Story by Miranda Carpenter
Staff writer
The Board of Regents approved fees to expand prior learning assessment and proficiency review.
This fee will allow students to potentially receive academic credit from work done on professional portfolios and job experience outside of the classroom.
Some students come to college with experience that overlaps with academic courses. The University will acknowledge that experience and turn it into academic credit.
The board already approved a similar assessment in May 2018 for the graduate programs within the College of Education, but it is now expanding the assessment to other programs.
“This was the first pathway at Murray State at the graduate level in order to make this assessment possible, with many students already beginning to benefit from that,” Mark Arant, vice president for academic affairs and provost, said. “Many graduate and undergraduate programs have petitioned to expand this opportunity so they can reach out particularly to adult learners so they are able to gain credit for their real life experiences.”
The board reviewed the petition at their March 1 meeting in order to expand the prior learning experience to all programs at Murray State, and approved it unanimously.
“The expansion of prior learning assessment and proficiency reviews will take place beginning with courses offered for the fall 2019 semester,” Shawn Tourney, director of communication, said. “There were many academic programs who had advocated for this new assessment and originated from multiple areas and disciplines.”
Some students are excited for this assessment to be approved since they come to college with a lot of real-world experiences.
“What a great idea,” Emily Leonard, senior from St. Louis, Missouri, said. “Real work experience can sometimes teach more than a classroom can. This would allow students who work to pay for school to get some benefit.”
Some students also said they are interested to see what classes would qualify for this new prior learning assessment.
“I would be interested to see if it went to actual courses or just electives,” Madison Moxley, senior from Paducah, Kentucky, said. “I feel like this would attract non-traditional students during this time of low enrollment.”
Students who are interested or have questions should contact their particular academic program for more information, which includes details on guidelines, processes and the appropriate fees.
