Arizona State University announced plans to launch a student digital record app, called Pocket, during the university’s Digital Trust Summit in June.
The app is expected to launch in Spring 2022. Decentralized digital learning record platforms like Pocket are designed to give students more control of their data and records, like the ability to store credits, grades and a portfolio of work in the app.
Timothy Summers, ASU’s executive director of digital trust initiatives, said during the June presentation that transcripts and resumes are still the benchmarks for learning and work, but “both mechanisms fall short in representing an individual and their abilities.”
The app provides students with digital credentials, and allows them to approve institutions to feed information into the app. This ability streamlines course information and credit opportunities for transfer students.
Pocket is meant to be a record of students’ path to graduation. The U.S. Department of Education advised institutions to create these kinds of digital record-keeping platforms in its latest recommendations on how to recover from the pandemic.
The guidance said, in part, that digital records “should be designed around the student with the goal of empowering them with ownership over their digital data and learning records” and should be formatted in a way that “facilitates interoperability and the translation of a student’s skills, competencies and knowledge across different educational and workforce institutions.”
Pocket is designed so employers can better match students with jobs and check their credentials. This is due in part to ASU’s involvement in the Open Skills Network, a group of companies, universities and nonprofits that are exploring ways to document student achievement. Network member institutions want to establish a set of standardized skills between higher education and employers.