What Is a Legitimate Learning Opportunity?
The questions below can help you determine if a student is presenting a legitimate learning opportunity for consideration for experiential learning credit.
1. Will the student have sustained exposure to new information over a specified period of time?
2. Will the student have sustained involvement in the application of academic theories over a specified period of time?
3. Will the student be involved in specific activities with definable outcomes?
4. Will the student be able to demonstrate what he/she has learned?
5. Is there a mechanism by which the student’s learning can be evaluated?
6. Is there a person or group of people to whom the student is accountable for the duration of the assignment?
Evaluating Potential University-Level Learning
The key to evaluating a position for potential credit is to determine if new learning is occurring. Is the student doing something that they haven’t done before that involves the application of college-level concepts?
A brief interview can help determine if the non-traditional work assignment a student presents has the potential for college-level learning. Here are some guidelines for the interview:
1. To find out if new learning is occurring, ask:
“What is your business and how long have you been in operation?”
“What are your responsibilities?”
“Normally the best opportunity for new learning is in the first six months of a job. After that learning can drop dramatically. Do you have a recent project or responsibilities that are new for you?”
“Project yourself four months in to the future. What do you want to accomplish in your work? What do you need to know how to do to reach your goal that you don’t know already?”
2. It is important to identify the student’s responsibilities, and to distinguish these from an overall effort in which others may be involved.
“Can you describe how you will spend you time?”
“Which of the tasks you just described will you be directly responsible for?”
3. Have you taken any courses that apply to what you’ll be doing?
If the student is able to discuss these items confidently and clearly, and the position seems promising, then the student can be invited to submit a learning proposal.
