Academic Plan 2011-2015 (PDF 524kB) - SUNY Empire State College

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SUNY Empire State College: Academic Plan 2011 - 2015 29Goal B4: Improve the Prior Learning Assessment andAcademic Review ProcessesSUNY Empire State College is an acknowledged leader in the assessment of learning acquired outsideof the academy; we have 40 years of experience helping students identify what they know and whatthey need to know. As higher education increasingly recognizes the validity and promise of PLA, EmpireState College will remain a leader in the field, and PLA will remain central to our mission. Moreover, thecollege’s approach to PLA supports the college’s core value of individualization. It provides studentswith the opportunity to utilize knowledge gained from nontraditional sources in their degree plans,allowing them to focus on new areas of learning and facilitating earlier degree completion.The Council on Adult Experiential Learning (CAEL) has found positive relationships between studentdegree retention and completion and the use of PLA. The college’s PLA program includes learningthat has been pre-evaluated by accepted external sources (ACE and NPONSI) and specific sources oflearning that the college itself has evaluated (generics). Students also may choose to seek individualevaluation of learning that is applicable to their degree programs but has not been pre-evaluated bythe college or external sources. The majority of students using PLA do so through this individualizedassessment process.The Office of Collegewide Academic Review (OCAR) and the Center Offices of Academic Review (COARs)have been active at both the local and institutional level in maintaining and strengthening this processthrough activities that include, but are not limited to, the development of local evaluator training,developing an online collegewide training format, engaging in research around evaluation, developinga collegewide evaluator data base, and offering student workshops and supporting materials.While there are many strengths in the college’s PLA model, there also are some concerns aboutconsistency and equity of practice across the college, and how to best ensure the quality of theoutcomes. The academic plan seeks to ensure our historic institutional commitment for PLA andaddress those issues and concerns that impact academic quality.Objective B4.1: Understand current practiceWe need to systematically study our PLA practices as an institution in order to facilitate clearer andmore academically sound practices. Many of our processes are grounded in historical practices ratherthan a true understanding of their current effectiveness. The college needs a better picture of whichpractices are presently in place across centers and their overall effectiveness in terms of degree programplanning and student success. The development of PLA requests has been criticized for being toocumbersome, as well as difficult for students to complete; further exploration needs to take place todetermine more effective ways for students to develop their requests, such as the use of ePortfolios.As part of understanding our practices, a clearer appraisal of the mentoring process for PLA needs tooccur. Currently, very little is known about the ways in which faculty mentor students through the PLAprocess and how this facilitates PLA request completion. In addition, little is known about the actualevaluation process itself. Research is needed to better understand the impact of the assessment processon student success.
30 SUNY Empire State College: Academic Plan 2011 - 2015Objective B4.2: Reinforce the central role of mentors through professional developmentCurrently, each center’s Office of Academic Review offers orientation and training to new mentorson PLA, and the Center for Mentoring and Learning offers workshops across the college. In addition,institutional development for new mentors and ongoing faculty development should have a sufficientfocus on PLA. There is a concern that new mentors may not have the tools to help their studentsidentify and develop PLA requests outside of their area of expertise. Also, faculty assessing PLA requestsdo so in addition to their current workload assignments, which means some faculty have less time tocommit to evaluating PLA requests.There is a general sense that workload issues may be impacting the effectiveness of the assessmentprocess. High demand areas for PLA evaluation have created an inequitable distribution of work forfaculty mentors, and alternative strategies need to be developed to ensure these areas are coveredwithout an undue burden on particular faculty. Faculty development opportunities and workloadassignments need to place PLA request development and assessment as valued components of facultyprofessional obligation.Finally, the college always will need to turn to external evaluators in particular areas of expertise;therefore, further evaluator training needs to be in place from a collegewide perspective. In addition,for certain high request areas, the college might consider training a cohort of evaluators to ensureexpertise in assessing specific topics. The area of studies could play a more central role in developingguidelines and assessment information for some topic areas that are in high demand.Objective B4.3: Communicate more clearly with students about the value andplace of PLAThe college also needs to determine realistic evaluation strategies and expectations from the studentperspective. The college needs to explore ways to sustain PLA practices without compromising itsintegrity and to make sure that students understand these practices. Most degree program publicationsand web-based materials focus on the specifics of the degree program planning process, and very littleis available to students to communicate collegewide expectations and guidance related to preparing aPLA request and engaging in the assessment interview. In some cases, individual faculty have developedmaterials to support this process, but little has been done to collect these valuable resources to sharewith other faculty. Collegewide, web-based materials need to be developed to support the PLA processmore effectively.Objective B4.4: Address fiscal implications for PLAThe fees associated with the PLA process have not been reviewed in many years, and initial assessmentsindicate that the fee structure no longer adequately supports the work on prior learning assessmentthat is completed by the college as a service to students. The college needs to examine the fee structurefor the individual evaluation of prior learning (IEF) and payment levels for external evaluators. It iscritically important to ensure that our process is cost effective for students, but also that our feesgenerate the revenue to support the process itself. We also support the effort to establish consistentand equitable payments to external evaluators at a level that is fiscally feasible and a fair compensationto attract and retain quality external evaluators.
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Page 56 and 57: Notes
Page 58: The Mission of SUNY Empire State Co

Academic Plan 2011-2015 (PDF 524kB) - SUNY Empire State College

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