Prior Learning Assessment: Policies, Practices, and Penn State

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PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT

Prior Learning Assessment: Policies, Practices, and Penn State

Hannah Brukardt

The Pennsylvania State University

Prior Learning Assessment: Polices and Practices

The linear journey from high school to college to employment is no longer the normative trend in higher education. More often than not, students take nontraditional pathways that ultimately lead back to the classroom after other personal, educational, and/or professional experiences. During this winding journey from high school to higher education, these nontraditional students gain valuable learning experiences. Increasingly, institutions of higher education are accepting these out-of-classroom experiences as relevant and transferrable learning that can be submitted for academic credit. This practice is widely known as Prior Learning Assessment (PLA). While higher education institutions have practiced PLA for decades, a surge of interest and implementation of these practices has been seen recently.

Increasing numbers of nontraditional learners and transfer students in higher education and legislation to make higher education more accessible urges institutions to adopt more open PLA policies. Nontraditional learners, or adult learners, have surpassed the traditional-aged students as the majority demographic in higher education (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). Between 2000 and 2010, enrollment of students over 25 rose by 42% and is projected to increase another 20% by 2020 (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). While this population goes by several names, the definition of adult or nontraditional learners is fairly consistent throughout scholarly and institutional work. Adult learners, as adopted by many scholars and institutions, are students who are over the age of 24 and/or take on at least one adult role like military service, full-time employment, marriage, or parenthood. Most adult learners exhibit multiple nontraditional characteristics which inevitably complicates their higher education goals. PLA provides an avenue for adult students to receive academic credit for their prior learning. Unfortunately, the most common type of PLA credit earned is earned by traditional-aged students. To fully support the adult learner community, institutions, like The Pennsylvania State University, need to expand their policies and practices surrounding PLA.

Literature Review

The definition of PLA is generally the same among scholars and institutions, but the Council of Adult and Experiential Learning’s (CAEL) Rebecca Klein-Collins (2010) has the most thorough definition:

PLA is the process by which many colleges evaluate for academic credit the

college-level knowledge and skills an individual has gained outside of the classroom (or from non-college instructional programs), including employment, military training/service, travel, hobbies, civic activities and volunteer service (p. 6).

PLA has been utilized in higher education since the 1940s when the American Council on Education (ACE) began evaluating military experience for college credit (Ryu, 2013). The expansion of the G.I. Bill and the surge of World War II veterans in higher education urged institutions to recognize the experiential learning that soldiers acquired during their service (Bamford-Rees, 2008; Ryu, 2013). Later, this access began to spread to adult learners in general. In 1974, ACE began evaluating corporate and professional experiences for credit (Ryu, 2013). At the same time, CAEL established their Ten Standards for Assessing Portfolios (Travers, 2012; Bamford-Rees, 2008).

Types of PLA Evaluation

PLAs evaluate the learning outcomes students gain from various experiences. The focus is on what students learn, not how they learn(Fiddler, Marienau, & Whitaker, 2006; Klein-Collins & Wertheim, 2013).Prior learning can be evaluated in four ways: standardized national exams like College Level Examination Program (CLEP) or Advanced Placement (AP); in-house, departmental, or challenge exams;previous program evaluations like those provided by the American Council on Education (ACE); or individual portfolio assessments (Klein-Collins, 2010; Bamford-Rees, 2008). While some types of PLA like the CLEP and AP are widely accepted among higher education institutions, portfolio assessment and training evaluations are still regarded with skepticism by some academic institutions and departments.

The most common form of PLA is credit by national exam like the CLEP or AP (Klein-Collin, 2010; Ryu, 2013; Bamford-Rees, 2008). Eighty-three percent of institutions accept credits from national standardized exams (Ryu, 2013). This type of PLA credit acceptance is most successful and useful because unlike their counterparts, CLEP and AP credits can be applied to major education requirements, whereas the other less popular types of PLA are mostly used for general elective credits (Ryu, 2013). The wide acceptance and usage of these credits can be attributed to the campus-wide policies (Ryu, 2013), which may be housed in the campus registrar or admissions office. Other types of PLA, specifically in-house or challenge exams and portfolio policies, are created, implemented, and executed by the academic departments (Ryu, 2013). Even if an institution supports PLA credit transfers, ultimately, academic departments have the final say of whether or not to accept any transfer or PLA credits (Klein-Collins, 2010; Ryu, 2013; Junor & Usher, 2008).

In-house or challenge exams are very similar to national exams. They both used examinations to test the knowledge and learning of the student. National exams are standardized across the country and the world, whereas in-house exams are created and implemented in individual academic departments. Traditional-aged students commonly use national exams to earn college credits while still enrolled in high school. The in-house or challenge exams operate a similar assessment, except each exam is created and administered by the individual academic department instead of by a national testing agency. AP, CLEP, etc. paved the way for the acceptance of other types of PLA credits (Travers, 2012).

