Measuring the cost of credit transfer at small colleges

Authors
Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology
A. Penner
T. Howieson
Reference Number
2015-02
Date
Status
Abstract
Unique challenges faced by small colleges in implementing credit transfer processes, are the few, if any resources dedicated to credit transfer tasks. Providing credit transfer requires an investment of time and human resources for each receiving institution. Costing models for this process need to be identified within the context of small colleges. As this was an acknowledged need, the following eight colleges agreed to participate in this study: Cambrian, Canadore, Collège Boréal, Confederation, Georgian, Lambton, Northern, and Sault College. The process of credit transfer has been well described by Camman, Hamade, and Zhou (2015) as the manner in which recognition is given for prior formal learning at an institution. The manner refers to process(es) and involves time spent on a) what a student provides as an educational record, b) the application of that record to what the institution offers, and c) compared with what the student wants to achieve. At a minimum, there are three steps to this process (Junor & Usher, 2008). The time taken for each step, or the volume of activity within each step is not clear within the literature. What is clear, is that there is a ‘mapping’ that happens as part of the process (Camman, Stephane, & Zhou, 2014)...