According to a recent study (Cronen, McQuiggan, & Isenberg, 2017), more than one fifth of adults in the U.S. completed a work experience program (apprenticeships, co-ops, practicums, externships, residencies, etc.) that likely did not result in a formal educational credential. A similar proportion of adults have a non-degree credential awarded by a government agency (e.g., licensure) or professional association or certifying board (e.g., certification). It is important to understand (a) whether colleges and universities recognize the value of such non-degree credentials and work training programs as well as a multitude of other non-traditional educational experiences and (b) how institutions capture, evaluate, and process credentials and experiences that are not based on the traditional credit hour model.

This session will report key findings from a survey of non-credit to credit conversion programs which evaluate and accept knowledge/skills from external learning experiences as credential building blocks for students to apply toward certificates and degrees. The web-based survey was administered to undergraduate institutions accredited by one of the regional accreditation associations. The findings are based on responses from 206 colleges and universities.

Institutions recognize the importance of non-credit to credit conversion activities in support of the completion agenda and have a solid quality assurance infrastructure to support such activities.
• A majority of respondent institutions are currently engaged in non-credit to credit conversion activities.
• Conversion includes a wide variety of external learning experiences and involve a broad range of educational programs.
• A majority of institutions have a formal procedure to support non-credit to credit conversion.
• Institutions use a variety of external/standardized and internally-developed approaches to ensure integrity in non-credit to credit conversion.

However, the extent of non-credit to credit activities is often not documented and is limited on most campuses.
• Few institutions were able to provide data on the scope of student participation in the non-credit to credit conversion and the scale of credit hour production through the conversion activities.
• When these data were available, the actual scope and scale of conversion activities reported was very low for the overwhelming majority of respondent institutions.

Analysis of responses to the open-ended survey items suggests that three reasons for this situation. First, students might be unaware of the non-credit to credit conversion options offered by their institutions. Second, evaluation of external learning requires substantial investment of time and effort on the part of faculty. Finally, SIS and/or SEM/IR functions on many campuses appear not to be configured to track non-credit to credit conversion in terms of the number of converted credit hours and the number of students benefiting from the conversion.

Submission ID:

6539

Presenter(s):

Alexei Matveev Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC)