CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
Ms. Michelle Spires, Director, Military Programs, American Council on Education
Ms. Andrea Baridon, Associate Director, Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges
Facilitated by Joycelyn Groot, CCME Immediate Past President, and Dean, Coastline Community College
What are your burning issues?
The questions might get you thinking in preparation for the Round Table.
1. What information about military training and experience do academic institutions and employers need
that they do not currently have (e.g., improving documentation and translation tools)?
2. What models exist to assess service members/veterans' knowledge, skills and competencies?
3. How can models be improved to award comparable academic credit?
4. How should traditional academic programs and pathways be adapted to meet the services
members/veterans' unique needs and skills?
5. How can DOD better facilitate service members' transition to civilian careers from recruitment through
separation?
6. What are the barriers faced at institutions for effectively implementing processes for awarding credit
from military training and experience?
7. How can faculty be better engaged to build awareness about the rigor and quality of military
occupational training?
8. What regulations and policies are impacting the ability of higher education to award credit for
experiential learning and what changes need to be considered? i.e. Financial Aid limitations.
See other side and take the opportunity to peruse or complete a survey online and in preparation for
potential discussion during the round table. Thank you.
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
(Survey opportunity)
Awarding college credit for military training, experience, and coursework can create a double-edged sword
with financial aid, particularly related to Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) regulations. Service members
and Veterans deserve the appropriate college credit for their military training, experience, and coursework.
However, current federal financial aid policies may prevent Service members and Veterans from receiving
financial aid long enough to complete their degree if these credits are not applied correctly. This survey
seeks to determine if there is a potential negative impact on financial aid due to the misapplication of
academic credit.
In June 2012, the President established the Military Credentialing and Licensing Task Force which is charged
with identifying opportunities for Service members to earn civilian credentials and occupational licenses
without redundant training. Enabling Service members to be awarded academic credit for the knowledge
and experience gained in the service will expedite their ability to earn industry-recognized credentials,
complete academic degrees and get a high paying job.
The Military Credentialing and Licensing Task Force is seeking to build a network of leading institutions,
states, and other stakeholders that are developing and implementing policies and practices that support the
college success of Service members and Veterans. While some postsecondary institutions have active
policies in place to award credit, expanding the number of institutions with effective military credit policies
is the ultimate goal of the Task Force, which consists of the Departments of Defense, Education and
Veteran’s Affairs.
By completing this survey, the Task Force hopes to find common ground and gather feedback as to how we
should proceed with recommendations. There are currently no commonly recommended best practices for
colleges and universities to follow when addressing the financial aid policies for Service members and
Veterans who have earned academic credit for their military background.
The link to the survey is: https://tescfoundation.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eQFJMn4sWObzIzz
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
Morning Session:
Facilitators would like to link to the resources handed out or mentioned during the round table as part of the
“take aways” from the meeting.
Resources:
JST brochure
Toolkit for Veteran Friendly Institutions
Report from Veteran Success JAM
All tables were encouraged to discuss their emerging issues related to this subject.
Collaboration among the schools.
Savannah Technical College – military outreach roles. Pull some resources from Fayetteville Tech.
Challenges with faculty members. Every table considers this a burning issues.
Most schools will accept ACE credits – but faculty aren’t consistent with what they will accept. i.e. they
might accept CLEP but not ACE.
Suggestion to get faculty involved with an ACE evaluation team for their subject matter.
Suggestion to have ACE and SOC present to faculty.
UWF – how to get faculty to appreciate ACE credit. New president – get leadership involved. Visits on
military bases – onboard ships. Show them the culture. Get leadership to change their culture, the
culture of the university will transition. “Give credit where credit is due”
Empire SUNY – working to develop consistent process to engage faculty.
The Learning Outcomes now included on the ACE evaluations are a helpful tool for faculty.
Identify veterans on your campus who can support and drive military training and experience.
Anyone grant credit toward graduate programs?
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
Grant for MBA – SUNY – program considers prior learning and it will include ACE recommendations for a
graduate level – up to 24 credits for (IEA MBA model – Desiree)
Salt Lake City – gave 9 credits toward graduate. Visiting the school – review syllabi and did a university
evaluation of credit. Then took to WASC to “prove” the validation processes. WASC – Argosy University.
Consider transferability of the credit toward the degree.
Education Career Specialist – Ft Meyer – Marine corps. He does the TA brief. Introduces the JST and how it
leands to their degree plan.
Team of 4 – Marine/Commanding Officer/School/Education Officer – The ESO is the liaison.
He asked the question “Where are you in the process of assessing transcripts?” Schools have different
processes for the assessment.
Transcript review goes to a faculty team.
At what point in the student life cycle is the JST reviewed and made part of the evaluation
Schools may offer lots of credit, but not toward major. Need to help service members understand the
applicability and value of the evaluation.
State Vs Private Processes
CTC College Credit for Heroes. 7 institutions collaborated San Antonio (Nursing) – mapped a corpsman and
developed a bridge component that can be viewed online. Mapping into the common course numbering.
Impact of Financial Aid.
State of TX – something about
Some schools are limiting credit awards only applicable to degree to avoid a FA barrier.
Impacts course repeatability.
At what point are you doing transfer alignment?
East Carolina University.
