Digital Defyned: Free, Verified Certs for Any Online Course

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by eriehiker, Aug 6, 2020.

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  1. eriehiker

    eriehiker Active Member

  2. eriehiker

    eriehiker Active Member

  3. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Certificate sample:
    So what is the value of such a certificate?




    cert sample.jpg
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2020
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    It's a certificate certifying that you have certificates! Doesn't everyone need that? :)
     
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  5. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Next up: One diploma for all your diplomas -- and finally a degree for your degrees. How did we ever get along without 'em. :) Miraculous things they speak of, on this Internet.

    In the old days, we had to frame them all. Now we only need one frame. What a savings!
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2020
  6. eriehiker

    eriehiker Active Member

    Haha! That is a disappointing certificate. So the value of this particular certificate is negligible.

    However, the idea of this is interesting. The value of the traditional college transcript model is that there is a permanent list of classes completed that can be verified by a reasonably competent organization. People forget things very quickly and the permanent nature of transcripts can be relied on to clarify memory. This is a weakness of certificates. Once a person forgets about the certificate, there is frequently no record to fall back on. Certificates get lost. So, one aspect of potential value in a service like this is that completed courses can be submitted and listed on some type of record. I don't think that this particular person/company can necessarily provide that, but some organization could do this. Of course, an individual can do this with a Word document, but many people are generally disorganized.

    Another piece of value in a system like this is verification of completion and potentially some level of weeding of worthless certificates. Most certificate organizations send emails that acknowledge completion. A person can just keep all of these in a binder or a folder on a computer. However, every course provider has their own way of doing this and if a credible third party could standardize these completion record, then there would be some value there. There has been some work on this with digital badges and blockchain technology. Credly is an example. Obviously, what is valuable and what is worthless is in the eye of the beholder. However, that kind of work can be done just as the collected knowledge on this site tends to move towards either general acceptance or rejection of particular learning opportunities.

    Cost, of course, is big issue. Companies like Coursera and Edx offer paid certificates and those are probably the way to go. However, that gets pretty expensive if a person completes more than a few certificates.
     
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  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Reminds me of the "certified MBA" where you'd first earn an MBA, and then take their third party certification test. Needless to say, this didn't last long.
     
  8. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    If modified it can be somewhat useful. I think providers such as edX or Coursera can use something like that.
    For example, someone completed a number of classes from different universities via edX.
    They can group the classes and list them on a certificate?

    Professional Certificate
    in
    Computer Science

    This is to certify that

    John Doe

    Has successfully completed a series of 5 classes

    1. Harward X - CS50s Comp Science
    2. Harward X - Data Science
    3. UC San Diego X - Phyton for Data Science
    4. RIT X - Project Management
    5. Berkeley X - The Science of Happiness at Work

    For someone with 10 classes may be a more advanced certificate?

    Or
    -------

    Professional Certificate

    This is to certify that

    John Doe

    Has successfully completed a series of 5 classes

    1 -
    2-
    3-
    4-
    5-
     
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Too bad they can't somehow make a collection of these worth ONE college credit apiece We've got people here who'd burn through 120 certs in NO time for a degree. :)
     
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  10. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    FEMA courses were like that, but I'm not sure anyone recognizes them anymore.
     
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  11. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yes - I thought about FEMA while I was reading all this. I looked it up and yes - very little acceptance. You can still get credit at Frederick Community College - and you might well be able to transfer them into one of the (quite a few) schools that teach degrees in Emergency Management -if that's the field you want. But the days of laundering batches of 'em through Frederick and banking them at the Big 3 for easy-peasy electives in your business degree -- the party has wound down, it seems. All good things must come to an end - and some others also, no doubt.

    Memories....
     
    SteveFoerster likes this.

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