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Open Pathways enable educators to take a framework for competencies or learning standards—for example in the Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange® (CASE®) framework—and turn that framework into a pathway (or set of pathways) that a learner can navigate while earning badges associated with each competency. Learner progress through an Open Pathway can be output as an Extended Transcript that details the learner’s journey through the competency framework.
Additional Information
Podcast: Forging Open Pathways with Wayne Skipper
Video: Introducing the Future of Stackable Credentials: Open Pathways
Video: Operation Worldwide Joyride
Article: Can Education Keep Up with Technology?
According to Skipper, “What Open Pathways allows us to do is create learning pathways and align badges to the elements of those pathways. And by using those alignments we can also bridge pathways from one to another. This allows us to create not just truly stackable credentials, but fully stackable programs that can span institutions.” With Open Pathways, learners have the ability to stack badges across platforms—regardless of the platform on which their badge was issued. Open Pathways can be authored to make use of badges from multiple third-party sources, adding a much-needed degree of flexibility for those building programs supported by digital credentials.
Open Pathways themselves are portable data objects, like badges. A learner’s progress along a pathway can be shared in a portfolio to show not only earned achievements, but also progress toward unearned achievements. Open Pathways provide yet another key data point that can help provide valuable guidance to learners, educators, and employers. “The real power in this is being able to create cross-institutional learning pathways that aren’t locked-in to a single product or vendor,” said Skipper. “Together, these standards give us a common language with which we can describe learning achievements in a way that is meaningful for both education and workforce stakeholders.”
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