28 April, 2022
Through this initiative, support is available to help Ontario’s publicly-assisted post-secondary institutions adopt or expand their use of ARUCC’s MyCreds™ | MesCertif™ platform (“MyCreds™”) to issue digital micro-credentials.
MyCreds™ provides learners and graduates access to a secure digital wallet where they can view and share their official, verified educational credentials on a 24/7 basis – anytime, anywhere. The MyCreds™ wallet is being extended to further leverage innovative technology and digitization principles, including through delivering self-sovereign identity (SSI) and verifiable credentials.
All Ontario publicly-assisted colleges, universities, and Indigenous Institutes are eligible to apply to an Expression of Interest process to participate in the Pilot Project to issue micro-credentials in a digital format through MyCreds™, including those that are new to MyCreds™ and those looking to expand to micro-credentials. Successful applicants will contribute to province-wide consultations that support the creation of open standards for digital micro-credentials.
For more information about the Expression of Interest process, please email info@aruccnationalnetwork.ca.
“As leading adopters of the MyCreds™ learner digital wallet, Ontario’s universities are implementing this innovative digital technology that helps students and learners achieve success and showcase their skills to employers. This new digital tool is transforming student services by simplifying how students, learners and employers access and verify completed micro-credential courses and certificates. MyCreds™ is already operating across the province with more than 82% of enrollments represented in the institutions that have joined. To date, more than 250,000 learners are currently supported with MyCreds™, joining an international network of more than 2.5 million learners around the world.”
– Steve Orsini, President and CEO, Council of Ontario Universities (COU)
“CRALO believes strongly in supporting our graduates with rapid access to the workforce. Delivering official micro-credentials through MyCreds™ using innovative practices and technology directly aligns with the goals of the Ontario colleges. As a long-standing supporter of this effort to streamline digital wallets for learners, we’re very pleased that MyCreds™ is being recognized as a main component of the provincial Micro-credentials Strategy.”
– Don Duclos, Chair, Committee of Registrars, Admissions and Liaison Officers (CRALO); Registrar, Confederation College
“With the engagement of our colleges and universities, we have created an accessible and innovative way for learners to instantly view and share their micro-credentials and badges with employers, government, and regulatory bodies. We are excited to work with our schools to advance their adoption of MyCreds™ and support the broader provincial efforts to enable seamless and fast access to the workplace.”
– Charmaine Hack, Project Chair, ARUCC MyCreds™; Vice-President, Strategic Enrolment Management, Centennial College
When students and graduates have digital access to their micro-credentials through MyCreds™, they can share them with whomever they choose in a secure and quality assured manner. In 2021, MyCreds™, along with its service provider, Digitary, partnered with MATTR to extend the wallet using ground-breaking digital principles and frameworks. By participating in this Pilot Project, your institution will be able to use MyCreds™ to issue micro-credentials digitally to learners and take part in future-focused consultations guiding digitization principles and open standards for micro-credentials.
“Digital Credentials” are a type of digital representation of an earned academic achievement such as a degree, diploma, certificate, badge, or micro-credential issued by a post-secondary education provider.
“Micro-credentials” are rapid training programs that help people retrain and upgrade their skills to find new employment and access additional educational opportunities. Offered by colleges, universities and Indigenous Institutes, micro-credentials are short in duration, can often be completed online, and are often designed for the specific needs of employers and jobs. They can also be taken in isolation or packaged together alongside degrees, diplomas and certificates.
“Digital Micro-credentials” are electronic certificates that prove the completion of a short-duration micro-credential offered by a post-secondary institution focused on providing granular, employment-related skill training.
“Self-Sovereign Identity” (SSI) is an approach to digital identification that puts control of digital credentials in the hands of individuals themselves. It establishes trust between a learner and who they are sharing their details with and guarantees the authenticity of the data and attestations, without actually storing any personal data. Key to this is the notion that a verifier’s trust in a credential issued is transferred to the credential holder.
“Verifiable Credential” means a digital credential in which the data within can be verified (e.g., through cryptographic verification). It is any tamper-evident (cryptographically signed) set of information that an authority claims to be true about the subject of the credential – and which in turn enables the individual or organization to convince others of these truths.
MyCreds™ is a national, shared service and platform that provides students and graduates access to a secure, online, password protected learner credential wallet. This virtual wallet allows them to view and share their verified and official transcripts, credentials, and academic documents in a digitized format on a 24/7 basis – anytime, anywhere. Secure, cryptographically signed documents can be sent conveniently and require no further verification. MyCreds™ is the first and only national bilingual system of its kind in Canada. Visit www.mycreds.ca for more details.
ARUCC is supported in the program management of this initiative by Duklas Cornerstone Consulting Inc. and is working with two internationally renowned technology partners, Digitary and MATTR. These organizations are combining their talents to deliver SSI and verifiable credentials for the MyCreds™ virtual wallet.
The Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC) owns MyCreds™. 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.
This project is funded by the Government of Ontario.