PLA portfolio. is it worth the effort?

[rockbust]

Hi, I am looking for advice for a portfolio review in advanced writing. I am enrolling in Excelsior. I have co-authored 2 books that were published and several magazine articles. https://www.amazon.com/Bullywolf-ABCs-Bu...entries*=0 and https://www.amazon.com/Neapolitan-Mastif...0793807840

I have no "formal" training on advanced writing but was the webmaster for my National Dog Club and chairperson for my local dog club newsletter for many years.

Questions:
Is it worth the time involved in putting together a portfolio for the credits?
One book is a fictional children's book and the other is a non-fiction book. I have come across college courses for both areas. Could I put together 2 portfolios of would they overlap?
Seems excelsior requires you to take a LL course on PLA portfolio (which I do not need any LL credits) would an option be to be assessed elsewhere and transfer them in?

Thank you

[cookderosa]

Hi, I am looking for advice for a portfolio review in advanced writing. I am enrolling in Excelsior. I have co-authored 2 books that were published and several magazine articles. https://www.amazon.com/Bullywolf-ABCs-Bu...entries*=0 and https://www.amazon.com/Neapolitan-Mastif...0793807840

I have no "formal" training on advanced writing but was the webmaster for my National Dog Club and chairperson for my local dog club newsletter for many years.

Questions:
Is it worth the time involved in putting together a portfolio for the credits?
One book is a fictional children's book and the other is a non-fiction book. I have come across college courses for both areas. Could I put together 2 portfolios of would they overlap?
Seems excelsior requires you to take a LL course on PLA portfolio (which I do not need any LL credits) would an option be to be assessed elsewhere and transfer them in?

Thank you

You'll get both answers- but my opinion is that PLA is only worth it if you can get upper level credit (as opposed to lower level which is cheap and easy) and you can't fill the requirement easily in another way.

[bjcheung77]

You'll get both answers- but my opinion is that PLA is only worth it if you can get upper level credit (as opposed to lower level which is cheap and easy) and you can't fill the requirement easily in another way.

+1, I would recommend going for it. You can specifically specify which course you are wanting to get a portfolio done for.
You need to grab their course outline or syllabus for that particular course and create your PLA around that, you need to support your claim that you believe it's UL. For $125/3 credits, it's cheap! Excelsior College | Prior Learning Assessment B

[davewill]

I was able to get 15 credits through PLA. See my sig for details. I had a lot of overlap and essentially did only two narratives for the 5 courses. Taking the course should help you get your portfolio written.

The first thing to do is find syllabi for the courses you want to challenge. Look at the learning objectives and decide if you are able to document having learned those things.

You may find it easier to take an online class. I did PLA because I couldn't find the courses online, and because I could challenge so many courses with what was essentially 1.5 portfolios. it was much easier and quicker than taking 5 courses would have been. I will say that doing one is mostly a writing exercise, and that doesn't sound like a problem for you.

[KayV]

When you factor in having to pay for Excelsior's CCS202 Prior Learning Assessment Theory and Practice, it is not as cheap as it might first appear.