Success Stories
ASME Had the Brand and the Reach.
We Helped Build the Strategy.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
A powerhouse of credentials waiting for one strategy to unite them.
ASME had everything that matters: a 135-year reputation as a trusted standards authority, credentials spanning an engineer’s entire career, and hundreds of digital badges already issued. The pieces were strong. What they needed was a single strategy to make them add up to more than the sum of their parts.
MCM delivered a Credentialing Clarity and Alignment Strategy that unified ASME’s credentials under one taxonomy, governance model, and roadmap — moving the organization from exploration to implementation readiness, and positioning it to lead skills-based recognition in engineering.
The Opportunity in Numbers
Real scale, ready to become shareable evidence.
ASME was already issuing credentials. MCM helped give that momentum a shared taxonomy and metadata framework that makes credentials clearer, more consistent, and more useful to learners, employers, and verifiers.
Digital badges already in market
Credential types unified under one taxonomy
Verifiable Metadata components mapped
Rigorous Industry-aligned Learning Pathways
Why the metadata matters
The strategy connects ASME’s credentials and earning pathways to richer records — helping key stakeholders signal and understand what was earned, how it was assessed, what evidence supports it, and why it matters.
The Deliverable
One taxonomy, every credential in its place.
At the center of the strategy is a taxonomy that helps ASME teams classify credentials consistently — using a simple workflow, a shared rigor ladder, and clear expectations for what each credential type should recognize.
Classification workflow
Three questions turn the taxonomy into an operating tool.
Is there an assessment?
No → ParticipationDoes it complement an external certification?
Yes → Industry-Recognized CredentialWhat is being evaluated?
Knowledge, competency, service, innovation, or nominationParticipation
Recognizes attendance or engagement.
See Examples
Examples: Webinars, events, workshops
Assessment rigor: Variable
Evidence: Optional
Audience: Any participant
Knowledge
Recognizes understanding of concepts.
See Examples
Examples: Quizzes, module tests
Assessment rigor: Low–mid
Evidence: Optional
Audience: Learners in courses
Competency
Recognizes demonstrated applied competency.
See Examples
Examples: Capstones, performance tasks
Assessment rigor: Mid
Evidence: Recommended
Audience: Learners and early-career engineers
Service
Recognizes contribution or service to ASME.
See Examples
Examples: Committee roles, volunteer service
Assessment rigor: Mid
Evidence: Optional
Audience: Volunteers, leaders, and committees
Innovation
Recognizes project-based innovation and judged results.
See Examples
Examples: ISHOW, E-Fest
Assessment rigor: Mid–high
Evidence: Required
Audience: Students and competitors
Nomination
Recognizes excellence through nomination.
See Examples
Examples: Scholarships, design awards
Assessment rigor: Mid–high
Evidence: Optional
Audience: Students and professionals
Industry-Recognized Credential
Recognizes external validation of industry skill.
See Examples
Examples: ASME Personnel Certifications, QRO
Assessment rigor: Highest
Evidence: Required
Audience: Engineering professionals
Why it matters
The taxonomy keeps every credential honest about its signal: participation still has value, but higher-rigor credentials require stronger assessment, evidence, validation, and metadata.
Why MCM
Independent expertise for decisions that have to last.
Most providers sell a tool or a strategy deck. MCM works inside the decisions that determine whether a credential system can be governed, implemented, trusted, and reused.
That is how CNM moved from years of stop-and-start to durable infrastructure the institution could own.
CNM was not locked into a vendor’s roadmap.
The work produced institutional infrastructure — definitions, processes, metadata, and implementation supports CNM could carry forward.
Strategy, governance, and systems stayed connected.
MCM helped translate learner record ambition into practical decisions that could survive handoff to platforms, partners, and implementation teams.
The credentials were designed to mean something.
Each achievement could be tied to clear criteria, skill signals, evidence, pathway value, and standards-aligned metadata.
The first pathway became a repeatable pattern.
CNM gained a launch-ready model for future pathways instead of starting over with every new program, partner, or credential idea.
Implementation Pathway
Better questions. Better outcomes.
CNM needed a practical way to move from learner record strategy to repeatable decisions. MCM helped turn the right questions into reusable governance and implementation processes.
The challenge
Years of discussion needed a clearer decision structure.
The work was not just about deciding what to badge. It was about creating a shared way to evaluate, define, prioritize, document, and implement credentials across teams.
Why this mattered
The work became repeatable.
Instead of improvising decisions one credential at a time, CNM gained a practical operating model for future pathways.
Processes created
Credential Taxonomy
A shared structure for deciding what CNM is recognizing — and why.
Triage Protocol
A repeatable review process for prioritizing credential opportunities.
Metadata Framework
Implementation-ready information for platform setup and technical handoff.
Workforce Pathway
A launch-ready model connected to learner progression and workforce relevance.
Over the last year, it's been a lot of conversations and meetings exploring definitions and processes. This gives the team the structure and clarity we've been looking for. This document helps us narrow and focus our discussions going forward — especially for the Definitions and Governance sub-team — and gets us closer to launch and implementation.
Joy Forehand, Central New Mexico Community College
Deliverable Highlight
A practical taxonomy for credential decisions CNM can reuse.
The CNMCC Digital Badge Taxonomy helped translate years of learner record discussion into a shared structure for deciding what should be recognized, how credentials should be categorized, and what information is needed for implementation.
Shared definitions
Clarified the types of credentials CNM could issue and how each type should be understood across teams.
Governance support
Created a common reference point for reviewing, prioritizing, and advancing credential opportunities.
Implementation readiness
Connected taxonomy decisions to the metadata, platform setup, and technical handoff required for launch.
Reusable infrastructure
Gave CNM a practical model for future pathways instead of starting over with every new credential idea.
Ready to Build What Comes Next?
Move from badge pilots to credentialing infrastructure.
Micro-credential Multiverse helps colleges, systems, and workforce partners design skills-based credentials that are rigorous, scalable, portable, and connected to real opportunity.
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