In February 2025, Ithaka S+R and Complete College America launched the holistic credit mobility acceleration cohort. This community of practice comprises 11 state higher education and university systems, as well as institutional consortia, that are collaborating throughout 2025 and into early 2026 to identify best practices, policies, and technologies to advance credit mobility nationwide. This is critical to student success, as recent data from the National Student Clearinghouse demonstrates that transfer pathways are becoming increasingly non-linear, multidirectional, and populated by adult students returning to higher education. This increased mobility can create both opportunities and challenges for institutions, as they experience an increase in transfer enrollment and explore ways to efficiently evaluate incoming prior learning from multiple sources. Enabling students to receive credit for all of their validated prior learning reduces barriers that can increase the cost or time spent earning a credential.

Following a kickoff meeting in February, the April virtual cohort meeting centered on credit mobility technology. In a 2022 research brief, Ithaka S+R identified supportive technology as one of the three necessary supports for institutions, systems, and states to achieve holistic credit mobility. Along with policy and responsive practice, supportive technology helps bring together learning from different sources to form a more complete picture of a student’s experience and knowledge. Technology can also help illuminate critical transfer data for prospective students who need this information to make an informed choice about their education.

Credit mobility technologies have rapidly proliferated in recent years, addressing the diverse information needs of students and institutions. AI and machine learning have become increasingly important tools in enhancing credit mobility through technology. During the virtual convening, participants discussed the four leading roles of credit mobility technologies. These roles include providing transparent and accessible data for learner planning, boosting the efficiency and automation of transfer equivalency generation, promoting course sharing and learning portability, and enabling deep and sustained institutional collaboration.Graphic showing the roles of supportive credit mobility technology.

Because there are numerous potential technologies available, we used a poll during the convening to better understand the technologies participants are using and to gauge user satisfaction. While some respondents listed tools like Transferology, AcademyOne, and CourseWise, others reported using lower-tech solutions such as spreadsheets. The majority of participants are using homegrown systems. Overall, participants are dissatisfied with their current technology; all but one participant indicated that their current technology is not meeting their student information needs.

Similarly, only a few participants reported being satisfied with how current technologies are meeting business needs. When asked to indicate their most significant technology needs, participants’ top wish was for equivalency generation and/or equivalency workflow tools, followed by student information and planning tools, and transcript review automation tools. Several respondents reported needing technological solutions for all aspects of their work. These findings align with a recent report from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and SOVA, which finds that technology challenges resulting from disjointed and complex systems contribute to inefficiencies in credit evaluation processes.

Cohort members had the opportunity to learn about three solutions focused on different aspects of the credit mobility technology landscape. Katherine Antonucci of Arizona State University shared information about the Triangulator, which uses innovative machine-learning technology to identify and improve equivalencies. Chris Buonocore of ITHAKA’s JSTOR Labs shared how ITHAKA’s Transfer Explorer helps make institutional data more transparent and accessible for students and other stakeholders. Cohort member Dr. Christi Harter of Eastern Washington University shared resources about Learning and Employment Records (LERs), which enable learners to maintain a digital record of their credentials and skills. All session presenters participated in a panel discussion facilitated by Complete College America Strategy Director Kristin Brooks, where they answered audience questions and discussed best practices, including what data is necessary for a successful credit mobility technology, how to fund and sustain efforts, and how to get started.

The technological solutions featured are just a small fraction of the options available in this space. Many of our cohort members seek technology that will enhance the transfer experience for students and increase efficiency in generating and managing equivalencies at their institution; however, the right technology may be different for each of them. This is a topic we are continuing to research, and we hope to include more about decision-making strategies in our upcoming holistic credit mobility playbook. In the meantime, we’ve identified the following considerations for systems, states, and institutions choosing new credit mobility technology:

  • Assess your credit mobility technology needs with a wide set of stakeholders
  • Establish your core principles for adopting the technology, and make them inescapable
  • Don’t wait until everything (specifically your transfer data) is perfect to get started
  • Consider how you can leverage the technology to systematize your transfer data processes
  • Test the technology for usability and usefulness with students and advisors on an ongoing basis
  • Plan for scale, sustainability, and ongoing development of the technology

Coming up next: at our upcoming virtual convening in June, we look forward to learning about and discussing approaches to non-credit-to-credit pathways and prior learning assessment.