SNL INDEPENDENT LEARNING PURSUIT (ILP)
FALRB OverviewAdapted from Chapters 4 through 7 of the School for New Learning's SECTION A: WHAT ARE INDEPENDENT LEARNING PURSUITS?
Learning activities come in many different forms that can happen inside or outside a classroom. You may have had job-related seminars, undergone training for acquiring specific skills, or learned important lessons through life experiences. You may also want to take a non-credit arts course or investigate an issue of particular interest to you at some point during your time at SNL. Independent Learning Pursuits (ILPs) can therefore document your prior learning, but they can also be pursuits of new learning you decide to undertake outside of a course. Regardless whether your ILP relates to prior or new learning, you need to follow certain rules about designing and documenting your learning. In this chapter we list requirements and criteria for assessment that should help you in planning or documenting your ILP, as well as guide you through the steps you need to take to submit your ILP successfully. Some Sources of Independent Learning:
Involvement in community or work projects may be related to SNL competences. In your written report on such a project, clearly outline your role, define the roles of others, state the scope of the project, and give your analysis of its progress, completion and implementation. The project need not have been a success; rather you should demonstrate how the project provided an opportunity for learning. You might also include newspaper accounts, letters of testimony, artifacts, and other evidence with your written work. You must make a direct connection between the experience and the competence you are addressing. It is likely that work projects will address competences in the Focus Area.
Use non-accredited adult or professional education experiences as evidence if the content fits the competence, if the work was conducted at the college level, and if you can provide an evaluation of your work. Accompany certificates of attendance or completion with course descriptions and any evaluations of your work. In addition to your written description of the course or seminar, you might ask an instructor to furnish explanations of your performance. In the case of job training, supervisors may be in a position to evaluate your ability to implement seminar skills. You should also include your own assessment of the course, and of your performance there. Accompany this evaluation with a report on how you apply this learning elsewhere. Your explanation of the seminar content, its relation to the competence, and your application of the learning are the most important evidence of your competence.
What does it mean to "draw meaning from experience," as is written in the L-2 competence statement? In Foundations you have ample opportunity to explore this question. Adults come to college with accumulated experiences from which they can derive meaning. While their younger counterparts, who enter college soon after high school, may receive broad theoretical knowledge designed to help them interpret the world, as they will later experience it, adults have often lived the experience first. They have held positions in employment, have cared for family members who have had extended illness, have entered into and perhaps dissolved relationships, have raised a family of their own--sometimes, however, without the benefit of reflection on that experience as a source of learning. As you think about identifying competences from prior or independent learning, it is also important that you be able to reflect on the learning and the meaning you derived (or are continuing to derive) from your experiences. Your Foundations instructor will provide exercises and assignments as well as allow for in-class discussion on this topic, which will help you move forward in reflecting and drawing meaning from experience. Exercises: Do “Prior Learning Exercise” and “Making Meaning from Experience Worksheet” in Chapter 9. Reading: For more on experiential learning, read Chapter 9, “Experience, Learning and Knowledge.”
ILPs and the SNL Program Since your ILPs are part of the learning activities within SNL’s competence-based college program it is important to keep in mind three issues when reviewing your life experiences and various kinds of prior learning:
In addressing a particular competence, you should:
SNL Assessment Standards In general, all submissions should demonstrate
In particular, use the following assessment areas to make sure your ILP reflects your best thinking and writing efforts. Content
For the Focus Area:
Analysis and Presentation
Additional Criteria (optional) that can be used to address student learning
These standards are also stated in the submission form found at http://snl.depaul.edu/WebMedia/StudentResources/assessment_form_ilp.doc Forms of Evidence : Learning in courses, whether at SNL or elsewhere, is assessed by a teacher who has carefully laid out a series of experiences that lead to a desired goal. Each student is measured in the same way, a paper, an oral presentation, participation in class discussions, tests, etc. Evaluation of learning from life experience is more complicated because you draw on unique experiences and unique reflections about those experiences to demonstrate a common ability. That common ability is what we call competence. Evidence takes on a special significance because of SNL's concentration on concrete proof of the ability to apply learning. Remember that the competences refer to common skills, abilities, and knowledge, not to specific topics. There is no competence that reads: "Knows the facts of the French Revolution," but we do have a competence stating that students should understand how and why we study history, H-1-F, “Can describe and explain the roles of individuals, groups, societies, or states in history.” It would be relatively easy to document knowledge of the French Revolution. Understanding the historical process requires a different kind of evidence. Your task, as you provide documentation to your Academic Committee and to SNL's Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee (TLA), is to create a specific, direct link from your experience to a particular competence statement. Thus, rather than concentrating on your experience per se, you will want to focus on how your experience fits in with the requirements of any given competence. As you review your life experiences, you will gain an extra measure of learning simply through the process of analyzing what you know, and trying to convince someone else that you know it. Furthermore, as we have stated above, the competences are designed to help you review your experience in light of the liberal arts. As you have discovered, developing evidence for life experience credit is not a simple process. Beyond the important issues of what you did and what you learned, you also must consider what learning skills you employed, what methods are relevant to the topic, what documentation you will provide, what others have to say about the issue, and how the experience connects with an SNL competence statement. These are issues of great importance to SNL. Traditional educators have worked out methods for evaluating what they have taught. Non-traditional programs have to apply methods of equal rigor to what you have learned through experience. SNL faculty must maintain the standards of quality appropriate to the BA degree. They draw on the SNL competences to provide a broad context for learning, and they rely on you to demonstrate your competence.
