Developing A Governance Framework for Learning and Employment Record (LER) Issuer Registries

Learning and employment records (LERs) are increasingly deployed in the context of verifiable credentials, enabling more reliable and faster credential verification. However, there exists a missing link in the trust chain in order to substantiate if the issuer of a verifiable credential is trustworthy. For this reason, LER issuer registries, or lists of trusted issuers, are an increasingly relevant research area. An integral element of issuer registries is the governance framework used, which is essential for promoting trust in the issuer registry and supporting technical adoption. This study develops a governance framework for LER issuer registries as a part of a non-profit/higher education consortium research project, in collaboration with a group of eighty-one advisors from academia, government, private industry, standards bodies, and nonprofits. This advisory group participated in the brainstorming/data collection and iterative refinement of a governance framework using a two-stage process modeled on Mayer et. al’s “Integrative Model of Organizational Trust” (ability, benevolence, and integrity perceived trustworthiness factors). The final governance framework consists of 7 categories which comprise a total of 48 guidelines (full governance framework provided as a table within the paper). The impact of this study is that trust in LER issuer registries can be studied and supported using a theoretically-grounded governance framework developed among industry stakeholders, promoting trusted engagement and authority of the issuer registry.