Introduction

Fast and well-traveled roads may make for a quicker trip, but they also miss the nuance and beauty of the scenic route. For some, the long way around is just worth it. The adventures, mishaps, connections, and coincidences that happen along the way are a teacher like no other.

If this sounds familiar to you when you think about your journey in education, then this textbook is for you. Let’s take another look at those years of experiential learning along the scenic route: your work, travel, volunteering, community involvement, entrepreneurship, and whatever else you’ve explored while not in the traditional classroom setting.

Let’s reconsider that experience as Prior Learning, and dig in to see what you’ve learned on the way.

Let’s translate that learning into academic terms, and work towards applying for credit where credit is due.

This textbook will lead students with significant experiential backgrounds through the process of exploring, defining, and expressing their prior learning in settings outside of a traditional classroom. Students will study knowledge acquisition theory and apply it to their own experiences, and then will journey through the process of explaining their learning in an academic context in order to petition for credit for specific university courses.