You will almost always be expected to submit an essay that discusses the relationship between your learning and the competence you will demonstrate. This essay often accompanies additional forms of evidence . In your written evidence, note the competence you are trying to demonstrate, describe the learning experience, your reflections, concepts gained from the experience, and applications of the learning to new experiences. Include prevalent theories, historical background, or scientific data as well as insights particular to the competence at hand. Acknowledge sources of information through citations and a works cited page. A well-constructed essay answers the following questions:
Remember: Any statements from a source must be cited using APA or MLA style.
If you have published articles, participated in theatrical presentations, painted, photographed, or designed something, the product of these interests may be presented as partial evidence of learning. Photograph large or valuable objects. Accompany your tangible evidence with a written explanation of the process and meaning of the objects presented and their appropriateness to the competence.
Letters of testimony by themselves are not considered sufficient evidence of competence. Often, however, students submit letters of testimony in conjunction with other evidence such as an essay or oral presentation. Letters of testimony should be written specifically for the purpose of demonstrating competence.
Depending on your ILP, you may also need to attach other forms of documentation such as the syllabus of a non-credit course, newspaper accounts, certificates of attendance or completion with descriptions and evaluations, or other kinds of material related to your ILP. Please Note: You should only complete ILPs for competences you have not otherwise filled. SECTION B: HOW TO CREATE AN ILP Creating An Independent Learning Pursuit: What to Do Once you have reviewed the competences individually during Foundations, have identified an experience that touches on issues raised in a particular competence statement, and have worked through the Kolb Cycle via the Learning Style Inventory, you are ready to begin the process of documenting your learning. Well-prepared written evidence explains to your reader what you know, how you came to know it, and what the consequences of that learning for you are. Your aim in writing Independent Learning Pursuits is to convince your readers that you have attained this competence, grasp the meaning of it, and that you can build an argument that demonstrates your knowledge and skill. Organization, clarity, and terseness are your greatest allies in this process. Six steps for preparing your ILP for submission: STEP ONE: Preview SNL Assessment Standards STEP TWO: Write your ILP Proposal
Your proposal will also have a cover page where you state your name and address/phone number, what competence you want to demonstrate, the competence statement, and a date when you plan to complete the ILP. The ILP Worksheet in Chapter 9 has all the details you need for constructing this proposal. STEP THREE: Submit your Proposal to your Faculty Mentor (and Professional Advisor if this is to demonstrate a Focus Area competence) for feedback. STEP FOUR: Prepare evidence and supporting materials you will utilize in demonstrating your development of this competence. STEP FIVE: Prepare your ILP Rationale Statement and complete the ILP Submission form STEP SIX: Submit your ILP electronically to your faculty mentor. Don’t forget that the "Independent Learning Pursuit Worksheet" in Chapter 9 will give you detailed instructions! Process for Submission Your academic record will reflect the competence earned through assessment of an Independent Learning Pursuit after your submission has been approved for competence. These competences also will be reflected on your quarterly grade report. You can submit evidence of independent learning for assessment to SNL at any time after the beginning of Foundations. The form that will document feedback from the faculty mentor and the SNL assessor is the ILP Submission Form. This form is at http://snl.depaul.edu/WebMedia/StudentResources/assessment_form_ilp.doc and must be attached to any Independent Learning Pursuits you submit. Specific steps in the process are as follows: Student electronically submits Independent Learning and Submission Form to Faculty Mentor ¯ Faculty Mentor assesses the Independent Learning and suggests revisions to Student. ¯ Faculty Mentor electronically submits the Independent Learning when it is judged ready for assessment by another SNL faculty member who specializes in the area of the ILP, attaching the ¯ Focus Area ILPs are assessed and processed by the Professional Advisor and Faculty Mentor, and are then applied to the competence. ¯ A Second Reader, in all other instances, assesses the Independent Learning and provides feedback on the form. ¯ If the ILP meets the criteria for the competence, Acceptance is recorded in Student’s file and registration for that competence will be entered onto the record as a Pass with zero credit hours. If it does not meet the criteria, it is returned with clear instructions for revision and resubmission. Please Note: For each submission, except for F-1, there is a fee to have your work assessed by SNL, and paid through DePaul’s Payment Center. If you wish to demonstrate E1 and E2 by ILP, they must be submitted separately. Current assessment fees apply. For information about ILP policies and fees, go to http://snl.depaul.edu under Student Resources > Policies and Procedures
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