Recognizing students’ life experiences with college credit
On Tuesday, July 21, CollegeSource hosted another session of the Let’s Talk Transfer community discussion series, where all transfer professionals (regardless of whether they use CollegeSource products) are invited to share their expertise and ask questions on transfer-related topics. Over 150 staff from institutions of higher education joined the discussion live.
Topic of discussion: Non-traditional transfer credit evaluation
This month’s webinar concluded our two-part discussion of Credit for Prior Learning (CPL). According to the National Student Clearinghouse, some 43.1 million Americans have some college but no degree. These are typically working adults who, at some point, gave up the dream of a college degree and entered the workforce. Attendees discussed several strategies for using CPL assessment to attract these students by recognizing their life experiences as college-level learning.
Breakout on the topic of portfolio reviews at the Let’s Talk Transfer session, July 2026.
Professional certificates and state licenses
One of the easiest ways to award credit for life experience is to look at your state’s professional certificates or jobs that require a state license. Typically, these certificates or licenses require an examination but don’t require a college degree. An example would be a realtor’s license. Institutions that offer a real estate class could grant credit for that course to individuals who hold a realtor’s license, acknowledging their life experience and helping them make progress towards a degree.
Portfolio review
It’s hard to talk about CPL without discussing portfolio review or the process of students submitting documentation of their learning to attempt to earn credit for specific courses or have requirements waived. While this seems to be one of the more talked-about avenues of awarding CPL, it doesn’t appear to be the most popular among students. Attendees mentioned dissuading students from pursuing this method in favor of CLEP and DANTES exams for ease.
When we discussed strategies to improve the portfolio review process, several attendees shared that they require students to register for a 1-credit-hour class. This class serves as a tool to help students submit a relevant portfolio and to support staffing allocation, recognizing this effort as part of faculty workload. One advantage of this strategy is that students can use financial aid to cover part of the cost, assuming they need elective credit. In most cases, CPL is an out-of-pocket expense.
Breakout rooms
Following the group discussion, attendees headed into smaller breakout rooms hosted by the CollegeSource Client Advisory Board and CollegeSource staff to continue to discuss the following topics:
- Establishing Policy and Practices
- Portfolio Reviews
- The ACE National Guide
Interestingly, the Establishing Policy and Practices and the ACE National Guide breakouts both featured discussions on how to handle the review of learning experiences from nontraditional providers who have now received credit recommendations from the American Council on Education (ACE). There seems to be some pushback against honoring the credit recommendations for these courses that previously had none. These breakouts are worth checking out if you are having the same debate on campus.
Watch the recording
Register now to access the July 2026 recording, including the transcript, chat log, and breakout session recordings.
Upon accessing the recording, please see the sidebar transcript for the link to view breakout videos.
Join us again in September
The next Let’s Talk Transfer will take place on September 15, where we will discuss Transfer trends: Technology, policies, and practices. Please join us as we look back at the 2025-2026 academic year to see what themes are emerging in this area.
If you previously registered for the series, the Zoom link provided can be used to access this session. If you haven’t yet registered, see the link below. Recordings will be available for those unable to attend.
Call for topics and speakers
Tim and Sarah are looking to you to help shape the Let’s Talk Transfer series. We invite you to suggest a topic for discussion or volunteer to be a guest speaker and share your experience.
We look forward to chatting with you soon in September!
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