UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

FACULTY SENATE

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CAC SUBCOMMITTEE

ON PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT

APRIL 26, 2001

In April 1996, the Faculty Senate approved revisions to regulation on Prior Learning Assessment and established the CAC Subcommittee on Prior Learning Assessment. The Subcommittee is charged to maintain liaison with the Curricular Affairs Committee and Dean of the College of Continuing Education for mutual information and joint action regarding policies procedures for the assessment of students' prior college-level learning through non-collegiate activity. The full membership for 2000-01 is: Gregory Paquette BMMG, (00), Chair; Karen Stein ENG ,(01);Edmund Ferszt, (01), representative of Dean of CCE; Gwenneth Rae, HDF (02) and RB Reaves (01), ENG, CAC representative.

The major concern of the subcommittee was the academic oversight and administration of the program. Last year Associate Dean Ed Ferszt developed and/or revised the following documents:

- Credit for Prior Learning Program Application

- Guidelines for Evaluators Assessing Prior Learning assessment Portfolios

- Portfolio assessment Handbook for Students

Dean Ferszt reports that these organization changes have greatly improved the overall administration of the program.

As of April 19, 2001 credits were awarded in the following academic areas for the spring and fall 2000 semester.

INFORMATION ABOUT STUDENTS TAKING PLA 100 IN FALL OF 2000

AND SPRING 2001

FALL 2000

SPRING 2001

LOCATION:	Prov. Evening	Prov. Evening
TOTAL ENROLLMENT:	18	4 (as D.S.)
ADMIN. UNITS:	12 XD	1 XD
	6 HS	3 HS
Majors:	13 Human Devel.	4 Human Devel.
	11 PE, 2 KI)
	3 Psychology
	1 Phys. Ed.
	1 Dietetics

OBSERVATIONS

The total number of students taking PLA 100 in the fall is consistent with last year's enrollment pattern. XD students continue to be a majority (60%). Of the total enrollment most (77%) continue to be students majoring in Human Development and Family Studies with a minority (13%) fo students from a variety of majors.

Two trends of note; this year there are no BGS students enrolled and there were insufficient students to run a full class in the spring 2001 semester. In addition, the submission of the Credit for Prior Learning Application and the tracking process instituted a year ago shows that of the student submitting and receiving credit by portfolio examination, their average earned credits at the time of submission were 83. The range was from a high of 112 to a low of 41 with an equal number of students slightly above the average as were below.

INTERPRETATION

The PLA Program continues to be heavily used by students in the HDF program. Most students continue to be based in Providence.

The average number of credits a student has at the time they use the PLA process suggests that they are slightly beyond the midpoint in their academic career at the University. The tracking process instituted a year ago appears to be providing us with valuable and relevant information.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The subcommittee recommended the following:

- Look into working with University College to designate one advisor to oversee PLA for incoming freshmen and transfer students.

- Work more closely with deans, chairs and departmental advisors on offering the PLA program.

- Evaluate the budget of the program by benchmarking with comparable institutions. Develop strategies to assure adequate resources to administer the program.