Get college credit for life experience
Jamestown Community College's life experience credit portfolio program offers students college credit for relevant life experience learning. The program helps translate life experiences like work duties, trainings, seminars, and professional practice into college credit.
Students should make an appointment with the Success Center to start the process.
Before developing the portfolio:
1. Apply to bc体育足球 for a degree or certificate program. Once accepted and prepared for advisement, continue to step 2.
2. Make an appointment with your faculty advisor or a counselor in the Success Center to discuss credit for prior learning opportunities and whether life experience credit makes sense for your academic and career goals. Multiple methods of accumulating credit for prior learning will also be explored, such as the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), Advanced Placement (AP), independent study, challenge exams, industry certifications, and military training. It is important to note that life experience credit may or may not be transferable. If you plan on continuing your education at another school, that school should be contacted to find out what their policy is on credit for experiential learning.
3. Once a decision has been made to pursue life experience credit, your faculty advisor or counselor will assist you in performing a degree audit in Degree Works to determine which coursework and the number of credit hours required of your degree or certificate program would be best to develop a portfolio for and how many credit hours to seek through life experience.
4. Once the coursework and number of credit hours being pursued has been determined, you will develop a portfolio for each area to be assessed, including documentation of the learning. You will work with the faculty reviewing your life experience portfolio to learn the portfolio development guidelines. The portfolio will then be submitted to the appropriate evaluating faculty member, who will review and complete a faculty evaluation form. The form then gets submitted to the appropriate dean for approval.
5. For each portfolio submitted to faculty departments for review, the evaluating faculty member can elect to charge a $50 evaluation fee. The student must sign an agreement of payment form at the time of requesting life experience credit. If the evaluating faculty member elects to charge the fee, the $50 will be charged regardless of the outcome of the portfolio evaluation.
After you submit your portfolio:
6. The evaluating faculty member will notify you of their response to your portfolio(s), and the result of credit determination(s).
7. The evaluating faculty member will notify the Registrar’s Office of the credit being awarded to you, and the credit will be added to your academic transcript. In addition, they will notify the Business Office of the total charges to be billed to your student account.
Description of your degree plans: Indicate how this request for credit is to be integrated into your academic goals. State what type and how much credit you see as appropriate. (This will be explained in the interview with the counselor.)
Description of your past experience: Give a chronological review of your activities, responsibilities, and involvements. (Include dates, length of time involved, who, when, where.)
- Additional learning: Include lectures, seminars, workshops, trainings, books, films, and courses. Describe their content and amount of time you spent. Provide any artifacts and certificates of completion.
- If you are seeking credit in an area that represents something you have created such as art, music, photography, etc., finished products should be submitted to complement your portfolio.
Learning: From my provided involvements, I have learned and mastered the following: (Provide your response.)
- This section should document the learning, skills and competencies that have resulted from your experience. Statements such as "I learned" or "I can do the following based on my activities" may be helpful prompts.
- Consider using this area as a presentation of a syllabus for the life course you have “taken.”
Letters of testimony: To be obtained from leaders, experts, instructors, employers, etc. to document involvement. Letters should include direct reference to and support of your individual learning. Certificates, awards, diplomas, and letters of recognition relative to your life experience area may also be included in your submission.