Prior Learning Assessment - Portfolio Presentation Guidelines

EED 110 - Prior Learning Assessment is designed to help Public Safety personnel develop a portfolio that details those prior experiences that may be considered for college credit.

The following is an example of a syllabus for the course:

• Course Objectives
• Criteria for Course Evaluation (Pass/Fail)
• Portfolio Preparation Guidelines
• Autobiography
• Verification of Prior Credit (Transcripts)
• Verification of Competency Level through Assessment
• Format Specification - Portfolio
• Guide to Writing Experiential Learning Essays
• Common Problems with Essays
• Coursework and Professional Training (including Documentation Requirements)
• Criteria for Evaluation of Professional Training

Course Objectives

1. To analyze each student's background and experience in relation to career and personal goals.
2. To prepare, collect and analyze materials needed to earn college credit to meet career and personal goals.
3. To prepare a portfolio of the appropriate documentation needed for the evaluation of past experiential learning equivalent to college credit.

Criteria for Course Evaluation (Pass/Fail)

• Completion of all sections of the COMPAS test
• Completion of the Myers Briggs Interest Inventory or Choices
• Completion of a portfolio for evaluation of college credit.
• Calendar

Date: Topic: Assignment:

• Session 1 Portfolio, Definitions None
• Session 2 Assessment results
• Session 3 Autobiography
• Goal statement, transcripts
• Session 4 Essay draft
• Session 5 Draft # 1 of portfolio
• Session 6 University Presentations Submit final

Evaluation

Students are invited to contact the instructor via email between sessions for clarification of necessary information. Draft material can be faxed to the instructor for review between sessions.

Portfolio Preparation Guidelines

Preface Materials

The first page of the portfolio contains:

• Your name and Social Security Number
• Phone number(s) and Fax number (s)
• Mailing address
• E-mail
• Desired degree or certificate program(s) at Pima Community College
  

Page two of the portfolio contains:

List of the courses and credits to be evaluated (on form provided)

Personal and Professional Goal Statement

The first section of your portfolio is a one-page statement of your personal and profession short and long-term goals. This may include your current career status as well as another career area for the future that you wish to attain. This information will serve several purposes in the course and in the prior learning that you wish to have evaluated for credit.

Autobiography

The third section of your portfolio is a 3-5 page autobiography outlining your educational, military, and employment background, beginning with your high school graduation. The autobiography will introduce you and establish the foundation for your credit petitions. The narrative is your concise account of the significant experiences in your life. You have the opportunity to highlight those events and ccurrences that contributed to your personal and professional growth and development.

Suggested categories include:

• Education
• Professional experiences (Include job titles and responsibilities.)
• Military experience
• Training experiences
• Teaching experiences

Verification of Prior Credit (Transcripts)

The next section of your portfolio is a complete record of all the credit earned in an accredited post-secondary education institutions. It is included to ensure that the credit for which you petition through your portfolio does not duplicate credit that you have already received. This section may contain the following documents:

• Transcripts from accredited colleges or universities (other than Pima Community College) from which you have earned credit.
• An unofficial transcript from Pima Community College (PCC). This can be requested of the course instructor.

Verification of Competency Level through Assessment

This section of your portfolio should contain the following documents:

• Copies of all official DANTES, CLEP test transcripts
• Reading, Writing and Math from any PCC campus assessment center.
• Coursework and Professional Training

Provide a copy of your training transcript from your agency that indicates the year and number of contact hours of your basic training academy. This includes any formal training through your agency for which you have documentation of successful completion, verification of contact hours, and criteria for having passed the course. Complete and include the appropriate form that indicates the courses from the PCC catalogue for which credit is being requested.

Experiential Learning Essay
The essay section of your portfolio will be separated for each class for which you are requesting credit. An essay will be written for each class that you are requesting credit for. Copies of any documentation supporting the request for credit should be located to the rear of each individual essay.

Example: Write an experiential learning essay that demonstrates that you have had learning experience equivalent to PCC courses. This essay should be constructed to demonstrate that 1) your learning experiences have been of the type and extent appropriate to award credit and, 2) you are able to describe your learning in a way that can be evaluated completely and accurately. Provide a copy of your training transcript from your agency that indicates the training experiences beyond your basic training academy. Complete and include the appropriate form that indicates the credits being requested.

Professional and Personal Development Plan
This is an action plan for your future. It is an intention to take certain actions by a certain time. Many people do not reach personal and career goals because they have no goals or no plan for reaching the goals that they do have.

