ASU Pocket / My Skills Pocket FAQ
Learn more about how to use this secure, innovative digital wallet.
The ASU Pocket / My Skills Pocket app (Pocket) is a platform for managing and storing Learning and Employment Records (LERs) in a digital format, allowing learners to securely store, access and share verified credentials across organizations. The app functions as a digital wallet for storing verified coursework, licenses, positions, skill records and degrees to share as the holder sees fit. The Pocket platform enables learners to create self-sovereign digital identities (SSIs) stored securely on the blockchain and grants institutions the ability to define credential types and establish rules for issuing or revoking credentials.
Pocket creates a secure identity for learners and each institution that they are affiliated with (that is part of the issuer network). Institutions define what credentials are offered and whether they should be issued to or revoked from learners. Learners can access and receive secure, verified credentials and share these credentials with other educational organizations and prospective employers.
To get started, learners set up their profile and store their credentials in the Pocket app, which is available for iOS and Android devices. Institution or employer administrators and Program Coordinators manage credentials and metadata through the Admin Console, a web app that is part of the Pocket platform.
A verified credential (VC) is a data file digitally signed by an institution that confirms a specific user has earned a specific credential. It is non-transferable and tamper-evident, though, based on the rules set forth by the institution, can expire or be revoked.
Pocket uses VCs to:
- issue learning records;
- issue employment records;
- capture your skills, achievements and experiences;
- create portfolios and profiles.
Pocket is for learners, workers and opportunity seekers wanting a one-stop shop for receiving, storing, and sharing the achievements accumulated throughout their learning and professional journey across all organizations. Furthermore, it empowers individuals with access, control and understanding of their achievements enabling them to discover and secure their next opportunity.
It’s also for organizations looking to streamline the issuance and revocation of credentials. It enables employers to find and get the best people into the roles faster and with more confidence, tap into a broader pool of candidates qualified through non-traditional means, as well as develop and retain talent through career pathing.
Pocket and LinkedIn are both digital portfolios where people store records of their learning and professional achievements – but only Pocket has the capacity to ensure their legitimacy.
How? While LinkedIn can issue a certificate for completing their courses, and you can upload certificates from other companies to your profile, Pocket is a cornerstone part of an ecosystem for all steps of credential management – creation, verification and issuance. Pocket verifies every connection between an organization and a user. This makes Pocket a trusted source of information for higher education and employers.
Unlike LinkedIn, unverified credentials cannot be added to or shared from Pocket. Pocket serves as a source of truth for all aspects of a learner’s journey.
For Learners
Currently, Pocket is available for testing by the ASU Community and our partner organizations. ASU Pocket™ mobile app is available in Apple and Google Play stores and requires an ASU SSO to receive credentials. My Skills Pocket mobile app will be available in app stored in February, 2024 and will allow anyone to create a digital wallet and receive VCs. Please contact MySkillsPocket@asu.edu if you would like to pilot VC issuance and the digital wallet within your organization.
Creating an ASU Pocket digital wallet is as easy as installing a mobile app.
A student or employee can receive Verified Credentials from their educational institution or employer into their Pocket digital wallet if said institution decides to award them a credential. Once the credential is issued, the recipient receives a notification to their email / smartphone via text message with a link to Accept or Refuse the credential into their wallet.
Pocket is currently in the testing phase during which we are issuing test credentials based on the real achievement data. At the end of the testing period, all the data will be expunged to protect the privacy of the testers. Pocket’s goal is to support users' personal and professional growth and development long into their careers.
Pocket allows you to back up your wallet via a JSON file that can be downloaded and stores in Google Drive, Dropbox or directly on your device. We recommend backing up your wallet when you receive your first credentials and regularly after. On a new device, you are able to Restore your wallet by importing the saved JSON file.
Using Pocket doesn't require a password or passphrase.
Pocket allows wallet holders to select and share their VCs via emal, text message, QR code, or by adding it to their LinkedIn profile.
A third-party institution’s access to a learner’s first-party institution data will be entirely governed by the learner, as they own access to their credentials. Only the learner can grant access to their credentials. This is managed both when first creating identities for these institutions, and then when any data is actually transferred by the learner from one institution to another.
Pocket enforces all FERPA requirements for educational record privacy, and learners must opt in and consent to any record sharing.
Pocket's mission is to empowers lifelong learners with access, control and understanding of their achievements enabling them to discover and secure their next opportunity. In the near future, it will accomplish this by mapping candidates' achievements to transferable, career-moving skills and competencies, giving holders a full view into what they are capable of. Pocket will also enable and assist candidates in curating custom profiles of verifiable credentials which are likely to be the most impactful to obtain the desired opportunity, empowering wallet holder to put their best foot forward for the specific opportunity and expose to the wallet holder where they stand now in terms of skills and capabilities, what opportunities are available to them, and how to get where they want to go in their career.
