Chapter 20 - Degrees of Disruption

Summary

While career and technical schools have offered short-term credential programs for decades, a proliferation of digital badges, bootcamps, and other micro-credentials have recently emerged. A 2021 Credential Engine report identified nearly 550,000 short-term credentials offered by “non-academic” organizations in the United States. How individual states envision their regulatory role in this space remains understudied. Our study focuses on insights gleaned from semi-structured interviews with leaders from 14 organizations, including state authorization agencies, public higher education system offices, and private educational providers. We highlight shared challenges in the authorization process, including budget and resources; institutional responsiveness and knowledge of the process; self-reported data; and infrastructure limitations. We then discuss four emerging themes in the short-term credential landscape, including the need for clear credential quality criteria; balancing state regulation with providers’ autonomy; the tension between viewing short-term credentials as businesses or colleges; and the disruption and opportunities COVID-19 presents to the industry.