Although credit by portfolio is the second most popular form of PLA (Klein-Collins, 2010), it is far less likely to be truly useful in a student’s degree plan. It is unlikely institutions will use portfolio credits for pre-requisite courses, let alone major course requirements. PLA credits can be used to satisfy various requirements based on the student’s undergraduate degree program and academic unit. Mostly, PLA credits are used to fulfill general elective requirements (94%), general education requirements (88%), and major requirements (79%) (Klein-Collins, 2010).

Relevanceof Prior Learning Assessment

Although PLA assessment has been in practice for decades, there has been a surge of interest from the government, institutions, and students in recent years. President Obama has spoken several times about the importance of increasing the access, affordability, and graduation rates of higher education. In large part, this refers to the adult learner population. According to Ryu (2013), “validating and credentialing college-level knowledge and skills acquired outside of the classroom is increasingly seen as a vehicle for supporting increased education attainment, especially among adult nontraditional students” (p. 1). PLA is more prominent than ever because of the emergence of adult learners (Travers, 2012), MOOCs (Klein-Collins & Wertheim, 2013), online education (Klein-Collins & Wertheim, 2013), and student mobility(Simone, 2014). Pressure to provide greater access to higher education to adult learners can be felt from all directions. There is a social justice push from institutions to add diversity to classrooms (Travers, 2012) as well as governmental push to increase graduation rates(Klein-Collins & Wertheim, 2013; U.S. Department of Education, 2015) andincrease access and affordability of higher education to all (U.S. Department of Education, 2015).

Enrolling adult students has a reciprocal benefit. First, adult students bring a unique and diverse perspective to undergraduate classrooms (Travers, 2012). Adult students benefit from earning credits for this experiential learning, but other students also gain from learning about these experiences. Second, adult student enrollment not only helps institutions fulfill their own missions of supporting adult learners (Klein-Collins, 2010), but also the government’s mission to raise the education level of the average American (Klein-Collins & Wertheim, 2013; Ryu, 2013; U.S. Department of Education, 2015). More and more, institutions are seeking to serve this growing demographic of higher education, if for not anything else besides the revenue stream. In today’s educational society, PLA is more relevant and important than ever as it has a significant impact on student success.

PLA and Student Success

The acceptance of PLA credits has numerous other benefits that ultimately lead adult students to a point of success. Based on Klein-Collins’ (2010) survey of 48 varying types of institutions in the United States (46) and Canada (2), these benefits include decreased time to graduation, higher graduation rates, more accumulation of credits, and increased persistence.

On average, students with PLA credits who are pursuing a bachelor’s degree graduated 2.5-10.1 months earlier than their non-PLA peers (Klein-Collins, 2010). The vast financial savings associated with decreased time to degree is twofold: the student saves money on tuition and the government saves money on financial aid(Klein-Collins, 2010). The sooner students graduate, the sooner they can capitalize on their higher education credential in the workforce through promotions, increased salaries, and better opportunities. Not to mention the economic benefit of having more educated workers.

The graduation rates of students with PLA credits are more than double those of students with no PLA credits. For both bachelor’s and associate’s degrees, PLA students graduated at a rate of 56 percent while non-PLA students graduated at a rate of 21 percent. The number of PLA credits has proven to be a strong predictor of graduation; as the number of students’ PLA credits increased, their graduation rate aligned more closely to the national graduation rate (Klein-Collins, 2010).The increase in graduation rates may be related to the decreased time to complete a degree or to students’ self-esteem boost through their PLA experience.

Even if students had not graduated by the end of Klein-Collins’ 2010 survey, those with PLA credits had accumulated more credit overall than their non-PLA peers. More than half of PLA students had attained 80 percent of their credits toward a bachelor’s degree, while more than half of non-PLA students acquired less than 40 percent(Klein-Collins, 2010).This accumulation plays a great role in student persistence.

Student retention and persistence are two of the strongest predictors of student success. After Klein-Collins’ (2010) six-year survey ended, higher percentages of PLA students continued to earn credits two, three, four, five, and six years later over their non-PLA peers. Students with PLA credits are also more likely to enroll in consecutive years as opposed to stopping out and then re-enrolling (Klein-Collins, 2010).

While it is obvious that PLA credits generally benefit students, Klein-Collins (2010) also points out that students who have earned PLA credit may be successful because they are more likely to be high-achieving students. That is to say, students who are motivated to seek out PLA credit opportunities are also more likely to apply themselves academically.

Regardless of student motivation or achievement, much ofPLA student success hinges on the applicability of PLA credits. PLA students are increasingly more successful when their PLA credits can be flexibly applied to their degree plan. Most PLA credits are used for general elective or general education requirements (Klein-Collins, 2010; Ryu, 2013). It is less likely that PLA credits, with the exception of national exams, can be used for prerequisite courses, major courses, or upper division courses (Klein-Collins, 2010; Ryu, 2013). Although general acceptability of PLA credits is determined by the university registrar (Ryu, 2013) or admissions office, the designation of credits is decided by individual academic departments (Klein-Collins, 2010; Ryu, 2013). While the institution at large may recognize PLA credits, the department can ultimately decide not to use credits. This mentality mainly applies to national exam credits or program evaluations. Most credit by examination and credit by portfolio policies are under the control of academic departments (Ryu, 2013).

