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™ | MesCertif™ credential wallet features 24/7 access for learners to view and share their verified and official transcripts, credentials, and documents in a digitized format. Secure, cryptographically signed documents can be sent conveniently and require no further verification. The platform not only creates efficiencies to what was once a paper-based process, but also plays a significant role in mitigating credential fraud. Visit www.mycreds.ca for more details.

The Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC) owns MyCreds™ | MesCertif™. 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™ | MesCertif™, contact the ARUCC’s executive lead, Joanne Duklas, at info@aruccnationalnetwork.ca or visit https://mycreds.ca/.

Joanne Duklas, Executive Lead, ARUCC MyCreds™ | MesCertif™.

E: info@aruccnationalnetwork.ca