Higher education has long been the primary source of knowledge and credentials, but the way people earn and demonstrate skills is changing rapidly. Digital credentials provide a secure, verifiable way to document specific skills, competencies, and achievements in a format that is aligned with the needs of the modern learner.

As a leader in digital ecosystem design, the College of Lifetime Learning helps partners across the Institute deliver digital credentialing within their programs. We facilitate the entire process, from building credentials on the platform to issuing them. As part of this service, the team reviews syllabi or event agendas and, in consultation with the instructor or event coordinators, assigns the appropriate taxonomy level, applies the visual design, adds the requested metadata to the platform, and publishes the credential for issuance. Learners claim credentials via the LMS or email notification. 

The Credential team works in concert with OIT’s Digital Learning Team to support the credential platform.

History of Digital Credentials at Georgia Tech 

In early 2024, a working group, guided by the College of Lifetime Learning’s executive leadership team, examined digital credentials platforms at peer institutions in the Americas and Europe that are members of the Digital Credentials Consortium. Georgia Tech has long contributed to the Consortium’s research on credentials. 

The working group, which included Institute-wide stakeholders (early adopters, members of central information and educational technology teams, and software developers), also studied United States universities across three criteria: academic peers by collegiate ranking, geographic peers, and universities differentiated by national conference presentations.   

From this analysis, the working group identified 11 vendors, narrowed the list to four, and defined evaluation criteria across 18 core feature areas (e.g., multi-tenancy support, LMS, data privacy and security, interoperability, and accessibility). The final assessment resulted in a single recommended platform, which the group presented to the executive leadership team. 

College leadership affirmed the recommendation and assigned responsibility for implementation to the College’s academic program team. The team appointed a faculty-led committee to evaluate the current state of the Institute’s digital credentials, review existing systems integrations, and document workflows, capacity, processes, and personnel. The committee designed updated workflows for credential issuance, record-keeping, and integration across the learning management system (LMS), student information system, and credentialing platform. 

Leadership created a Digital Credentials Faculty Review Committee to design a credential taxonomy and define metadata for institutional use. The Committee developed a taxonomy for the College non-credit programs that remains scalable and flexible for future Institute-wide use. After reviewing internal and emerging use cases, the College leadership approved a final taxonomy. A core purpose of the Committee was to define a faculty governance process before credential dissemination, so that faculty could advise on course rigor and guide decisions. Concurrently, a Georgia Tech visual badge design was created by the College marketing team and approved by Institute Communications.