, stakeholder management, and future proofing the Network.
MyCreds™ represents an example of how ARUCC and Canadian colleges, institutes and universities are committed to ensuring official and secure document exchange supported by virtual learner wallets. ARUCC adheres to the Groningen Declaration Network (GDN) principles, which emphasize, “Citizens worldwide should be able to consult and share their authentic educational data with whomever they want, whenever they want, wherever.” The ARUCC MyCreds™ environment was inspired by the efforts of the GDN and the needs of our members. ARUCC became a signatory to the GDN principles in 2015.
The Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC) owns MyCreds™, a not-for-profit shared service model. ARUCC provides leadership in the post-secondary education field and service to its member institutions nationally and internationally, helping foster the advancement of registrarial practices and learner focused service delivery in Canada. For more information about MyCreds™, contact the ARUCC’s Executive Lead, Joanne Duklas, at info@aruccnationalnetwork.ca or visit https://mycreds.ca/.
Consult our Just The Facts infographic and our published press releases
Take a look at ARUCC’s student produced video (vidéo française) to see how the platform works