Creating a public link will generate a webpage to display the contents of a credential on the My Skills Pocket Verifier website managed by Arizona State University Enterprise Technology. You are fully in control of how and with whom you share this link.
The Public Link is governed by the ASU Pocket™ / My Skills Pocket Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
For the time being, all Public Links are set to automatically expire 1 year after creation.
You manage “Public Links” from individual credentials in My Skills Pocket Wallet. On the home screen, you can see which credentials have a "Public Link" because they have a "Public" tag. Navigate to the credential with a “Public Link” you want to unshare. Select the three-dot menu in the upper right-hand portion of the screen. Select “Share” and then select “Unshare”. After confirming you want to unshare the link, the link will be removed from My Skills Pocket Verifier and no longer be viewable, the Verifier will remove the details of the credential. You can choose to “Create Public Link” again in the future and My Skills Pocket Wallet will create a new link.
For Organizations
Pocket is accepting pilot applications on the rolling basis. Reach out to ASU for more information by emailing MySkillsPocket@asu.edu.
For a successful pilot, the Pocket team will scope the project by getting to know your credential types and data needs and working closely with you to represent those as VCs. We will have help articles available to your staff and learners, as well as application programming interface (API) documentation for your developers.
Currently, an organization would have to:
- Enlist a stakeholder for determining the type of credentials to issue alongside Pocket
- Create credential descriptions or export the credential data to populate the VCs.
- Provide the list of employees or students to receive the VCs.
Pocket team will then facilitate the creation and issuance of VCs. In the future, we will be able to integrate directly with your data systems and enable VC issuance from the source HR, LMS, or SIS data.
Pocket aims to become interoperable with all formats of verifiable credentials across major standards and platforms. We are currently supporting two Verified Credential types:
- OBV3 badges which can be used to represent a variety of achievements from class and training completions to awards, event participation and skills.
- JSON-LD Employment Record credentials aligned with the primary employment record schemas.
Pocket is able to manage credentials that represent the full picture of a learning and professional journey. This includes milestones, degrees, certifications, licenses and awards – anything that can be issued by a verified institution or individual on behalf of that institution.
Pocket’s vision is to create a place where all credentials can live – not just educational and training institutions – but also job roles and credentials gained from professional organizations that fully reflect the accumulated, verified accomplishments of lifelong learning.
The credentials added to a learner’s Pocket must come from a Pocket issuance server that an institution controls and manages. The primary way your organization can issue credentials through Pocket is by contacting us through email at MySkillsPocket@asu.edu to coordinate the pilot and share necessary institution and credential data to issue the correct credentials, and employee or student contact details for them to receive these credentials into their wallet.
In the future, Pocket will expand to issue more lightly-weighted credentials in the form of endorsements for self-claimed credentials and to integrate directly into the HR, LMS, and/or SIS systems for automatic credential issuance.
Simply, you can trust that your data is secure. How? Your personal information and verifiable credentials reside only on your phone, inside a highly-encrypted digital wallet. You have complete control over when this information is shared and with whom you share your data. You can also delete it at any time.
In order to generate your credentials, we may request some information about you and your accomplishments from organizations that you’re affiliated with. This information is encrypted in transit and when securely stored, and is regularly purged from our system. Any communication between the Pocket platform and you – including when we send your verifiable credentials to your phone – occurs over a secure, peer-to-peer encrypted connection called DIDComm that guarantees privacy and trust.
We use HyperLedger Aries to manage our DIDComm communication network. Additionally, this network ensures that the data being sent cannot be read by anyone other than the correct recipient. This way, individuals and institutions always know who they are dealing with. This combination of privacy and trust provides a solution for verified digital credentials that preserves your privacy.
Finally, none of your personal information is ever stored on our blockchain ledger. The ledger is only used to record anonymous identifiers called DIDs, which permit all participants in the network to send and receive messages in a cryptographically secure and trusted manner.
In order for an organization to issue trusted and verified credentials to learners through Pocket, it will need to be a vetted and established institution with existing systems to ensure its records are accurate.
Additionally, the Pocket Network / Trusted Learner Network (TLN) will set up controls and rules that govern transactions among member institutions that they can control and vet any given institution that can manage their list of Trusted Learner Network members.
We will offer public API endpoints for you to create learning accounts, issue your own credentials and access all interoperable data loaded into Pocket Issuance app.