Back in late 2020, ACE gave the handling of its transcript program over to a company called Credly (used to be called "Your Acclaim"). I've seen one of the transcripts and they look fine I suppose, just not as clinical and boring as the original ACE transcript (much like all transcripts), My question is, do you think having another company handling this may cause confusion? I ask because I have read some situations in the past where people tried to get ACE credits applied to a degree program and had trouble or outright rejection because the registrar at the school didn't know about ACE, and that was when ACE handled the transcripts themselves. I tend to think that's a rare situation and ACE is widely-known. However, I had a situation once myself years ago where I was just asking a school registrar about it and the registrar kept referring to them as military credits and also kept thanking me for my service to the country, lol. I just wonder if having another name attached (Credly) could cause any complications? I get that they could just look it up, but I've learned not to underestimate the reality that everyone won't even if they work in education.
I don't think this will be an issue. A college my wife attended only provides transcripts through Parchment.com. Quantic uses the National Student Clearinghouse. These are for official transcripts. It's not as uncommon as you think to have transcripts issued by a third party. The fact that they're coming from a third-party will be unremarkable, but them being ACE-recommended credits taken at a Sophia/Study dot com/CLEP or similar will be the bigger barrier, I think.
My spouse has been working on a BA and has completed some Sophia courses. I had to figure out the whole Credly thing but we have had no issue with transferring credits so far.
And to make matters worse, there may be more changes in store just in case you missed it, Pearson Acquires Credentialing Firm Credly in $200M Deal (insidehighered.com)
I hope they at least change the name. "Credly" is too close to "deadly." And any neologism that ends in -ly sounds like either teen-speak or a "temporary" internet url. I think that's probably why Smart-ly changed to Quantic. Wise move.
Parchment is a good example. They have very strong penetration into the market. My curiosity is more about this particular company not being as well-known (though I could be totally wrong about that, see below), then taking into account that they've changed names and hands a few times. I had a chat with an SL admin some time back and was told that this is like the 3rd or 4th different iteration of the company, and then this: I noticed a Pearson mention on the Credly site earlier today and forgot to talk about it in my original post. Thanks for that link. $200 million, goodness. This caught my attention: "More than 2,000 organizations use Credly, according to a Pearson press release. Credly has issued 50 million credentials to 25 million consumers and has become the world’s largest professional credentialing marketplace." Heh. That sounds pretty well-known. Not under the Credly name the whole time of course, but still, those numbers are substantial. I thought the same thing. It has a fadish vibe. One of their previous names ("Your Acclaim") wasn't too tasty either.
I think and from my experience the National Student Clearinghouse is the most used transcript service. One of my kids has transcript via Credly for his Coursera Google IT Professional certificate, ACE credit recommendation of 12 credits in IT . How will the Pierson purchase affect Credly?
For $200 million, hopefully in a good way. With ACE placing all of its faith in them, and then the recent $200 million deal from Pearson, they must have a pretty great system in place. I am curious about how it could affect pricing. Right now, you can send transcripts to anyone or any school totally free. How long can that last?
My kids are using Credly because that's how credit goes from Study.com and Sophia.org to the Big Three. I hope it doesn't change, as it seems to work pretty well as is.
As far as I'm aware, they charge the providers a monthly and/or per-badge fee. That's where the money comes from.
Yeah, it's definitely been a B2B model. It's just that after Pearson dropped $200m in and bought them, I wonder if they'll do like most other companies and look for another revenue stream. With all of those students hooked up to the system, it has to be pretty tempting since even a small charge could return big.
"Do you have a degree? Diploma? Certificate?" "Soon. Here are my Credly Badges..." "...Badges? ...Well, we'll call you... uh, Credly soon." The FIRST two jobs for Pearson are SO clearly evident: "Credly" and "Badges." Higher Ed is not a Scout Troop.
Maybe the badge fad will die off in a couple of years. But, until it does, I don't see Credly changing to a non-badge transcript.
I really hate the look of the Credly transcript! It's not my decision to make, though, unfortunately.