• Short-term personal and professional goals
• Long-term personal and professional goals
• Educational goals to achieve what you want
• Timeline to achieve what you want
• Required sources of information
• Required networking and other resources to achieve what you want

Format Specification - Portfolio

• Your portfolio should be submitted in a three-ring binder.
• Materials do not need to be enclosed in plastic sheet protectors.
• Sections must be clearly separated by dividers and labeled.
• All sections of the portfolio should be on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
• All documents and certificates should be copies rather than originals; however, originals must be available upon request.
• Each section must include only what is required for that section.
• Back-up documentation may be included as appendices.
• Do not use abbreviations or acronyms for courses or sponsors.

Guide to Writing Experiential Learning Essays

Evaluators look for content, format, structure, grammar and style in the essays. More specifically, these questions are addressed:

• Does the essay correspond to the course description?
• Is the essay appropriately documented?
• Does the experience lend itself to college-level learning?
• Is the topic discussed in the depth and breadth necessary for the number and level of credits requested by the student?
• Is the essay well written? Does the writing (organization, usage, style, spelling, and accuracy of typing) conform to the standards of standard formal American English expected of upper division college students?

Common Problems with Essays

As you write your essays, please keep in mind the most common problems faculty members encounter in the evaluation of experiential learning essays. Essays, which have the following shortcomings, may be awarded fewer credits than the student requested:

• Limited scope.
• Inadequate development of principles/generalizations.
• Lack of appropriate documentation.
• Lack of adequate experience and personal involvement.
• Inaccurate content.
• Poorly written (grammar, usage, spelling, typographical errors, sentence structure, and organization of content).
• Inappropriate credit request.
• Inappropriate course description.
• Duplication of other completed course work.

Coursework and Professional Training

Professional Training

Many students have extensive professional training and receive a major block of credit from this section of the portfolio. Credit will be awarded strictly on a classroom-hour basis.

Documentation Requirements

For a course to be considered for credit, the following three requirements MUST be met:

1. Verification of successful completion of the course. This may be a certificate of completion, employee training record, a letter from the instructor, the agency sponsoring the course, or your training or personnel office. Letters of verification must be on company letterhead, which includes the address and telephone number of the company and must be signed by the instructor or a representative of the training organization.
2. Verification of contact (classroom) hours. Hours may be verified on the certificate of completion or in a letter from the sponsoring agency, training officer or instructor, or on an official course syllabus or brochure. Letters of verification must be on company letterhead stationery and must be signed by the instructor or a representative of the training organization.
3. Description of course content. The student must include a description of the course content (syllabus) for each course so that PCC can evaluate the depth and level of the curriculum. The syllabus should contain the following:
   
   Faculty evaluators will make a determination as to whether your syllabus is sufficiently detailed to evaluate for credit. In some cases, you may be asked to supply information, or evaluators may call the training organization to confirm the details. It is important that your syllabus is official signed by a representative of the agency offering the course including the titles, addresses, and phone numbers of the representatives who signed them.
   
   PCC understands that it may be difficult or impossible to obtain some documentation. PCC will make every effort to assist you. However, it is the student's responsibility to provide the support for his/her learning or credit cannot be earned. This policy is strictly enforced to safeguard the academic validity and integrity of the process, which ultimately protects all students involved in assessment of prior learning.

Criteria for Evaluation of Professional Training

Content is checked to ensure that it is college level and complies with transfer credit policies.

• Sixteen hours of classroom instruction equals one semester credit.
• Thirty hours of laboratory, clinical or correspondence work typically equals one semester credit.
• One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is the equivalent of ten contact hours.
• One-quarter unit equals .7 semester units.
  

The following should NOT be included in the Professional Training section:

1. Professional courses which have been transcripted by a regionally accredited institution.
2. Courses which are too brief to be considered for credit. Do not submit courses that are less than four hours in length.
3. Conventions or conferences (unless Continuing Education Units were awarded, and learning outcomes can be supported with documentation).

Each course listed on your request form is evaluated individually for credit. Short courses completed in a specific area may be combined for credit by the evaluators. The content must be significantly related, but not duplicated.

Evaluators make the final determination on these combinations. Content is compared with equivalent or similar course offerings at PCC. Credit awards may be reduced if a portion of the course or training is not college level.

The Pima College Public Safety and Emergency Services Institute is an entity of the Pima County Community College's Workforce and Business Development, Tucson, Arizona.