[USE CASE] MIT xPro

[kimdhamilton]

Actor

MIT xPro platform, learner, relying party

Submitter

Kim Duffy, MIT Open Learning

User Story

MIT xPro students often take courses/programs as part of their ongoing professional development. Although students get certificates (web page hosted in xPro platform, similar to OpenEdX) upon completion, relying parties often want a higher level of assurance. MIT xPro wants to offer Verifiable Credentials so that students can take their credentials with them and so that relying parties have a trusted process for verification that doesn't require them to contact Open Learning.

Data Concepts

There will be 2 types of credentials issued:

• Completion of a course
• Completion of a program

We currently are not permanently hosting credential definitions (e.g. a Credential Engine Registry) but will be open to it in the future. At the moment, we prefer to define key aspects of the credential itself. The concepts/metadata is limited enough that we've been able to use basic schema.org definitions without much confusion. We used the "reverse" LD definition awardedOnCompletionOf to deal with the navigability issue.

• DCC LD Context with awardedOnCompletionOf
• xPro github issue: Digital Credential Template mitodl/mitxpro#1969
• See additional examples at the end

Restrictions

Verifiable Credentials

Tags

select any of the below that apply and/or add your own at the bottom:

• issuer-to-subject
• subject-to-relying-party
• system-to-system
• peer-to-peer
• subject-initiated
• workforce
• k-12
• post-secondary
• informal
• e2e (i.e. issuer-to-subject-to-relying-party)
• multiple-issuers (i.e. multiple parties involved in credential issuance)

Current Examples

Course Completion

"hasCredential": {
      "type": [
        "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
        "CourseCompletionCredential"
      ],
      "name": "Understanding Organizational Strategy and Capabilities Course Completion",
      "description": "Awarded on completion of course",
      "awardedOnCompletionOf": {
        "type": ["Course"],
        "courseCode": "course-v1:xPRO+LASERx1",
        "name": "Understanding Organizational Strategy and Capabilities",
        "description": "A four-week online course for technical professionals that will empower you with the essential skills needed to solve problems, innovate, and drive change.",
        "numberOfCredits": {
          "value": "2.4"
        },
        "hasCourseInstance": {
            "type": "CourseInstance",
            "startDate": "2020-09-01T00:00:00.000Z",
            "endDate": "2020-10-07T00:00:00.000Z"
       }
      }
    }

Program Completion

"hasCredential": {
      "type": [
        "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
        "ProgramCompletionCredential"
      ],
      "name": "SEED Digital Learning Program Completion",
      "description": "Credential awarded on completion of learning stuff about digital learning.",
      "awardedOnCompletionOf": {
        "type": "EducationalOccupationalProgram",
        "identifier": "program-v1:xPRO+DgtlLearn",
        "name": "SEED Digital Learning",
        "description": "Learn stuff about digital learning.",
        "numberOfCredits": {
          "value": "1"
        },
        "startDate": "None",
        "endDate": "None"
      }
    }

[kimdhamilton]

CourseInstance is a subclass of Event