For more than 50 years, colleges and universities have used a range of different methods to award college credit for learning that takes place outside of the classroom--particularly learning from work, life, and military experiences. These methods--often called prior learning assessment (PLA) or credit for prior learning (CPL)--value the learning…

Adult students--whether just starting college or returning after stopping or dropping out--often have significant college-level learning they have acquired outside of academia. Postsecondary institutions have the option to evaluate that learning for the purpose of awarding credit or otherwise recognizing the learning so that it can count toward a…

For more than 50 years, colleges and universities have used a range of different methods to award college credit for learning that takes place outside of the classroom--particularly learning from work, life, and military experiences. These methods--often called prior learning assessment (PLA) or credit for prior learning (CPL)--value the learning…

This report describes the adult student's experience with prior learning assessment (PLA) using student record data from 72 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the United States, primarily focusing on the data from 69 of those institutions based on the more detailed data provided by those institutions to the study. Researchers from the…

This report describes the adult student's experience with prior learning assessment (PLA) using student record data from 72 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the United States, primarily focusing on the data from 69 of those institutions based on the more detailed data provided by those institutions to the study. Researchers from the…

Adults who pursue postsecondary education often bring with them considerable college-level learning that they acquired from their work, military, or life experience. Through prior learning assessment (PLA), they may be able to have this learning evaluated for college credit. One form of PLA is individualized assessment, in which students prepare a…

Prior learning assessment (PLA) methods can help adult students earn college credit for what they already know. PLA can be an important offering by postsecondary degree programs because it can save students time and money. In addition, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning's (CAEL's) "Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success"…

This article argues that the model of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in use at the Workers' College in South Africa may be seen as a form of "radical pedagogy." Drawing on documentary sources, focus group interviews with staff, and observations, it describes an educational philosophy which aims to build the competencies of activists…

RARPA, recognising and recording progress and achievement in non-accredited learning, is a wonder tool that enthuses learners, providers, inspectors and policy makers alike. The staged process or anything one wants to call it, has made a positive contribution to the work with learners who have complex learning difficulties and disabilities. There…

This paper features several articles previously published in the CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning) Forum and News, an e-newsletter CAEL regularly shares with its members. This publication includes a summary of the data gathered in CAEL's 2006 institutional survey on PLA (Prior Learning Assessment), results of a research on…

People learn in many different ways and in many different places. What is learned informally or experientially is often the same or similar to what may be learned in traditional formal learning environments. There are many reasons why recognizing experiential learning is viable educational option, more so in today's economy than ever before. Prior…

The author presents a diagrammatic model of experiential learning and how it can be facilitated. His declared intention is to present an account of ongoing experiences and of the development of his own thinking, as a stimulus for the further development of readers who facilitate experimental learning. (Author/CH)

Increasing numbers of colleges and universities are responding to the needs of adults seeking professional training and have come to recognize the value of experiential learning. One method of assessing previous learning is to prepare a portfolio with documentation of life experiences as they related to the learning process. The East Central…

This guidebook is written for those who question the process of earning credit for experience and what knowledge and skills might lead to a credit award, and should assist educators who are approached for accreditation of knowledge and skills learned on a Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)-funded job. There are five sections: the…

This book explores in detail the ways in which the assessment and accreditation of prior and current experiential learning is being practiced in higher education, further education, community and voluntary provision, training organizations and employment, provision for the unemployed, and updating and retraining. It is arranged in three parts.…