Prior Learning Assessment

At Thomas Edison State University, we value the college-level knowledge you may have acquired outside the traditional college classroom.

Using the University’s portfolio assessment program, students demonstrate that what they already know is equivalent to what they would have learned in an equivalent college course. You may have acquired this knowledge through your past work, training programs or in-service courses, volunteer service, cultural or artistic pursuits, hobbies and recreational pastimes, community or religious activities, organizational memberships, adult education, noncredit courses, study abroad, military training not evaluated for credit by ACE or other experiences.

A portfolio enables you to identify and articulate this knowledge and, potentially, earn credit for it. Students learn the process of identifying areas of course-equivalent learning and portfolio-development skills through the PLA-1010 course.

Because this is knowledge you have already acquired, no textbook is required. You have already done the learning! Our Office of Prior Learning Assessment/Portfolio will provide you with the established learning outcomes (course objectives) for the courses for which you wish to earn credit based on your prior learning, so that when you write these portfolios they are targeted to articulate the knowledge that was required for the equivalent course.

Note: Credit cannot be earned through portfolio assessment for certain types of courses, including physical education activity courses and any course that must be fulfilled through direct current experience, such as practicum courses, field experiences and internships including student teaching, cooperative education, senior seminars, capstones and lab courses not accompanied by related lecture/theory courses. Also, note that English composition and most math courses are not well suited for portfolio assessment; however, Thomas Edison State University offers TECEP^® exams for students who have prior learning in most of those courses, and the University accepts CLEP^®, DSST^® and Excelsior exam credits where appropriate.

Matriculated graduate students wishing to earn credit for what they already know can utilize the Grad PLA process. This online process is conducted within an 8-week or 12-week graduate term (depending on your degree program) and must be pre-approved by the office of the Dean of the School offering your graduate degree.

By submitting a proposal request for Grad PLA credit, you initiate the process. The Office of the Dean receives your Grad PLA Portfolio Proposal form and assigns a mentor. With instructions from the School, the PLA office creates a Grad PLA course section for you to register, and connects you with that graduate mentor.

With the guidance of the graduate mentor, you articulate and document your learning equivalent to the specific graduate level course for which you’re trying to earn credit. This involves writing several drafts of a narrative to address the graduate level learning outcomes specific to that course credit. Each draft is submitted online within the designated Moodle course space, and reviewed by the mentor. Feedback is provided for you to integrate into a subsequent draft.

Once the final draft of the narrative is accepted by the graduate mentor, you submit (upload) evidence verifying your learning and your background. Evidence may include letters or documents of support, samples of your work, an annotated bibliography and other items deemed appropriate by the PLA mentor. Evidence is essential to any PLA portfolio.

With the completed review by the mentor, if credit is to be granted, the mentor will submit the grade to the Office of the Registrar. A successful PLA is given a grade of “Cr” (credit awarded).

You can begin the process by submitting the Graduate PLA Portfolio Proposal Form.