Online students can get credit for work experience by documenting their knowledge.
Creating a portfolio can be a great way to save adult students time and money, experts say.
When it came time to enter her program, she realized she knew plenty of the material covered in her required courses. The problem: she had the work experience – not the academic credit – to prove it.
Meyer’s school adviser suggested she try something called portfolio assessment, a process that would allow her to gain credit for a specific course by documenting what she already knew.
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"When my counselor mentioned it, I thought, 'How can this actually work and get me legitimate transfer credits?'" says Meyer, who had also taken a handful of college courses elsewhere throughout the years. "Honestly, I wish I was told about it a long time ago. I would have definitely taken advantage of it."
Adults like Meyer who want to earn academic credit for knowledge they acquired elsewhere have the option of testing out of courses.
But when exams aren't available, portfolio assessments are a great option, says Pamela Tate, president and CEO of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. Students can contact their own schools about the portfolio process or work with Learning Counts, part of Tate's organization. Students who pursue the latter option take a six-week online course worth three credits. The course costs $895, and the cost includes the development and assessment of the first portfolio.
The course walks adults through how to create a portfolio that matches a class given by an accredited college or university.
"A lot of it has to do with reflection and realizing how your skill and hands on learning translate into more formal learning," says Meyer. "It teaches you to search for a formal course posted within a university system and how to make sure it qualifies."
Although portfolio requirements depend on the course students are trying to get credit for, students will typically need to compile evidence of their learning – anything from resumes to letters from supervisors – and then write a narrative discussing how their knowledge relates to the class, Tate says. A human resources professional, for example, might talk about how her leadership courses related to those at a university or submit a copy of a handbook she designed.
Faculty trained and chosen by CAEL then assess the portfolio. If they approve it, Learning Counts submits a credit recommendation transfer from to the program where the student hopes to get credit.
The cost for submitting each additional portfolio – after the first one that is developed during the course – is $125. While that, on top of the course fee, may seem like a significant sum, it can actually allow students to save on education costs.
Students only need to pay for the portfolio course one time, and then they are free to submit as many portfolios as they would like. Since many courses are more than $1,000, submitting a portfolio instead of taking the course can save students a lot. .
Portfolio assessments not only save students money, they can also help students save on time.
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"For many adults coming back to school it’s frustrating to sit in a 14-week course studying something you already feel you know," says Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, which works with Learning Counts to usher students through the portfolio process. "Adults are very direct that it feels like a waste of time. This gives them a way of demonstrating they know what they think they know."
Portfolio assessment has been an option for 40 years through CAEL, but it only recently had a surge in interest, Tate says. Today, the process is an option at about half of the country’s colleges and universities. Most students who pursue portfolio assessment are online learners eager to finish their degree quickly so they can tend to their family and work commitments, she says.
CAEL has agreements to accept the assessments from Learning Counts with about 120 universities. If students end up at other schools, however, Tate says students can also ask about the process and may also be able to get their credit recommendations accepted.
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