Governance In Higher Ed: How The University At Buffalo Manages Digital Credentials

During our webinar, "Beating the Buy-In Game: Governance in Higher Ed," we heard from Anne Reed, Director, Office of Microcredentials at the University at Buffalo. Anne walked through how UB created their credentialing program and who was involved in that process. 

Here's a little more information about how the University at Buffalo manages their digital credentialing program. 

1) Anne, did you have to get NYS approval to validate the credentialing program? Are other SUNY schools using credentials? 

Anne: The SUNY policy makes it clear that micro-credentials require local approval only; no NYS approval necessary. Yes, many SUNY institutions are offering micro-credentials. We are required to report our offerings annually and last year 10 SUNY campuses reported MC offerings.

2) Is managing the digital credentialing program a full-time job? 

Anne: At UB it definitely requires a full-time job. We are a very large institution (12 decanal units; 30,000 students across three campuses). To set the system up I spent a year planning, working with necessary stakeholders, assisting with the development of programs, configuring our systems, developing and disseminating communicating plan, etc. Now, I work closely with the program coordinators that are currently offering MCs (there are 40); assist with creation of programs in various stages of development; implement our annual review process; issue badges and manage all aspects of Acclaim; coordinate transcript notation; oversee tracking, reporting, etc., etc.  

3) Did UB have any concerns from institutional IT about firewall security?

The evidence lives in UB’s Box Cloud. If it is uploaded to Credly's Acclaim platform it then lives in Credly. We have Enterprise accounts with both Box and Credly and both of these products underwent in-depth evaluation by IT, legal, procurement, etc., to ensure alignment with our data risk policy.

If you're interested in hearing more about how the University at Buffalo manages their digital credentialing program, watch the webinar in-demand, "Beating the Buy-In Game: Governance in Higher Ed" .