You Heard That Correctly. Digital Diplomas Make Print Diplomas Easier

It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. Digital diplomas actually make print diplomas easier. 

While transcripts have transitioned into digital formats since the ’90s, digital diploma adoption has been slower. When they became more easily issuable in 2017, it seemed like a nice to have option. Sure, the learners seem to like it and some institutions seem to have had success with it, but is it really worth the additional investment? Fast forward to 2020. A pandemic hits. For some Registrars, getting to the office to print diplomas wasn’t possible. For others, the delays in getting diplomas printed on time or shipped were another problem. For learners, the ability to share their achievements was either put on hold or never happened at all. It was around this time that many institutions started looking more deeply at the value of digital diplomas.

Digital diplomas became a way to help learners immediately share the fruits of their hard work over social media, with potential employers, and with their friends and family. That shift caused a lot of institutions to evaluate their processes and realize that digital diplomas aren’t just nice to have, they are necessary in today’s digitally-focused world. Interestingly enough, as part of their digital diploma roll-out, institutions have seen benefits to their print diploma processes as well.

On May 25th at 1:00 pm EST (10:00 AM PST), AACRAO will be hosting a webinar that will go deeper into some real-life Registrar experiences of how digital diplomas are helping them get more efficient with print diplomas and saving them some much needed time. This webinar will also look at the learner experience and see how digital diplomas are being used to increase a learner’s success post-graduation and, at the same time, help create brand awareness for the institution.