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The massive open online course (MOOC) provider edX took a step toward boosting the credibility of its "graduates" on Thursday, announcing a partnership with Pearson's testing centers that would allow students in edX's free, online courses to take proctored exams.

Digital badges are receiving a growing amount of attention and are beginning to disrupt the norms of what it means to earn credit or be credentialed. Badges allow the sharing of evidence of skills and knowledge acquired through a wide range of life activity, at a granular level, and at a pace that keeps up with individuals who are always learning-even outside the classroom. As such, entities not traditionally in the degree-granting realm-such as museums, associations, online communities, and even individual experts-are now issuing "credit" for achievement they can uniquely recognize. At the same time, higher education institutions are rethinking the type and size of activities worthy of official recognition. From massive open online courses (MOOCs), service learning, faculty development, and campus events to new ways of structuring academic programs and courses or acknowledging the granular or discrete skills that these programs explore, there's much for colleges and universities to consider in the wide open frontier called badging.

" Course providers like Udemy and Lynda.com, along with coding boot camps and massive open online courses (MOOCs) such as edX and Coursera, promise to refresh workers' skills or help them acquire expertise they didn't get in college. But those new credentials don't carry much weight in hiring yet, recruiters say, because managers don't trust or recognize many of the companies and organizations behind the badges and courses."

" Together with AT&T and an initial funding from AT&T Aspire of more than $1.5 million, we are launching nanodegrees: compact, flexible, and job-focused credentials that are stackable throughout your career. And the nanodegree program is designed for efficiency: select hands-on courses by industry, a capstone project, and career guidance. Efficient enough that you can get a nanodegree as you need it and earn new ones throughout your career, even if you need to switch paths since a career isn't always a straight line. "

"As the "credit for prior learning" movement gains traction, it will be progressively easier for students not only to learn in nontraditional ways, but to accumulate credits for what they've learned."