I read about Acadia's effort at creating an official cocurricular document recently at their website (http://cct.acadiau.ca/). I began to wonder where the research is that is guiding universities to take this large and potentially expensive step. Several technology firms have created software tools to make this easier, but it still would be expensive; especially at a university like Penn State. Where is Penn State on this question? Are students creating their own in the 'blogs.psu.edu' site? Are students presenting them to employers at Career Fairs? Are they upload them into their Symplicity account?
Wow - the validation of students' reports certainly seems labor intensive. I don't think it's a bad idea in theory though. If we think co-curricular learning is a critical part of the educational experience, we should document it in a way that students can use. I'm not volunteering to do the validating though!
Here is a YouTube video that describes their program. We are only beginning to capture data for such a transcript in our Division, so it is difficult to comprehend how the entire University would verify the multitude of activities that deserve attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wayis0uOTgM