Professional Learning Review FAQs for Students

A Professional Learning Review is a service Thomas Edison State University offers to qualifying organizations to determine whether the organization's training and education programs or credentials contain college-level learning that equates with college courses typically taught in a regionally-accredited college or university.  The PLR process determines the amount, level, and subject area of credit which we then equate with a University course or series of courses.

We know you have worked very hard to complete your training program or credential, so we want to help you explore all the possible ways you may be able to earn University credit for your knowledge. Due to the resources OPLR devotes to each PLR, a PLR is intended to benefit a substantial population of students rather than a single or limited number of students. Therefore, PLR requests are not accepted from individual students, nor are PLRs performed for an individual.

If you don’t see your training or credential on our list…

1. Check the ACE CREDIT and National CCRS websites. The University accepts recommendations from both services, so if you find one has reviewed your training or credential, just follow their transcript instructions and have it sent to Thomas Edison State University, Office of the Registrar, 111 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08608.
    
2. Check with our consortium partners. The University has an agreement with the colleges in the Consortium for the Assessment of College Equivalence (CACE) to accept recommendations from their recent reviews. If you find your training program or credential on any of the following websites, please email plr@tesu.edu and we will follow up with you.
    
3. Ask your training director or credential issuer to contact us about conducting a PLR. The University is always interested in discussing our PLR service with new organizations and exploring whether PLR may be a good fit. Many of our reviews make retroactive credit recommendations, so you might qualify for credit once a review is complete.
    
4. Consider using one of our other prior learning assessment methods. Your training or credential may align well with one of our TECEPs or another credit-by-exam program. Or, you may want to explore demonstrating your knowledge through our portfolio assessment options. And, if you think you may need a little refresher or supplemental knowledge to help with these options, explore our links to open education resources.
    

While there are academic reasons behind the effective dates associated with each PLR, we want to give you every opportunity to earn credit for your credential, even when you earned it before we reviewed it.

1. First, double-check with your academic advisor or email plr@tesu.edu to find out if we have got an older review in our records. We do not always list these on our website pages, so you may already qualify for a credit award.
    
2. Next, check out our PLR Demonstration of Currency option. You can demonstrate that you are current with the body of knowledge in our current PLR by submitting an application and attaching your evidence. Open the application to see the types of evidence you will need to submit. Please note that we cannot award credit based on a renewal credential alone, but it can be used in combination with other evidence.

The PLR effective dates are the timeframe for which the credit award is valid. The start date is determined by the date a training program or credential was first offered with essentially the same format as presented to our review team. This can include elements like equivalent textbooks, assessments or test plans, and topic coverage. We generally post an end-date up to 5 years from our review date, and check annually for changes to the training program or credential. A new review is required to determine the appropriate credit award beyond the designated end-date.

As we noted in the question about effective dates, we check annually for changes since our review. If we find that a change has been made, we generally need to adjust our PLR. Sometimes those changes are minor, like a new contact person or a change in the title of a course. Other times those changes are more substantial and they impact credit awards, transcript requirements, or even the effective dates of a PLR.

Our goal with any change is to minimize the impact on students while maintaining accuracy and academic integrity. We follow the PLR policies in place when the University received your transcript for the training program or credential. So, in cases where we may make a retroactive change, any credit you have already been awarded will not be negatively impacted by the change.

In cases where we have changed the transcript requirement for a PLR, we give students a 30-day grace period from the date that the change is formally announced to staff and posted on-line, during which time credit will be granted for the previously acceptable documentation. In addition, if it is noted in the University’s student record that University staff requested the previously acceptable documentation from you, credit will be granted as long as you are still actively enrolled or applying to the University.

In cases where we have changed a credit award for a PLR, including the amount, effective date, and/or University course number, we give students a 30-day grace period from the date that the change is formally announced to staff and posted on-line, during which time credit will be granted for the previously acceptable award. In addition, if it is noted in the University’s student record that University staff advised you regarding the previous credit award, the previous credit will be granted as long as you are still actively enrolled or applying to the University.