The first step in the portfolio process is to take the required IDS 102: Prior Learning Portfolio Development course, an online accelerated three-credit course taught over eight weeks. The portfolio course is designed to teach you to analyze your experience, relate what you have learned to college courses, choose a course to challenge, (or match to) determine the course knowledge components, and prepare a portfolio to demonstrate that what you have learned is equivalent to what would be learned by successfully completing that course.
The portfolio development course will guide you through the process to indentify areas where you have college level knowledge. You will learn how to write a biographical overview of your relevant background, analyze course knowledge components, complete a narrative essay to show how what you learned matches the knowledge components for a specific course, and choose appropriate supporting documentary evidence.
You will learn how to prepare a portfolio narrative to:
- Describe what you know in relation to the course.
- Specify when, where, and how you acquired that knowledge.
- Relate that knowledge to the course knowledge components.
- Present each piece of supporting documentation, relate it to the course knowledge component(s), and describe how it supports your claim to knowledge.
IDS 102: Prior Learning Portfolio Development is a three-credit course taught online in an accelerated format over eight weeks. Tuition for the course includes assessment of the single-course portfolio you will develop in class if it is submitted within 30 days of the end of your IDS 102 class.
Contact the Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) Office with questions.