Prior Learning Recognition and Assessment and Credit Transfer:

A Canadian Experience

Terry AndersonPhD and Professor

Centre for Distance Education

CIDUI SymposiumInternational Conference on University Teaching and Innovation29 May 2013Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)

Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada

* Athabasca University

34,000 students, 700 courses

100% distance education

Graduate and Undergraduate programs

Master & Doctorate

Distance Education

Only USA Regionally Accredited University

in Canada

*Athabasca University

A business or industry, as a living organism, often must evolve (i.e., to overcome or even leverage changes) in order to seek higher efficiencies and ensure its long-term sustainability (Kim, 2010).

Drivers for Change

• Need for constant, lifelong learning• Access to multiple resources

– Informal – OERs, learning networks, MOOCs– Formal – multiple institutions, professional

accreditation• Lower costs for content, improving machine testing• Increased human mobility• More demand for evidence of competence and

qualifications

• Learning is normal, valuable and happens all the time.

• Why does it not lead to academic credit?

New Affordances

• Open Educational resources• Learning communities and networks• MOOCs• Knowledge wikipedia, Answers.com

If you want to learn how to fix a pipe, solve a partial differential equation, write software, you are seconds away from know-how via YouTube, Wikipedia and search engines. Access to technology and access to knowledge, however, isn’t enough. Learning is a social, active, and ongoing process.

What does a motivated group of self-learners need to know to agree on a subject or skill, find and qualify the best learning resources about that topic, select and use appropriate communication media to co-learn it?

http://peeragogy.org/

Massive (But Not Open) Master’s

• “The Georgia Institute of Technology plans to offer a $7,000 online master’s degree to 10,000 new students over the next three years without hiring much more than a handful (8) of new instructors.”

• Regular fee $40,000 /year• Inside Higher Ed

– May 15 2013

• Student-teacher Interaction recorded • Student- Content Interaction Enhanced,

abundant, multi-media• Student-Student Interaction Online, web

2.0, collaborative projects

Miyazoe, T., & Anderson, T. (2010). The interaction equivalency theorem. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9(2). http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/9.2.1.pdf.

Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition:

• "The formal acknowledgement of skills, knowledge, and competencies that are gained through work experience, informal training, and life experience" (UNESCO : Vlãsceanu, et al., 2004).

Flexible paths to assessment for OER learners: A comparative study

• Conrad & McGreal, (2012)• Purposively selected 31

institutions from 10 countries, known to be interested in open or alternative education

• “resistance within institutions to RPL practice”• Almost all charged fees for RPL• “Usher, Bryant, and Johnston (1997) point out, "it

offers a contestable and ambiguous terrain where different socio-economic and cultural assumptions and strategies can be differentially articulated. [However], as a field of tension, it can be exploited by different groups, each emphasizing certain dimensions over others" (p105).

• http://www.oer-europe.net/

Briefing PapersIn order to develop a framework of learning based on study using OERs, that is shared among several universities, OERtest will stimulate exchange between Higher Education experts in quality assurance, recognition of prior learning, credit transfers and institutional issues such as strategy development and HEI financing from our partner universities as well as researchers/practitioners of open educational practice. These activities will firstly result in four briefing papers on

• Assessment methods• Requirements and standards of resources• Credentilization, certification and recognition (institutional)• Inter-institutional collaboration

Credit Transfer

• Over 50% of Athabasca undergraduate students are taking courses, that they will transfer into other institutions.

• Athabasca acts as a service provider for students and institutions across Canada

Credit Transfer

• Relies on Trust• Europe has a long history from medieval days of mobility• Successful EU Programs?? – Socrates, Eramsmus, Lifelong

Learning Programme – Coles, M., & Oates, T. (2005).

• Student mobility without credit transfer is neutered.• Addresses high personal and social cost of non-completion,

allowing second chances and life-long learning• Especially important for high risk and disadvantaged

learners.

Credit transfer at Athabasca

• https://secure3.athabascau.ca/tcas/transfer.cgi

Athabasca Credit to other Schools

E-Portfolio Solution• Maintaining an accurate record of formal and

informal learning is critical.

Badges

• No evidence such external motivators create long term benefit or motivation. Kohn (1993) Punished by Rewards

• But useful as evidence of accomplishment at lower level of granularity than course or degree.

Conclusions

• Credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition are:– Disruptive– Necessary– A critical component of a 21century University.

Terry Anderson terrya@athabascau.ca

Blog: terrya.edublogs.org