Unlocking Educational Opportunities for Military Medics in Wisconsin

Assessing prior learning is not a simple task for many colleges.  Looking at a learner’s work history and practical experience is not enough. Instead, colleges must map the learner’s documented skills to the course competencies.  

The results often benefit the college and the learner beyond the scope of the specific course.  Ask the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), which created its first statewide nursing A.A.S. program pathway for prior learning.

Creating consistent, competency-based challenge exams

This initiative, funded by a TAACCCT IV grant, brought together a team of WTCS nursing faculty and a WIDS Learning Design Consultant to develop a comprehensive, competency-based challenge exam system and curriculum pathway.

The team began by meticulously mapping the military medic training to the WTCS program pre-requisite and first-year nursing curriculum. This allowed them to determine:

• Where WTCS curriculum was already addressed by prior military training
• Which remaining WTCS curriculum could be condensed
• What the clear CPL to nursing program pathway could look like

Then, the team engaged in a structured, collaborative design process to:

• establish common criteria for 5 exams aligned to the 5 core courses
• ensure that the competency-based challenge exams are uniform
• determine which exam delivery processes are effective across all WTCS colleges

‍It can be done!

The resulting pathway includes:

• Five theory courses and one clinical practicum
• 10 fewer credits in the nursing program for medic veterans  
• Flexible self-paced or online delivery options tailored to veteran student requests

This result of this initiative? It significantly rewards military medics for their hands-on earned skills by providing:

• A streamlined statewide process that empowers military medics to fast track their education
• Defined Credit for Prior Learning (CPL)assessments aligned to the WTCS Nursing A.A.S. degree
• A CPL pathway for military medics to enter directly into the second year of the nursing program

‍Discover our proven process
WIDS consultants excel in fostering collaborative curriculum design.  The process we utilized in this project canapply to Prior Learning Assessments for any content area.  Consider contacting us to help you streamlineyour PLA efforts and maximize the value of prior learning for your students.

WIDS (Worldwide Instructional Design System) is a nonprofit organization that provides curriculum design software, consulting, and training services.  Download the free Facilitating Collaboration for Prior Learning Assessment.

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