The applicability of PLA credits also depends on the type of institution. In Ryu’s (2013) study of 414 institutions of higher education and their PLA policies, he found two-year public institutions were most likely to accept ACE evaluations and credit by portfolio. Public two-year institutions were also least likely to accept no PLA credit (Ryu, 2013). Private, for-profit institutions were also likely to accept ACE evaluations, especially for corporate training (Ryu, 2013). These two types of institutions historically have strong missions to support adult learners. This is most likely why they accept so many PLA credits. Public two-year and private, for-profit institutions are also more likely to use PLA credits for major requirements (Ryu, 2013). Public and private four-year institutions also have their strengths in awarding PLA credits. Public, four-year institutions are most likely to accept national exam credits (Ryu, 2013). This is not surprising since these types of institutions serve a large population of traditional-aged students who are likely to take AP courses in high school. Surprisingly, private, non-profit institutions are tied with public, two-year institutions for the highest amount of credit by portfolio credits (Ryu, 2013).

Overall, PLA policies and practices have grown across institutions. Klein-Collins (2010) found that each type of PLA experienced an increase in the number of institutional offerings from 2006 to 2009. The average increase was 12.8 percent, with the largest increases related to credit by portfolio and credit by institutionally-evaluated programs (Klein-Collins, 2010). This exhibits a great start for PLA, but many institutions and their students can benefit from expanded PLA policies.

The Pennsylvania State University Prior Learning Assessment Policies and Practices

The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) was chosen as the focus for this paper for several reasons. First, the university currently employs the author so access to data was less restricted. Second, the university has a strong mission to support adult learners, with one campus to primarily serve this population. Third, the university recently hired Dr. Michele Rice for the newly created Director of Prior Learning Assessment position to oversee the university’s policies and practices. Altogether, it is an exciting time for PLA at Penn State.

Penn State is a large, land-grant institution serving 76,137 undergraduate students across all twenty of its residential, undergraduate campuses. An additional 6,245 students are enrolled in the university’s online campus, World Campus (Undergraduate Enrollment By Class Standing, 2014). In recent years, Penn State has made the push to become an adult-friendly campus. This includes the expansion of the World Campus, as well as designation of being a military friendly school. Nearly 18,000 of the undergraduate students at Penn State are adult learners. Eighteen percent of undergraduates are active military or veterans (“Commission for Adult Learners: Fact Sheet,” 2015).

Penn State Senate Policies

Mirroring the research, Penn State has several university-wide policies related to PLA. Although these policies support the awarding of PLA credits, much of the control lies within the academic departments. The University Faculty Senate outlines all the methods for credit acquisition under Faculty Senate Policy 42-00 Acquisition of Credit. The following sections of policy 42-00 directly apply to PLA:

42-50 Credit by Examination (CRX)

42-81 Credit by Validation

42-92 Advanced Placement Program by the College Board

42-94 College-Level Examination Program by the College Board

42-97 Credit by Portfolio

42-98 Credit by Experience in the Armed Forces

42-99 Credit by Training in Non-Collegiate Organizations

Each policy is linked to the procedures for obtaining said credit.

Policy 42-50 Credit by Examination (CRX). Students may request credit by examination from their academic department to receive credit for a specific Penn State course. Students cannot earn credit by exam for courses that already appear on their transcript, regardless of previous grade. A student must get the permission of the academic dean and department head in order to sit the exam. A nonrefundable $30 fee per credit will be assessed to take the exam. There is no limit to the number of credits by examination a student may earn. To earn credit, students must earn at least a C. Penn State offers credit by exam in the following areas: Chemistry, English, Computer-Aided Drafting, Work Force Education, Early Childhood Education, Mechanical Engineering Technologies, and Calculus (M. Rice, personal communication, April 22, 2015).

Policy 42-81 Credit by Validation. Credits earned at other institutions that were not initially transferred to Penn State can be reviewed via credit by validation. Commonly, this type of review focuses on work from unaccredited institutions. Students may request credit by validation through the Undergraduate Admissions Office. The Undergraduate Admissions Office will make a preliminary review of the course syllabus (provided by the student) to evaluate the academic quality of the course. If appropriate, the Undergraduate Admissions Office then forwards the transcript and other materials to the academic department for review. The academic department then decides on the transferability of the course and reports back to the Undergraduate Admissions Office. There is no fee to process credits by validation nor any limitation on the number of creditsearned by validation.

42-92 Advanced Placement Program by the College Board. Students can earn credit for certain AP exams. The academic department determines the proper score and subsequent usability of these credits. There is no fee to process AP credits nor is there a limitation on the amount of AP credits that can be transferred, if acceptable.

42-94 College-Level Examination Program by the College Board. Students may earn credit for CLEP exams if they have earned a score at the fiftieth or higher percentile. Higher scores may be required for specific exams. The department determines the scores and subsequent usability of CLEP credits. There is no fee to process CLEP credits. A maximum of 60 credits can be earned via CLEP.