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Enhancing Learning Opportunities for Mobile Students in Higher Education

The presentation highlights the challenges faced by non-traditional students in pursuing higher education. With alarming employment statistics, the importance of postsecondary credentials is underscored. The discussion touches on the necessity of supporting mobile students who have unique circumstances such as part-time attendance, full-time work, and family responsibilities. Recommendations include creating incentives for institutions to embrace transfer agreements, recognizing prior learning, and implementing competency-based programs to foster degree completion. Learning opportunities must adapt to the needs of today's diverse student population.

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Enhancing Learning Opportunities for Mobile Students in Higher Education

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Making Learning Count in a Mobile World Amy Sherman CAEL Conference November 12, 2010

  2. National Imperative for a Skilled Workforce • Employment statistics are grim right now, but the future is brighter…. for the worker with skills and postsecondary credentials • Ambitious goals to address this – is it possible for 50-60% of the American workforce to have a college education by 2020?

  3. What we are not talking about… • Elite, highly selective institutions • 4-year residential colleges • The student who goes straight to college after high school

  4. Why not? This is not the reality for most students today

  5. Today’s students are mostly “non-traditional” • Have delayed postsecondary enrollment • Attend part time • Are financially independent • Work full time • Have dependents other than a spouse • Are a single parent • Have no high school diploma or GED

  6. Most students are mobile Clifford Adelman, 2006: • Almost 65% of college students attended more than one institution • 26% attended more than two

  7. What goes to waste? • Transfer credits • College level learning that takes place outside of the classroom • Military training and experience • Workplace experience • On-the-job training • Self-directed learning/Open Source learning?

  8. How to avoid wasted learning • Better articulation and transfer agreements • Assessment and recognition of prior learning • Support services that help students make their learning more portable • Competency-based programs

  9. Articulation and transfer agreements Policies specifying how credits earned at one institution will be accepted by another towards its degree programs

  10. State system articulation and transfer practices • Core curriculum for general education – 14 states • Common course numbering system – 7 states • Block credit transfer practices – 20 states • Transfer associate’s degrees – 30 states

  11. Prior Learning Assessment – Credit for Prior Learning Systems to award college credit for what someone learns outside the classroom: • Corporate training • Military training and experience • Work experience • Civic activity • Independent study • Etc.

  12. Current PLA methods • Standardized exams (CLEP, AP, DANTES) • Portfolio • Challenge exams • Evaluation of corporate or military training (ACE and others) • Evaluation of noncredit instruction

  13. Value of PLA • Saves time • Saves money • Motivates student • Student does not have to sit through classes in subjects that they have already mastered

  14. Challenges • PLA underused • Usage restricted • Quality control • Limited capacity of colleges and universities to provide • CAEL’s Learning Counts virtual PLA service

  15. Credit transfer support services Providing information, assistance and other resources to students regarding the transferability and acceptance of their existing college credit

  16. Examples • Degree completion institutions • State databases/websites offering information on articulation and transfer opportunities • Independent organizations offering information, tools, and guidance • Academy One CollegeTransfer.net

  17. Competency-based programs Degree programs that have moved away from the college credit. Instead, they award degrees when a student masters a predetermined set of competencies – things that a students knows or can do.

  18. Examples • DePaul University’s School for New Learning • Western Governor’s University

  19. Recommendation 1 Create incentives for higher education to support mobile students • Expand articulation agreements • Make prior learning count • Provide more options for degree completion based on outcomes, not just seat time • Support more competency-based models

  20. Recommendation 2 Learn more about the mobility and outcomes of students who cross institutional borders • Define success broadly – the student’s individual outcome should matter as much as the institution’s

  21. Recommendation 3 Demystify the path to a degree • National database on articulation and transfer – build on what has currently been built • Navigational assistance and advising to all learners

  22. Recommendation 4 Provide equitable funding for nontraditional learners and programs

  23. Contact Information Amy Sherman asherman@cael.org 312-499-2635

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