If you’re issuing VA or TA benefits, use of “recommended” credit in SOC guidelines
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
SOC guidelines – can’t say you “must” accept ACE recommended credit; but they strongly encourage.
Each year, SOC taps into the ACE credit database and matches to the SOC degree networking
The Credit Evaluation Supplement. Matches the ACE evaluation to the course category in SOC – help
schools align to specific courses rather than elective credit only.
SUGGESTION. How can we put all the data into one database? An online resource to validate between ACE
and SOC category.
How do you evaluate upper level course in AF, beyond CCAF lower division applicability.
What about courses that are beyond the lower division?
SUNY has a request for assessment of prior learning process. A subject matter expert does the
evaluation. Sometimes a faculty member or can be outside the institution as long as the “expert” meets
certain minimum requirements.
Are the evaluators a part of the intuition? What are the different policies?
UMUC offers a course to facilitate APL and engage their faculty to accommodate the process. It’s an upper
division course (Excel 301)
Where’s a starting point to evaluate? Example: How to evaluate the marine MOS toward the Engineering
Construction.
Depends on the college’s culture and policies.
Suggestion – see what other schools are awarding?
Novel state University?? Question – How is SUNY able to qualify their evaluation process with SAC.
It is their mission to provide individualized degree programs.
Merging trend – Other models of prior learning assessment.
Many schools do portfolio building.
Bobby from Ashford – “Hire a Champ” reaching out to the corporations to engage or bridge the gap from
corporate to military.
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
Academic Credentialing Task Force. It’s not always just taking the ACE recommendations toward dgree
completion. How do we leverage our communication between education and corporate.
Including State approving issues with these conversations.
Afternoon session:
Table 1 – focused on advising issues.
AS vs General Studies. How to advise and assist students for the bes t use of their funding.
What’s best for the service member? While Serving? And in transition?
Who is responsible for informing students of the JST? How do we become partners in the process?
Cuts in staff on base.
Best practices
Building relationships
What does transfer credit really mean?
Unitended consequences with awarding credit practice
Veterans Center as the hub for services at some schools.
Director at Ft. Campbell from Austin Pey.
Do we have governmental agencies who “judge” based on “how much credit”?
USCarolina Deakin– 100% job placement for their nursing program.
Pierce College JBLM – issues with accreditation and transfer credits. 2 year community college – problem
with non-traditional applying to electives only.
CHALLENGE – recognition of credit toward major.
Dan from AMU - it’s everyone’s responsibility to contribute to the service member’s success.
Best practice – the preliminary evaluation.
Need for high touch, one on one services.
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
Challenges – reductions in on base counselors
What can universities do to better support the ESOs?
Give contact information.
The different schools to know what each other offers.
Regional accreditation – more credit may not translate to quicker degree completion.
SOC is a resource for students when taking classes from several universities.
Credit evaluation supplement…..
Barrier – need to be invited to join SOCAD? Military chooses which programs are admitted into the
program. Poses challenges from some schools.
Norfolk State University – who is responsible for giving the service member information about resources.
How do you get everyone on the same page?
Institutions can do 2 things – (UMUC, Cynthia Andrews)
Make your credit recommendations visible to the public.
Take the equivalencies and plug into the university degree plan
2+2’s very helpful to ESOs.
Develop a military team from the various service areas. Or at least, a military POC, who is an advocate
for the students.
PLA professional development workshops – Miami Dade Community College (Get website)
PLA champions – ACE reviewers or those faculty who are Veterans.
PLA faculty advisory/Student Support advisory.
Posturing of Nursing Schools. ??? (AMU comment)
Professional development for faculty
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
Vet2Vet email contacts
Military/Veterans Advisory Team at the college.
Cross reference (lady in purple)????
Barbara – 20 years in community college as a nursing instructor. Went to Ft Houston and assessed their
nursing school training. Navy Corpsman. Working with the state of Maryland to align requirements and
identify gaps.
Challenges – need to get buy in.
Paramedic to RN.
Table 2 - Washington – pathways – gap/bridge programs. How to fill the training gaps?
How to help faculty with developing a crosswalk?
SOC requires a single point of contact for military/veteran issues.
Observation from Jay from Troy – we work in complex organizations. If we find our own organization
complex, think about the challenges this imposes on the student or ESO.
“Wouldn’t it be sweet” if we could make the process less complex.
Director of military for Board of Regents (Georgia schools). Includes 2 year and 4 year schools.
Best practice – Work study program. Get a list of incoming military students and reach out to them
immediately and partner up with veteran mentors.
Make websites more user friendly.
Differences among the accrediting agencies. Desire more consistency.
CCME 2014 Annual Professional Development Symposium
Roundtable
Thursday, February 13
Awarding Credit for Military Training and Experience
Room 105/106
Morning Session Attendees:
APU
UWF
Ashford
Webster U
Campbellsville U
Empire State College SUNY
Norfolk State U
Ashford
Fred Stielow
Tim Daseler
Michael Foehrkolb
Marsha Sands
Joshua Fuqua
Desiree Drindak
Shameena Elston-Morris
Bobby Tagle
fstielow@apus.edu
Tnd7@students.uwf.edu
Michael.foehrkolb@ashford.edu
sands@webster.edu
jkfuqua@campbellsville.edu
Desiree.drindak@esc.edu
svelston@nsu.edu
bobbytagle@ashford.edu