Korus Connect Use Case
Introduction
The Korus Connect Progressive Professional Development Program is based on a Learning Relationship Management (LRM) model, which allows for progressive skills development for any group of learners in a professional area. It also provides organisation-wide visibility of professional development.
The system contains a ‘warehouse’ of more than 250 possible skills or learning outcomes, drawn from role descriptions and course curricula. Once learners participate in a course or record an activity, they are issued a digital badge that recognises the skill level they’ve demonstrated. “The innovation in this process design is that the first two levels are self-recognition based, with participants able to make a claim of their own level of experience and skill. The gradation in standards are contained in the badge levels,” said Mark Keough, CEO of Intrinsic Learning.
The program is based on the principles of evidence-based microcredentials. “The definition for the microcredentials reflects current thinking on this in the Australian context, including the microcredential standard as identified in UNESCO’s report, ‘Digital Credentialing: Implications for the recognition of learning across borders’,” Keough continued. Participants can earn badges and claim recognition for current levels of knowledge and experience. Badges that can be earned fit within the following levels of recognition:
- Bronze – self-recognition of skills they have one year or equivalent experience in
- Silver – self-recognition of skills they have five years or equivalent experience in
- Gold – external recognition of internal accreditation of skills through Korus Connect or third-party non-accredited course completion
- Platinum – external recognition of Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) accreditation of skills through a registered training organisation (RTO), formal professional or university course completion
In their own words
“We selected Edalex as they were able to provide a third-party repository for evidence that was compatible with the agreed business process and the Canvas Credentials system.
Rich Skill Descriptors are automatically associated with course content in the case where a learner is completing a learning activity delivered through the WorldLearn portal. In both scenarios, this information is captured by Credentialate and a badge and evidence record for the correct award level (bronze, silver etc.) is issued.”
– Mark Keough, CEO of Intrinsic Learning
Problem
Korus Connect wanted to develop a solution that met a number of specific objectives, including:
- Standards-based integration – utilising rich skill descriptors (RSDs) and mapping skills to known frameworks
- Offering self-service and progressive management of professional development – using the learner dashboard, learners have a complete picture of the status of their learning
- Locus is moved to the learner, but system provides strong validation – highly available evidence that learners can earn and share easily with prospective employers and others
- Learner-centric approach but with wide visibility across the organisation – providing a high-level view of the skills and capabilities within the organisation
Korus Connect engaged Intrinsic Learning to spearhead the project, who then engaged Edalex as their RSD and credentialing delivery partner and WorldLearn as the bespoke LMS developer. “We selected Edalex as they were able to provide a third-party repository for evidence that was compatible with the agreed business process and the Canvas Credentials system,” said Keough.
Solution
The project involved the integration of four platforms: Edalex provided a Credentialate tenancy, openRSD account and a third party badging agent. Intrinsic Learning engaged WorldLearn to develop a bespoke LMS, using their existing platform technology, to serve as the learner and course data source for Credentialate and to provide a learner portal for administration purposes. The WorldLearn platform handles all learner, course and assessment data. Credentialate harvests that data, analyses the badge level to be awarded to the learner and issues the badge and attached learner evidence record to the learner’s WorldLearn dashboard.
“Through the learning dashboard, learners can review their training plan (if appropriate), progress through courses they are undertaking, record self-recognised learning activities and view online and in-person events,” Keough explained. Compliance-based evidence can be managed through the dashboard and team relationships and locations are displayed. Transcripts are available for download, as well as management and sharing of your earned badges.
To make a learning claim, the Korus Connect learner enters information about their claim in the WorldLearn portal and selects the RSD that relates to the claim. This process uses an integration between openRSD and WorldLearn. Keough commented: “RSDs are automatically associated with course content in the case where a learner is completing a learning activity delivered through the WorldLearn portal. In both scenarios this information is captured by Credentialate and a badge and evidence record for the correct award level (bronze, silver etc.) is issued.”
In the solution the LMS identifies that through a learning event a skill has been gained, and it maps the skill to an RSD from the openRSD library. The openRSD library includes all types of skills, including professional development frameworks and skills mapped to qualifications in the Australian Qualifications Framewrk (AQF) training packages. Once the match is made, the LMS sends the RSD and the evidence of learning to Credentialate. The RSD and evidence is then sent to a badge agent that recognises the achievement.
The LMS records the achievement of the badge and links the evidence from Credentialate into learner and management dashboards. Further reports can be generated for the organisation on aggregate badge achievement, providing validated proof of skill attainment across their organisation.
“The LMS holds the point of truth for the organisation, whereas Credentialate holds the point of truth for the learner, independent of the organisation and the LMS,” Keough said.
Outcome
The Korus Connect solution was successfully completed and put into pilot in August 2022 with a select group of Korus Connect learners who initially used the portal and provided feedback prior to production launch. The full product was launched in February 2023 and has been widely commended for its time-saving elements and transparency.
“It’s a recognition engine,” said Keough, “that automates the functions of a student management system and an LMS and a virtual learning environment. It also introduces validation of credentials for multiple purposes – we can use the one credentialing system and align it to any number of external frameworks or institutions. This provides the learner with a ‘learn it once, and use many times’ opportunity.”
Below are a few snapshots of the Korus Connect Learner Portal:
Korus Connect Learner Portal – Home Dashboard
Korus Connect Learner Portal – Request for Other Training Activity page
Korus Connect Learner Portal – Search for Relevant Skills to Request for Other Training Activity page (Close-up Look Below)
Korus Connect Learner Portal – A List of Relevant Skills Appears as Keyword is Input in Search (e.g. ‘lead’)
Korus Connect Learner Portal – Learner’s Achievements
Other benefits that the solutions has demonstrated include:
- Verified evidence at a granular level
- Introduces a formal self-recognition model as a pathway to learning recognition
- Recognises ‘all’ learning events – not just the more formal ones
- Deals with a large volume of capabilities through a dashboard
- “Closed loop” process that makes it a one-stop shop
- Dramatically increases learning utility and learner agency
- Provides a personal evidence warehouse, leading to stackable credentials
- Helpful for role assignment and identifying expertise hot spots
- Offers organisation-wide visibility on capability, with ‘drill down’ capabilities
- Maps learning to role descriptions using RSDs as a machine-readable taxonomy / skills interpreter
“Learners gain full utility and control over their learning and their credentials and organisations gain true visibility of their workforce capability.” Keough adds cheekily: “Imagine the number of Excel spreadsheets you can eliminate with this solution…”