LEGO Towers, Not Ivory: The Power and Promise of Stackable Credentials in Higher Ed

2U Chief Platform Officer & edX Founder Anant Agarwal, Western Governors University SVP and Executive Dean Ashutosh Tiwary, GWU College of Professional Studies Dean Liesl Riddle, Education Design Lab CEO Bill Hughes, and Inside Higher Ed Editor and Co-founder Doug Lederman discuss the power and promise of stackable credentials in higher ed at the 2023 ASU+GSV Summit.

Adult learners today have more diverse needs than ever before. So let’s stop thinking of higher education as this grand ivory tower in the sky, where academic pursuits are separate from everyday life and accessible only to the few. And let’s start giving all learners LEGO-like building blocks to help them build their own towers to success. Stackable credentials are gaining more and more traction as incremental, skills-based, career-relevant learning that forges direct links between education and work—and that puts learners’ needs front and center. Join a panel of experts from the fields of education, business, and workforce development for an insightful discussion on the benefits and challenges of creating stackable credentials that give everyone, everywhere more affordable and flexible pathways to opportunity, advancement, and lifelong learning.