Maximizing Military Credit for Prior Learning to Help Accelerate Degree Completion

In February, CAEL formed an Illinois-based workgroup to pilot its newest community of practice, dedicated to supporting military-connected learners. Like all the partnerships CAEL builds, the community of practice is designed to benefit its members through the exploration and exchange of best practices honed by diverse experiences with similar challenges and opportunities.

Members have shared multiple examples of successful strategies regarding their support of military-connected learners. CAEL will be profiling them in a series of blogs to offer insights for its members (and future members!) on how institutions and their stakeholders can provide well-tailored resources to this unique and critical subpopulation of adult learners

Purdue Global is a member institution of both CAEL and the Council on Military Transition to Education (CMTE). CMTE’s mission is to bring together leaders from the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Labor, and postsecondary education institutions that are working to support military learners. CMTE college and university representatives include veterans affairs specialists, funding administrators, career services specialists, and other roles dedicated to meeting the needs of service members transitioning into higher education.

Purdue Global recently hosted a CMTE meeting at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus. The Purdue Global Center for Prior Learning Recognition (CPLR) and Center for Career Advancement (CCA) were invited to present regarding their role in supporting the success of military-connected learners. Allegra Fowler, executive director of the CPLR, and Adam Bufka, director in the CCA, led the presentation.

Fowler’s presentation offered a comprehensive review of the value of military credit for prior learning (CPL). In addition to her work with CAEL’s military-connected work group, Fowler, a CAEL Ambassador, lends her expertise to the CAEL community of practice on transfer credit.

While CPL is not a central focus of the CMTE, Fowler’s presentation generated strong interest in the audience. After all, as she likes to point out, the largest educator in the country is the U.S. military. “While that doesn’t make them an accredited institution of higher learning, it simply means that there is a lot of learning going on at U.S. military installations all across the world,” said Fowler. “Where there is learning, institutions of higher education should follow it, measure it, and value it.”

One discussion inspired by her presentation took place between Fowler and representatives from the DOD Military-Civilian Transition Office (MCTO). They discussed how to augment the presence of military CPL in the DOD Transition Assistance Program (TAP). MCTO oversees curricula for the TAP, which is a collaboration among the Departments of Defense, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Education, and Homeland Security; the Small Business Administration; and the Office of Personnel Management.

The CMTE regularly provides MCTO feedback on the TAP My Education curriculum, helping strengthen its capacity to provide critical information to service members as they prepare for post-service higher education and subsequent civilian careers. The TAP supports more than 200 U.S. military installations worldwide, covering 200,000 transitioning service members each year.

Fowler offered MCTO suggestions for how to clarify military CPL information for service members. “There is so much material that needs to be provided to service members that it is an ongoing challenge to update and prioritize information that will have the most relevance and impact,” said Fowler.

The CMTE’s diverse perspectives make it an ideal source of collaboration, said Fowler. “The presentation of succinct and meaningful military CPL information within the TAP curricula represents a real opportunity for the DoD and higher education to join together to improve the final product and impact the lives of service members.”

Fowler said her discussions stressed the impact military CPL can have on a service member’s trajectory toward a degree. She also emphasized the role of advocacy in obtaining military CPL and the impact military CPL has on academic program cost.

Perhaps most importantly, she clarified that the availability of military CPL is not the same as having military CPL utilized toward completion of a degree program. “I believe that there is a significant difference in what various institutions mean when they say that they ‘accept military credit,’” said Fowler. Some students who have accrued college-level learning in the military may enroll at institutions that say they offer military CPL but are unable to crosswalk it to academic programs, she said. “Other institutions are really doing much better at making sure military CPL is being utilized to help service members earn a degree. I think this distinction must be drawn.”

Fowler said she wanted to provide the MCTO with a “military-outsider/higher-ed-insider” take on how to inform service members about military CPL. She argues that service members are used to uniformity and trust. As such, they may not be aware that military CPL policies and practices can vary extensively between different institutions.

“A goal of my suggestions was to frame this for service members and equip them to advocate for their military learning,” she said. “This higher education perspective can broaden the reach of military CPL awareness and help ensure that service members are positioned for success.”

Fowler was happy to help adjust a few key passages of content to help realign TAP curricula with the latest state of military CPL acceptance. She’s just as willing to help her postsecondary peers. “Purdue Global is hoping to lead by example, but also to help other institutions and organizations in their work to support military CPL,” she said.

For over 50 years, CAEL has championed adult learners and CPL adoption. Military learners are an important and unique sub-population of adult learners – and we deliver services uniquely positioned for their opportunities, which include this community of practice

If you are looking for support with your CPL and/or military learner initiatives, let us know. To learn more, or become a CAEL member and join our community of practice, please reach out to Carolyn Swabek, director of community engagement: cswabek@cael.org.