Meet the Credit for Prior Learning Advisory Board

National Louis University (NLU), we value the personal and professional experience that our students have gained outside of the classroom. The Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) office provides opportunities for students who have acquired college-level equivalent knowledge through work, military, and life experiences for potential credit award. The CPL program provides several ways students can demonstrate their college-level learning, including Credit by Portfolio, Credit by Examination and Credit by Credentials. 

As the CPL office looks for new ways to evolve and support students with previous life experience, they lean on the CPL Advisory Board to generate new ideas and opportunities within the program.

The Advisory Board is a volunteer-based entity composed of full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, administrators and staff who have a vested interest in CPL programs at NLU. The Board meets quarterly, bringing together various ideas related to Credit for Prior Learning and student needs and interests. This group is a sounding board for CPL, providing insight and recommendations to increase institutional recognition, student usage and overall quality assurance related to CPL programs and processes. In addition to offering feedback, the Advisory Board plays an important role in reviewing CPL requests from current students. The members are overall ambassadors for CPL throughout the university.

Tracy Costello, Assistant Director of Credit for Prior Learning, explains how the Advisory Board helps the CPL team make decisions about awarding credit:

“In recent months, I’ve had a surge in student requests to review professional credentials for possible undergraduate elective credit awards. I gather all of the information, and propose the credit award I feel should be warranted. The group reviews each of my requests in detail, and provides me with support or reasons why they might differ in option for my consideration. The time they spend reviewing these potential CPL options can be demanding during high request times such as these past few months.

Their time and commitment to the CPL vision only helps me to grow and expand our options, as well as communicate the CPL message to the many constituents across the institution.”