IMS Global to Build K-20 Badges with Mozilla

IMS Global Learning Consortium announced the launch of the IMS Digital Credentialing Initiative. The new initiative is aiming to further the adoption, integration and transferability of digital credentials, including badges, within institutions, schools, and corporations.

With support from Mozilla Open Badges, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Badge Alliance the initiative will build on IMS’s leadership in competency-based learning (CBE). An IMS Global press release, said:

The Digital Credentialing initiative will augment current IMS interoperability standards and extend Open Badges as needed to support deeper integration and exchange within extant systems, while exploring new models of badge system design, storage, usage, and evaluation in the institutional context.

In a blog on imsglobal.org, Rob Abel, Chief Executive of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, said:

IMS thinks that CBE and Badges are probably going to become intertwined as both progress into the future. CBE, at its most broad interpretation, is about relaying information about what a person is capable of doing, ideally including evidence. The current Mozilla Open Badges specification is, in our opinion, the best work so far in enabling a digital representation of the accomplishment and the rubric. So, IMS believes we can do something good with the combination of these two ideas, something that can apply to all levels of education (K-12, HED and Corporate Education/Training).

The initiative is funded by IMS and IMS’ 300 member organization and will begin at the postsecondary level. It will be staffed with support from the Badge Alliance with an advisory board comprised of IMS members.

Abel hopes that people will use the badges to supplements transcripts to represent accomplishments beyond the traditional transcript and granular levels. According to Rob, the system will be based on both rigorous and non-rigorous assessments, but it will be clear, “Which are which.”

IMS is seeking to form a group of IMS Digital Credentialing charter members. Interested institutions, corporations and suppliers are invited to attend the upcoming IMS Learning Impact Leadership Institute in Atlanta, GA May 4-7 or contact the team at [email protected].

For more on badges, check out:

• Mozilla Open Badges to Show Career Readiness
• Open Badges Are Unlocking the Emerging Jobs Economy
• 10 Trends Transforming HigherEd