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At a Tuesday session at the ̽��¥ Annual Meeting, Mary Beth Lakin, director of college and university partnerships at the American Council on Education (ACE), presented “Supporting Adult Learners: Credit for Prior Learning Pathways.”

Definitions. Lakin asked the audience for the terms being used on campuses in reference to prior learning experiences, receiving responses such as “prior learning assessment,” “life experience,” articulated credit,” “alternative credit,” “experiential credit,” “transfer credit,” and “portfolios.”

“We can get lost in translations, students as well as other stakeholders,” she observed.

Lakin defined “Credit for Prior Learning (CPL)” as: “a set of well established, researched and validated methods for assessing non-collegiate learning for college credit” and “a process that allows learners to demonstrate knowledge and skill in a particular field or fields and have that learning evaluated for college credit.”

“In order to do it well and serve students better we want to have common language,” she said. “We have a lot of different stakeholders and constituencies. We want to use something that is clear to folks and have the options right there.”

Research. Lakin noted that today’s students support CPL opportunities. In addition, she said research shows that CPL “inspires the reluctant, increases persistence, fosters higher completion, saves time and money, and improves outcomes. Students are more likely to persist and graduate if they have gone through some sort of CPL,” Lakin said. Although there is growing national research on CPL, campuses need to conduct their own research, she advised.

Funding. CPL is funded through private foundations, like Lumina and Gates (Alternative Credit Project); the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor (Experimental Sites, First in the World, American Apprenticeship Initiative), and through state initiatives.

Models. Lakin presented some trends in CPL collaboration such as a multi-state collaborative on military credit, the Adult Learning Consortium: University System of Georgia, and the Adult College Completion Network. Such work is “keeping institutions from feeling like they’re starting from the beginning and like they’re creating it without prior knowledge,” Lakin said.

Institutional CPL models include programs at Colorado State University Global Campus, Northern Virginia Community College, and the University of Memphis. 

A 2012 ACE survey found there was learner confusion about options, processes, and points of contact and a need for more easily accessible polices and practices. But a 2015 study by ACE, “Credit for Prior Learning: Charting Institutional Practice for Sustainability,” found improvement among campuses using CPL in terms of information sharing, navigating systems and engaging faculty.