More Detail on Open Assessment

While open assessment covers a broad range of concerns (e.g., the creation and sharing of openly licensed test items), open assessment is primarily concerned with creating mechanisms that allow people who use open educational resources to gain formal recognition of their learning.

These efforts go by a number of names, including recognition of prior learning (RPL), prior learning assessment (PLA), or prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR). These all describe a process used by colleges and universities around the world to evaluate learning acquired outside the classroom for the purpose of assigning academic credit. Common ways individuals have acquired college-level learning include: corporate or military training; work experience; civic activity; and independent study.

Methods to assess prior learning are varied and include: standardized exams such as those delivered by the College Board, the Excelsior College Examination Programor DANTES Subject Standardized Tests Program; American Council on Education (ACE) Guides to credit recommendations for civilian and military training programs; evaluations of local training programs by local colleges, campus-based challenge exams; and portfolio assessments of experiential learning.

(PLA programs should not be confused with so-called life experience degrees, which purport to offer academic recognition of work experience but do not in fact have degree status.)

Prior learning assessment

Prior learning assessment can save a person time as well as money in completing a certificate or degree program. The process reviews learning that may have been mastered through a variety of life experiences, including professional responsibilities, civic and volunteer experiences, military and corporate training, and independent study. Through Prior Learning Assessment, individuals with learning that has been acquired outside of a formal classroom setting have the opportunity to have that learning reviewed for college-level equivalency. The process of reviewing extra-curricular (or co-curricular) learning for college-level credits has been used in the United States since the 1930s, with concentrated research and study into the area emerging since the 1970s.

Most importantly for our purposes, PLA can also be used to validate learning gained through use of OER, MOOCs, open textbooks, and other freely available materials.

Initial research into the prior learning assessment practice and implementation was conducted by the Educational Testing Service, which launched a subsidiary organization dedicated only to prior learning assessment. Through an ever-increasing demand for its research expertise, this special sub-group quickly became an independent non-profit organization, now known as the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning Links to an external site. (CAEL). Since 1974, CAEL has worked with postsecondary institutions, state boards of regents, and individuals by establishing and disseminating high quality standards for the awarding of credit through assessment, by training faculty evaluators and administrators in PLA practices, and by conducting research on the outcomes of these efforts and disseminating it widely throughout the postsecondary community. CAEL has emphasized the assessment and promotion of experiential learning for adults and is responsible for the development of several landmark publications on the topic, including Assessing Learning: Standards, Principles, & Procedures (in which a set of research-based standards for best practices in assessing learning is outlined) and Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: a 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes (in which prior learning assessment is linked to positive academic outcomes, including improved retention and graduation rates).

Benefits of recognition of prior learning

There are several benefits to PLA, including:

Facilitates access for 'non-traditional' students - people who may not have the opportunity to do further study can obtain higher qualifications
Acknowledges value of learning outside a formal setting, e.g. values and recognizes learning from OER
Validates the worth of learning students have achieved by themselves or in online communities
Enables progression to other programs of study
Eliminates unnecessary repetition and duplication of material already familiar to the student. Public (and private) money is better used because people who already have skills and knowledge are not re-trained.
Shortens the time necessary to earn a qualification
Enhances students' perception and understanding of learning as a lifelong process
Costs significantly less than paying to attend four years of college

Organizations working in the general area of PLA include CAEL Links to an external site. and Learning Counts Links to an external site.. Organizations working specifically to connect PLA to open educational resources include the Saylor Foundation Links to an external site. (as per the video on the previous page) and the OER University Links to an external site., which "aims to provide free learning to all students worldwide using OER learning materials with pathways to gain credible qualifications from recognized education institutions."

This page is an adaptation of the Wikipedia page Recognition of Prior Learning Links to an external site., and uses a CC BY-SA license.