Making Sense of the Emerging Manpower/Learner Tracking Standards

Across the postsecondary education sector, one does not have to go too far before running into new acronyms covering collaborative initiatives and technologies currently being touted by workforce and education stakeholders. They are led by shared goals to improve talent management development and outcomes, maximize interoperability across learning technologies, and transform learning experiences. Most of these initiatives center on the responsibilities of the learner, as well how all organizations are part of the lifelong learning ecosystem that is evolving with knowledge creation.

After reviewing many online sources, we find a general discontent is motivating these initiatives. Interoperability across learning technologies is highlighted as an important objective. A quick glance shows overlapping industry and sector efforts that are trying to meld a shared vision of how to best support emerging transformative technologies that impact education and talent development.

This grid is a living document compiled to make sense of the initiatives, authors, sponsors, and objectives of participants who are trying to assemble best practices to specifications. Feedback is welcome. Please forward any thought or questions you have to David Moldoff at dmoldoff@academyone.com.

	CLR	LER	ePortfolio	ILR	Academic Transcript

What it stands for?	Comprehensive Learner Record	Learner and Employment Records	Electronic Portfolio	Integrated Learner Record	Learning History
Specification	IMS	T3	PESC and IMS have specifications	IEEE	PESC
In Association with	AACRAO	US Chamber of Commerce	Institutions	Governments and Agencies	AACRAAO, Postsecondary and Higher Education Stakeholders
What is it?	The CLR is storage facility of verifiable learning and employment records supporting all nature of academic and workplace recognition and achievements including courses, competencies and skills and employer-based achievements and milestones.	The LER is a digital record of learning and work that can be linked to an individual and combined with other digital records for use in pursuing educational and employment opportunities. An LER can document learning wherever it occurs, including at the workplace or through an education experience, credentialing, or military training. It can also include information about employment history and earnings.	The ePortfolio is a collection of work (evidence) in an electronic format that showcases learning over time. When you think about your ePortfolio and the types of evidence that it contains, it is important to think carefully about its purpose and intended audience.	The ILR is the outcome of the IEEE study group formed to align numerous learner record initiatives based on the Total Learner Architecture (TLA) authored by the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative funded by the US DOD effort.	A transactional based report collecting learning experiences sourced and curated by the academic institution attended by a learner.
Person Centric vs Institutional Centric	Person	Person	Person	Organization	Institution
Primary Goal	Verifiable Records	Learner Self-Sovereign Control	Documenting and Articulating Learner Accomplishments	Interoperability to support manpower development	Authoritative Record of Learning Maintained by Institutions
Owned by -	Presumably, whoever establishes it and hosts it.	Presumably, whoever establishes it and hosts it.	Presumably the Institution as part of the academic experience	Presumably Government Agency	Institution
Hosted by -	Government Agency perhaps, Association, Consortium, Vendor for some authority	Anyone who wants to stand one up in concert with other organizations.	Usually Institution, but can be a shared Consortium or Government Agency on behalf of Learners and Institutions	Government Agency	Institution – Vendor for the Institution
Can a Learner assert their own claims? Of learning, training, experiences, awards, badges, etc.	No, records must be posted by authoritative sources	No, records must be posted by authoritative sources	Yes, records are assembled, with or without integration with SIS and LMS	No, records must be posted by authoritative sources	Yes, records can include learner assertions and validated by the faculty
Level	P12+	P12+	K12, P16+	P20	K12 version, P16 version
What is Stored?	Learning and Employment, Competencies, Skills, Jobs, Badges accumulated from many organizations, employers and educational providers	Learning and Employment, Competencies, Skills, Jobs, Badges accumulated from many organizations, employers and educational providers	Learning Activities, Outcomes, Assertions, Assessments, learning work product	Learning and Employment, Competencies, Skills, Jobs, Badges accumulated from many organizations, employers and educational providers	Instructional Activities in the form of Courses, Earned Credits, Mapped to Courses, Academic History recorded by the Institution
How do records get posted? Who curates?	Approved organizations join a network sharing the CLR.	By Authoritative Systems	Learner, except for imports or references to external systems such as the SIS	By Authoritative Systems	Single institution Transcript. Not shared.
Shared Infrastructure	Yes	Yes, would presume so	Yes	Yes	Most likely not
How are records certified and validated	By the authoritative source posting the event or transaction	By the authoritative source posting the event or transaction	Learners request or Faculty Initiated by Academic Activities	By Digital Access	By the institution, college and department posting
Portfolio, enabling learner to control who sees what	Yes, learner can share sections of their history – much like LinkedIN or an online Resume	Yes, learner can share sections of their history – much like LinkedIN or an online Resume	Yes	No	No, the institution maintains control to validate authenticity and security, learners can request their transcript be sent to them or employer
Trust	Participating organizations must abide by rules posting and accessing the learner enforced by the technology.	Participating organizations must abide by rules posting and accessing the learner enforced by the technology.	Self contained storage center	Authenticity linked to GOV sources	The individual has an agreed relationship with the institution, FERPA logged. Registrar post records.
Governance	Shared by whom?	Private Association	Institution	Government	Single Institution manages the transcript they store
Standards	What gets posted could be limited by rules	Developing	Evolving: Institution maintains control over the format and content of the toolset, but the learner can export views and documents.	developing	Evolving: Institution maintains control over the format and content
Exchange	Not as an artifact. It is a repository of events, outcomes, etc. that the learner can share – and the CLR is managed by a single platform.	Not as an artifact. It is a shared ledger or repository. Wallet would make accessible to the shared ledger.	No, access by permission through the Learner role and sharing artifacts from the Portfolio	API specifications	Yes, as a snapshot formatted
Analytics	Have no idea how this would be supported across learners and institutions	Have no idea how this would be supported across learners and institutions	Yes, external views can summarize utilization	Not clear	Yes, external views can summarize utilization
Technologies Promoted	Blockchain	T3 Hub, Blockchain	Proprietary	Distributed, Event Driven	XML, PDF, EDI