Susan Barbitta

Executive Director, NC Student Success Center

NC Community College System Office

barbittas@nccommunitycolleges.edu

Special thanks to Kevin Nathanson, Senior Director of Product Management and Technology Integration, UNC System

Military Service Course Equivalency

Why are we so passionate about our Veterans?

• 656,000 veterans live here

• 9% of the adult population!

• 2.9% unemployment rate

• 7.3% poverty rate

• Post 911 vets have a high rate of

physical/emotional disabilities

• Many joined the military as a way out of

poverty and to gain access to higher education

• Despite VA benefits, 30% of veterans owe 30k or

more in student loans mainly due to

predatory/private schools….

Proactive EvaluationThe consistency and quality of credit evaluations will improve as departments perform one thorough set of evaluations vs. many repetitive ones. This ultimately produces better graduation outcomes and lower overall costs throughout our systems.

System collaboration by subject-matter experts

Faculty panels evaluate training and experience-once

High-quality, specific course equivalencies

Proactive evaluations result in specific courses, which greatly improves the “graduation value” vs. generic credit

Improve progress and improve time to graduation

Students are not taking courses in areas they mastered in the military, and can graduate more quickly with lower costs

SB-761 Requirements

SECTION 3. The Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina and the State Board of Community Colleges shall jointly develop a plan for implementing a uniform system of granting course credits to all students enrolled in constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina and all students enrolled in State community colleges based on the students' military training or experience.

Key takeaways: - Credit will be granted with a “uniform system”- Credits will be “course credits” and not simply electives- Credit will be granted for both training & experience

DoD MOS & Course

Catalogs

ACERecommendations

UNC Catalogs (x16)

NCCCS Catalog

JST(Joint Services Transcript)

UNC/NCCCS Faculty Panels

Credit Determination

Military Credit

Database

Institution Specific Credit Evaluation

Inputs and Outputs

JST Evaluations

Faculty Panel Evaluations

• 30+ Faculty Panels• 10,000+ credits may be awarded• Supported by Perkins

Faculty Panel Evaluations

Some of the faculty panels…….

Entering Student’s JST information into the website

This Veteran will receive 36 credits toward their Program of Study!

Course information provided back to a student

NCCCS Pubic Speaking

140150231

Looking to the future

Improve inventory of equivalenciesFunding, staffing, and ‘call-to-action’emphasis to convene panels within our systems to undertake immersiveevaluation efforts to build up courseequivalencies.

Training, deployment, and supportFaculty and staff need training on JSTprocedures, sample workflows, and a support system to handle questions and technical issues. To be effective, these activities need to be ongoing.

On-going operational fundingBoth military and institutional coursechanges are perpetual, as is accreditation review; the system will fail if not operationalized and frequently refreshed.

Establish easy evaluation for vets & active dutyWe are preparing a ‘digital toolkit’ thatinstitutions will use to connect directly torealtime equivalency data and can host tools on their websites for veterans to use to evaluate their credits.

Nationally….College credit for military experience

Each institution has a policy

Uniform procedures to award academic credit

Consistent credit among the 58 community colleges and the UNC system

Education Commission of the States50-State Comparison, Feb. 2018

Questions?