CREDIT FOR PRIOR LEARNING

Facilitated by •Melanie Booth - Marylhurst University•Margaret Kimble – Lane Community College

May 19, 2013 ~ OrACRAO

What Are We Doing Here? • Learn about various forms of Credit for Prior

Learning (CPL)• Discuss how CPL works, ways to incorporate it

at your institution, and why might you need to• Discuss the 5 different types of CPL -- with in-

depth attention given to Prior Learning Assessment ("Portfolio Assessment“ / PLA)

• Identify implications of CPL on your institutions’ policies and practices

• Consider other "disruptive" forces, including MOOCs and competency-based learning

• Learn about the work of the Oregon Credit for Prior Learning Advisory Committee in regard to Oregon House Bill 4059Thanks to cogdog on Flickr for making this image

available to use

Glad To Meet You!

Please tell us:•Your name•Your institution•Your title / role•One burning question you have about CPL

Thanks to shannon.yey on Flickr for making this image available to use

LET’S GET STARTED

Inventory of Knowledge

An inventory of knowledge is a “prior learning assessment” technique to determine what individuals and groups of people already know about a given topic.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW and/or DO?

• About Prior Learning Assessment?

• About challenge exams / processes?

• About credit-by-examination?• About ACE or other credit

recommendation services?• About industry certifications for

credit?

House Bill 4059Directs HECC to report to the OR Legislative Assembly on CPL

•HECC created CPL Advisory Committee

•CPL is defined by 4059 as:• Granting college credit for “the knowledge and skills gained

through work and life experience, through military training and experiences and through formal and informal education and training from institutions of higher education in the US and in other nations.”

4059 Goals

a. Increase # of students who receive academic credit for prior learning

b. Increase # and type of academic credits accepted for prior learning

c. Develop transparent policies and practices

d. Improve prior learning assessment practices

e. Create tools to develop faculty and staff knowledge

f. Develop articulation agreements

g. Develop outcome measures to track progress on these goals.

Advisory Committee

October – December 2012:

1.Formed committee

2.Defined the 5 types

3.Took initial inventory

4.Analyzed current policies / practices

5.Created a work plan

So far in 2013:•Created strategies for each goal starting to implement

Representatives from:•OSU system•Community colleges•Private, independents•Private, for-profit career colleges•HECC member(s)•State Board of Education•Community advisors •Labor community•Military education

5 Types of CPL

1. PLA / Portfolio

2. Challenge Exams

3. Credit-by-Exam

4. Recommendation Services (ACE, etc.)

5. Industry Certifications

Thanks to squidish on Flickr for making this image available to use

PLA 101All you need to know about Prior Learning Assessment – in 20 minutes!

Operational Definition

PLA = Prior Learning Assessment

“Any knowledge-building or skills-attainment that occurs prior to enrollment or outside of enrollment at a post-secondary institution, assessed for the purpose of awarding college credit . . . . The term ‘prior learning’ has evolved to encompass the knowledge and skills one attains as a result of life experiences, including volunteer service, travel, parenting, and employment experiences as well as non-credit courses and independent studies” (Zucker, Johnson, & Flint, 1999, p. 3).

Context & History• Acknowledging multiple ways

of knowing in Australia’s and New Zealand’s aboriginal learners;

• Offering educational opportunities to people who live a great distance from Canadian higher educational institutions;

• Improving the labor market and unemployment conditions in Ireland;

• Diminishing the deleterious educational and workforce effects of apartheid in South Africa.

PLA / RPL Has Developed Around The World

Context & History - cont.

In the U.S., PLA has been a result of 3 significant social movements:

1. The adult education movement

2. The non-traditional higher education movement

3. The increasing sophistication of assessment (Keeton, 2000)

Context & History - cont.

The value of the PLA portfolio lies in its ability to bring the student into active engagement with academic and nonacademic cultures of knowledge by providing “a reflective bridge connecting the learner, higher education, and the workplace” (Brown, 2001).

Student’s Lived Experience

Workplace Life Higher Education

CAEL’s Suggested Steps

Advising + Instruction + Assessment + Records

1.Identification of learning areas – by the faculty or adviser with student

2.Articulation of credit to goals – student + faculty

3.Documentation of learning and experience – student in the course: evidence

4.Measurement / assessment of learning – content-area faculty determines degree and levels of competence

5.Evaluation – faculty determines credit equivalency

6.Transcription – record of results - administration (registrar)

PLA Philosophy• Experience can be a source of significant learning

and knowledge• When adult learners come to college – whether as new college

students or with transferable credit – they are not blank slates or empty pails.

• They bring with them life and work-place experiences from which they have gained significant learning.

• Experience is the learner’s “living textbook” (Lindeman, 1961).

Philosophy - cont.• CAEL’s perspective: the source of information obtained in

learning is the key difference in thinking about assessing learning that has occurred through experience versus learning that has occurred in a more traditional classroom setting (Whitaker, 1989, p. 3).

• BUT … “experience alone does not teach” (Fenwick, 2001, p.11).

• In most PLA situations, instruction is provided to teach learners how to identify, articulate, reflect on, and document their prior learning at the college-level.

Learning From Experience

Learning From Experience

The Kolb Cycle

“Reflection is the process

by which experience is

turned into learning.”

Boud, D., Keogh, R., and Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. Kogan Page: London.

STANDARDS & POLICIESEnsuring academic quality and integrity

CAEL Standards - Academic• Credit should be awarded only for learning, and not

for experience.• College credit should be awarded only for college-

level learning.• Credit should be awarded only for learning that has

a balance, appropriate to the subject, between theory and practical application.

• The determination of competence levels and of credit awards must be made by appropriate subject-matter and academic experts.

• Credit should be appropriate to the academic context in which it is accepted.

CAEL Standards – Admin.

• Credit awards and their transcript entries should be monitored to avoid giving credit twice for the same learning.

• Policies and procedures applied to assessment, including provision for appeal, should be fully disclosed and prominently available.

• Fees charged for assessment should be based on the services performed in the process and not determined by the amount of credit awarded.

CAEL Standards – Admin.

• All personnel involved in the assessment of learning should receive adequate training for the functions they perform and there should be provisions for their continued professional development.

• Assessment programs should be regularly monitored, reviewed, evaluated, and revised as needed to reflect changes in the needs being served and in the state of assessment arts.

NWCCU Policy 2.C.7

Credit for prior experiential learning, if granted, is:

a)guided by approved policies and procedures;

b)awarded only at the undergraduate level to enrolled students;

c)limited to a maximum of 25% of the credits needed for a degree;

d)awarded only for documented student achievement equivalent to expected learning achievement for courses within the institution’s regular curricular offerings; and

e)granted only upon the recommendation of appropriately qualified teaching faculty.

NWCCU Policy 2.C.7

• Credit granted for prior experiential learning is so identified on students’ transcripts and may not duplicate other credit awarded to the student in fulfillment of degree requirements.

• The institution makes no assurances regarding the number of credits to be awarded prior to the completion of the institution’s review process.

IMPLICATIONSIdentify implications of CPL on your institution's’ policies and practices

Future forcesCompetency-based learning, online learning, Open Educational Resources (including MOOCs), demographics, funding … the list goes on and on.

The Future

TEDxVillanovaU - Michele Pistone - The Future of Higher Education

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsiQ6-JTOWM

What might these ideas have to do with CPL at our institutions?

Reflection on Learning

• What did you learn?

• So what do these ideas mean to you, your office, your institution?

• Now what should Margaret take back to the CPL Advisory Committee for consideration?

What? So What? Now What?

A framework used in PLA to support reflection and action.