ANN ARBOR, Michigan (May 7, 2018) – With the countdown to its 2018 commencement ceremony at 12 days, Washtenaw Community College announced it is providing graduates with a new way to share their accomplishments with family, friends and future employers.
A digital service launched this month allows all future WCC graduates to receive an authenticated, electronic copy of their diploma or certificate in addition to the physical copy they receive from the college.
“We live in a digital world where people like to share their accomplishments for social reasons, which is made much easier with this service,” says Kathy Currie, WCC’s Director of Student Records. “The benefit we’re providing as an institution is the ability for our graduates to quickly share their digital credentials with potential employers.”
The service is offered through Parchment, a well-established transcript sharing company that launched its digital credential service in February 2017. The service allows graduates to easily share their diploma on social media, download and save it as a secure PDF, send a link to an employer to verify, and access it online forever at parchment.com.
Upon graduation, students will receive an email in their college email account with a link to claim their digital diploma or certificate. There is no cost to students for the service. Along with providing the digital credentials to students set to graduate during the 2018 commencement ceremony on May 19 at the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center, WCC is also retroactively offering the service to all 2017 graduates.
“At the center of the digitalization of all academic credentials is the learner and their ability to now securely collect and manage online all of the credentials they earn throughout their lifetime,” Parchment CEO Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D., said in a release.
WCC joins universities like Duke, Temple and Texas A&M as early adopters of the digital diploma movement.
Currie said the inspiration to pursue the service for all WCC graduates came from the popularity of a similar service that WCC instructor Mike Galea introduced in 2016 for the college’s Computer Information Systems students. Upon completion of certain programs, those students received digital badges that allowed potential employers to verify competency.
For more information on the digital certifications, visit wccnet.edu/digitaldiploma.
For information about Washtenaw Community College visit: wccnet.edu.
Media contact: Susan Ferraro, WCC Director of Media Relations, 734-677-5295, snferraro@wccnet.edu.
