Online Course: Turn Your Life Experience Into College Credit

Online Course: Turn Your Life Experience into College Credit

Learn how in six dynamic online lessons

Full Description:

Earn college credit for what you know! This online course presented by the JER Group is designed for the lifelong learner who has a rich history of life experiences. You have participated in a variety of activities and have developed a multitude of skills and now seek to use this experience to transition back to school or advance your career.

The purpose of this course is to help guide and make you think about your life and what you have learned. It is quite possible that your knowledge may be appropriate to earn you college credit. Using the various exercises, activities and readings you will learn how to earn college credit from an accredited college or university.

This online course serves as a basic guide on how to earn college credit for what you know. You will learn the various methods institutions will use to evaluate your prior learning. It has been designed to give you direction. It is for anyone, anywhere in the world who has a dedicated desire to better themselves, build self-esteem and take a significant step in moving affirmatively forward with their life goals. There are a total of six in-depth lessons, each building upon the previous one.

Learn from a Life Experience and Adult Education Expert, Dr. John Reid Ph.D., on how to gain the competitive advantage and advance your career goals and objectives!

Have or have not finished formal schooling
Have been out of the paid workforce and are seeking new opportunities
Have confidence in your abilities & skills
Are interested in returning to school
Are interested in re-entering the workforce
Want to turn your life experiences into college credit
Desire to gain the competitive advantage

Outcomes:

At the completion of the course students will have the abilities to:

Recognize the value of prior learning and life experiences
Identify hidden skills they have developed
Recognize the difference between formal & informal training
Understand the integral roles self-esteem and values play in prior learning experiences
Learn how to count skills developed outside of a formal education
Identify career interests
Plan ahead for formal training
Identify training needs
Identify Internet resources beneficial to your continued learning
Increase self-confidence based on prior learning experiences
Identify skills acquired through life and work experiences as well as in previous education and training
Develop a realistic career and future study plan

Assessment:

Passing Grade= 70% on each of the 6 end of lesson quizzes.

Course Information:

Each lesson is designed to include a structured pattern as follows:

Course Description
Outcomes
Reading Assignments
Exercises
Activities
Supplemental Materials
Supplemental Readings
Study Questions
End of lesson Quiz

Required Course Textbook:

Lois Lamdin, Earn College Credit for What You Know (3rd Edition)
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
Dubuque, Iowa, 1997
ISBN 0-7872-3573-3

Lesson 1 –Going Back to School

In this first lesson we are interested in helping you focus and think about your Prior Life Experiences (PLE) and accomplishments. You will soon discover that you have a rich history of learning and experience that will help differentiate you from others, help build your self-esteem and give you the competitive edge. You will learn that you are never to old to learn. In addition this lesson provides a means to examine how colleges help accommodate adult learners through Prior learning Assessment Programs. You will also learn what basic skills for College Work are required.

Lesson 2 –Profiles of 5 Adult Learners

One of the very best ways to understand why furthering your education makes sense is to examine the case histories of adult learners who have varied and unique backgrounds. The objective here is help you see how those who have diverse skills and abilities have come to a single point of understanding as it relates to moving on to the next phase of their lives. To this end the value of Prior Learning Assessment will be further examined. This is where your values and self-esteem come into play. The connection of these two elements allows you to make choices critical to what you do with your life.

Lesson 3- Life and Career Planning: Making Informed Decisions

It is important to have a career plan. This lesson will take you though a variety of exercises that will help you think about your career planning by defining goals and making important decisions. Your objective is to find out what you will need to accomplish in order to achieve your goals and to take the necessary steps to carry out this action. You will examine how to define your career goals, assess and rank your values, learn about skills assessment, discover transferable skills, explore resources for career planning and developing your own action plan.

Lesson 4- Choosing the Right School: A Consumer’s Guide to Postsecondary Education

This is an important lesson. We want you to be an informed consumer who understands the terrain. Schools have changed to meet the growing needs of adult learners and having the right information at your fingertips is critical in saving time and money and effort. We will cover such topics as what is important to you in choosing a school, the advantages of degree versus non-degree program, non traditional alternatives, credit versus non credit learning, types of schools colleges and universities, reviewing and using college catalogs, determining the best way to test the waters when it comes to enrolling.

Lesson 5- Prior Learning Assessment: Getting Credit for What you Know

In this lesson we are going to focus in on the Prior Learning Assessment. Assessment is the means whereby a determination is made as to comparability between your acquired knowledge and what is being taught in college. PLA will be examined for its usefulness to adult students, how it works, and what you can do to get started on a patch to get credit for what you have learned. There are multitudes of Life Experiences that can contribute to and individual’s growth and development. These seemingly unnoticed activities have led to the substantial capabilities that you now posses. In this lesson you will identify significant experiences and in doing so, learn to “value” rather than “undervalue “ these important events.

Lesson 6- Some Methods Institutions Use to Evaluate Your Prior Learning

It is always good to know who your experiential learning will be evaluated. This lesson covers the many different ways that a traditional credit program will consider when reviewing your life experience record. We will examine how college transcripts from the past can be considered or how articulation agreements between colleges may allow your record to be accepted by another college. Credit by examination, credit for completion of evaluated programs, and credit for professional licenses or certificates are also reviewed. Drawing from Lesson 2 you will see in a case study fashion how each of the 5 students have approached making choices among the various assessment modes.