by Jarek Janio, Ph.D.
In traditional education, grades are often assumed to be the clearest reflection of what a student has learned. A transcript filled with A’s is taken as a signal of excellence; a transcript with withdrawals or failing grades is often interpreted as a lack of ability or commitment. But what if neither is entirely true?
As we move deeper into the era of skills-based hiring and lifelong learning, we must confront a hard truth: grades are frequently unreliable narrators of student ability. They summarize course completion but fail to capture the full scope of learning—especially for students whose paths through education are anything but linear.
A growing movement in higher education is challenging the dominance of grades by introducing micro-credentials and badges as alternative forms of recognition. These tools don’t replace grades but rather complement them—by documenting and validating specific skills and competencies that students demonstrate throughout their learning journeys, even if those journeys are interrupted or nontraditional.
Grades Don’t Tell the Whole Story
Imagine a student who enrolls in a course but leaves midway due to a family emergency. By semester’s end, the gradebook shows an “Incomplete” or an “F.” What it doesn’t show is that, in the first six weeks, this student successfully completed several major assignments, demonstrated proficiency in key skills, and even mentored peers on one of the core concepts.
In the current system, that learning disappears into the void. The transcript communicates only that the course was not completed. It says nothing about the real and valuable skills the student acquired.
This is not a fringe scenario. According to national data, roughly 40% of college students attend part-time, and many stop and restart their education multiple times. These learners are more likely to face interruptions—due to work, caregiving, health, or financial instability—but they also bring prior experience, motivation, and capacity to succeed when systems adapt to their needs.
If we continue to rely on course completion as the only indicator of success, we exclude a vast population of learners whose competencies deserve to be recognized.
Toward a More Inclusive Model: Micro-Credentials and Badges
Micro-credentials and digital badges provide an alternative pathway—one that is competency-based rather than completion-based. These recognitions are aligned with Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and can be awarded when a student demonstrates a specific skill or knowledge, regardless of whether they finish an entire course.
A well-designed badge does more than say “good job.” It links to metadata that outlines:
- The learning outcome it represents
- The criteria for earning it
- The context in which the skill was demonstrated
- Evidence of student performance
This level of transparency makes badges meaningful to employers, advisors, and students themselves. It also shifts the assessment conversation from “Did the student pass?” to “What can the student do?”
By documenting skill attainment at multiple points in a course—not just at the end—badging creates an ecosystem of recognition that aligns with how people actually learn: gradually, incrementally, and in response to life’s unpredictability.
Redefining “Failure”
This approach also forces a necessary rethinking of the term failure in education. Is a student who leaves a course early, after demonstrating proficiency in three of five course outcomes, really a failure? Or are they someone who needs a different structure to finish what they started?
In a system where micro-credentials are integrated into course design, that student could walk away with three verified credentials—each corresponding to a demonstrated competency. These could then be:
- Shared with employers on a résumé or LinkedIn
- Used to gain credit at another institution through Credit for Prior Learning (CPL)
- Applied toward a challenge exam or portfolio submission later
The point is not to diminish academic standards but to make recognition more granular and responsive. A student doesn’t have to complete a whole course to prove they’ve learned something meaningful. And those partial achievements can still be of value.
Policy and Accreditation: The Structural Shift We Need
Of course, adopting this model requires more than goodwill from instructors—it requires structural change. Institutions need updated policies and accreditation frameworks that support:
- Partial credentialing within courses
- Recognition of non-course-based learning, such as workplace or military experience
- Clear standards for issuing, storing, and verifying badges
- Articulation agreements that allow micro-credentials to be applied across institutions or programs
The good news is that these conversations are already happening. National frameworks such as the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) and the Learning and Employment Record (LER) are laying the groundwork for interoperable, skill-based records that complement traditional transcripts. At the same time, regional accreditors are beginning to acknowledge the value of alternative credentials—especially when they are aligned with program outcomes and labor market needs.
Forward-thinking institutions are already piloting these models. Some community colleges now issue micro-credentials for discrete skills within credit courses, so that students who leave early can still receive recognition for what they learned. Others are using badges to document cross-cutting skills like leadership, digital literacy, and intercultural communication—skills that might otherwise remain invisible.
What’s next?
If we are serious about equity, access, and student learning, we must take the next step: build systems that recognize what learners do, not just what they complete. That means:
- Embedding SLO-aligned badges into course and program design
- Validating learning at multiple points, not just at the end
- Rethinking the role of grades as the sole currency of achievement
- Equipping students to share their learning in formats that matter—to themselves, to employers, and to the broader ecosystem
Most importantly, it means honoring the complexity of learning. Not every student will follow a straight line from enrollment to completion. But if we’re paying attention, we can still observe, document, and celebrate the skills they gain along the way.
The future of education isn’t about replacing the transcript—it’s about enhancing it with a more complete, more human narrative. It’s about moving from gatekeeping to recognition.
And it starts by asking: What if we stopped measuring learning only by how a story ends—and instead looked at what was learned along the way?
