The ability of modern technologies to generate learner-related data, coupled with an evolution in our understanding of job requirements, has redefined how we can and must learn. The current way learner records are managed in the Department of Defense (DoD) is insufficient for the evolving needs of instructors, learners, and organizations. Today, a transcript is typically used to record learners’ permanent academic records. Typically, a transcript only includes the most basic of information such as courses taken, grades received, and degrees conferred from a formal academic institution. Teachers and trainers have little visibility into individuals’ past performance, such as what other instructors have noted about them, the informal or nontraditional learning they’ve experienced, or their strengths, weaknesses, and individual needs.

The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative has participated in several ongoing projects related to learner records. These projects provide opportunities for ADL Initiative staff to engage and leverage lessons-learned and related solutions to ensure the military perspective is accurately and comprehensively represented. Efforts in the academic, military, and workforce domains are being led by the T3 Innovation Network (T3 Network), the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board (AWPAB), and the U.S. Air Force through their Airman Learning Record (ALR) project.

This paper will summarize these initiatives with a focus on harmonizing related standards and defining requirements for harnessing DoD learner data across the continuum of lifelong learning. Two broad perspectives emerge in using discoverable and verifiable learner records: the management of individual lifelong learning, and the organizational human capital supply chain. These perspectives point to the need for an approach to interface with existing authoritative learner records in a loosely coupled network, rather than a single stand-alone repository.