ADVISING STUDENTS WITH MILITARY CREDIT AND

OTHER PRIOR LEARNING

TEXAAN ANNUAL CONFERENCE

AUSTIN, TEXASFEBRUARY 19TH, 2016

ISAIAH VANCEDIRECTOR OF ACADEMIC ADVISING

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY – CENTRAL TEXAS

JENILEE WILLIAMSDIRECTOR OF GUIDANCE &

COUNSELING

CENTRAL TEXAS COLLEGE

What do you hope to learn and/or discuss about experiential

learning (including Prior Learning

Assessment and Competency-Based Education programs)?

Experiential learning theory defines learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results

from the combination of grasping and transforming experience.”

- David A. Kolb (in 1984), Experiential Learning:

Experience as the Source of Learning Development (p. 41)

Defining Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)

PLA evaluates a student’s learning through previous experiences (whether in a classroom

or otherwise).

Types of PLA:– Challenge Exams/Credit by Examinations

• e.g., CLEP, AP, IB, college generated exams

– Evaluated Non-College Programs• e.g., ACE (JST), non-credit based certificates

– Portfolios/Non-Traditional Demonstrations of Learning• Collections (sampling) of documents, presentations, etc.

Defining Competency-Based Education

• Competency = knowledge + skill• Outcomes drive the learning – focus on

“what” a student knows/does (not “how”)• Traditional Education: “Time is fixed,

learning is variable”; Competency-Based Education: “Learning is fixed, time is variable”

• A secondary effect of CBE is better defined outcomes for traditional education programs, as well.

Why PLA & CBE?Schools: The Lumina foundation has demonstrated that students who participate in experiential learning (particularly PLA) have greater persistence (retention) and graduation rates

Students: Decreased time to degree completion means less time and money (and better likelihood of finishing what was started)

“Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success”

www.cael.org/pdfs/pla_fueling-the-race

Key Considerations• Credit is not “given”, it is “earned”• Credit is for the learning experience,

not the experience itself• The connection to the “real world”

becomes more apparent through experiential learning

• All programs (not just ELT based) improve, because outcomes/goals are made clear out of necessity

• In their April 2015 webinar, the Coordinating Board listed CAEL’s PLA work as one of the “Current Programs Showing Promising Results”

• During their Strategic Planning Committee meeting that same month, they also discussed the benefits of CBE at length in a presentation titled: Competency Based Education: Finding New Pathways for Higher Education

• Through the Competency Based Education Network the Coordinating Board has also partnered with South Texas College, Texas A&M University-Commerce and the College for All Texans Foundation in a program called The Texas Affordable Baccalaureate Program (which arose from Gov. Perry’s challenge to create bachelor’s programs that cost less than $10,000)

The institution publishes policies that include criteria for evaluating, awarding, and accepting credit for transfer, experiential learning, credit by examination, Advanced Placement, and professional certificates that is consistent with its mission and ensures that course work and learning outcomes are at the collegiate level and comparable to the institution’s own degree programs. The institution assumes responsibility for the academic quality of any course work or credit recorded on the institution’s transcript (Principles of Accreditation, 3.4.4, p. 28).

The institution awards academic credit for course work taken on a noncredit basis only when there is documentation that the noncredit course work is equivalent to a designated credit experience (Principles of Accreditation, 3.4.8, p. 28).

SACSCOC, Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement (2012)

Available Online @: http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/2012PrinciplesOfAccreditation

• Good practices include “awarding credit for experiential learning and professional certifications based on well-documented activities and experience at the appropriate educational level and evaluated based on clearly developed outcomes for the courses or program for which credit is awarded”; in addition, qualified faculty are involved in the evaluation of credit (Resource Manual, p. 57).

• The resource manual explains that institutions awarding credit for noncredit coursework must have “a process for evaluating and determining that noncredit course work is equivalent to a designated experience” and that these processes are systematically reviewed (Resource Manual, p. 61).

SACSCOC, Resource Manual for the Principles of Accreditation:

Foundations for Quality Enhancement (2012)Available Online @:

http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/Resource%20Manual.pdf

CAEL, Holding Tight or at Arm’s Length (2014)Available Online @:

www.cael.org/pdfs/cael_pla_accreditation

“While such programs are now the exception, I want them to

be the norm.”

[regarding Competency-Based Education in a Las Vegas speech in 2011]

2009-2015

Questions & Comments

• Please see the handout for additional resources.

• You may also contact the presenters directly after the conference:– Jenilee Williams – JeWilliams@ctcd.edu– Isaiah Vance – i.vance@tamuct.edu