Military Service Members Put Your Learning to Work

To make the most of prior learning service members must be prepared! The three-step process recommended is: Determine, Evaluate, and Learn (DEL), basic guidelines to help them on the pathway to educational success. 1 – Determine Long and Short-Term Goals The last couple of years has shown that life can be unpredictable. Will we ever go back to normal operations? No one knows! Regardless, It’s up to the service member to set goals and chart their course. Whether they are looking to save time to degree completion, lower the cost of tuition books and fees, or getting help with career planning, leveraging prior military experience is a valuable and important tool to propel a member toward educational success. 2 – Evaluate Military Training and Experience The Joint Services Transcript (JST) provides documented evidence of service members professional military education and training and occupation experiences. When evaluating prior military learning experiences, members should ask two key questions: First, am I getting maximum education credit for what I’ve learned through my military training and on the job experiences? Second, am I wasting both time and money taking courses that may have already gained credit recommendations through ACE? It is important that service members audit their military transcripts for accuracy and understand the details of this specialized tool. This critical step of auditing supports research of degree programs, job pathways, certificates, or professional licenses for alignment. It is also an important action in determining potential gaps that a member will have to mitigate to meet goals. Transfer

Military transcripts: • Include a description of military schooling and work history in civilian language. • Display degrees, apprenticeships via the United

Services Military Apprenticeship Program (US-

MAP), and certifications/licensure and tuition assistance courses (past or current) for Marine

Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard Joint Service Transcripts. • Serve as an advising tool working with academic and career counselors. • Help prepare a resume and explain military work experience to civilian employers. 3 – Learn How Credits Transfer Acceptance of recommended transfer credit is determined by the receiving institution. When the college or university determines whether (and how much) credit to apply to an individual record, that credit will then appear on the service member college/university transcript. Typically, grades are not included with the transfer process, so they are not factored in as part of the grade point average (GPA). Academic institutions establish their own transfer credit policies and procedures. It is recommended that service members immediately identify and locate these policies to help them understand the process and set a plan for making the most of their credit recommendations. When researching these policies, members will want to pay attention to the details listed in the institution’s catalog or bulletin. Often, the transfer policies will be general in nature. As they continue to research transfer information, look for more specific requirements for credit being transferred from another accredited academic institution, the military, professional training, or testing.

When service members meet or speak with an academic adviser, they should consider these steps:

• Review their degree plan and identify potential academic courses for transfer. • Consider the level of the credit recommendation and analyze the appropriateness to the degree plan. • Identify the comparability of the course in terms of the credit recommendation.

For example, how does the content of the institution’s academic course compare to the ACE Military Guide exhibit in terms of the learning outcomes and topics? • Take ownership during the transfer process by following up with the transfer, registrar, or admissions department. • Monitor curriculum plan, transfer approvals, and documentation within formal university systems (degree audit). By compiling and organizing this information, the service member will be ready to maximize college credits, as well as have a better idea of the remaining courses needed for degree completion.

Over 28,000 visitors have accessed the MMG since the launch on April 1, 2021. • Service members and Veterans have used the tool to upload their Joint Services Transcript (JST), viewing the analysis, and sending results along to a counselor or advisor for their assistance in their education journey!

This next evolution in military-connected student support allows academic institutions to maximize results and foster clearer pathways to higher education for adult learners. The Military Guide’s re-imagined search function, data integration capabilities, and innovative decision-support workflow are built to facilitate an efficient and flexible credit for military learning processes. Institutions can create accounts for all manner of stakeholders – transcript evaluators, registrars, admissions counselors, faculty members, military services staff, and more!

Activate your FREE Military Guide Institution Account today!

• Who: Over 730 institutions representing all 50 states have requested accounts – 35% of whom had never previously used the ACE

Military Guide • What: Users report multiple work hours saved for review of a single student’s military learning experience, thanks to streamlined upload and analysis capabilities. According to a few higher ed users:

• When: Launched April 1, 2022 • Where: Sign up for a free account at the link below -- from there the Military Guide team will support your institution with onboarding and training materials!

• Why: Hear why you should explore the ACE Military Guide directly from fellow higher ed professionals in this testimonial video!

Click link below to see the ACE Military Guide

Subject-specific recognition of prior learning and experience can be difficult for formal education systems to crosswalk to established curricula. Too often, students with significant prior learning are required to repeat coursework to meet program requirements; a lack of clear guidance on the transferable value of educational experiences hampers their ability to make informed choices about how to invest their learning dollars and time. DANTES and ACE have teamed together create a standardized academic taxonomy for credit for prior learning based on rigorous evaluation and validation of learning in diverse contexts. ACE regularly brings together Subject Matter Expert (SME) faculty evaluators across hundreds of disciplines from across the country to participate in reviews, and their collective expertise has language of learning that can help bridge the divide between workforce and formal education.

As a tool for Education Counselors in the field, the new ACE Military Guide can help to educate military learners about how to securely upload a copy of their JST (from public view), audit, review, and share transcript information with a Counselor (military education or civilian school counselor). In addition, Military Education Counselors can search the Military Guide from the public view by entering an occupation or training to share rich data for advising sessions. As military education counselors, you can help educate military learners on how to use the military guide during academic counseling sessions, giving you another tool to provide detailed information at your fingertips in a matter of minutes, and ultimately providing the tools to speed their progress towards achieving their educational goals. College credit recommendations reduce the number of classes a service member needs to satisfy degree requirements, thus saving time and money and avoiding TA costs. Credit recommendations evaluated by ACE are documented on the service members JST. To date, tens of thousands of credit hours have been awarded to military-connected students from all military branches, covering a mix of degree requirements, general education requirements, and elective courses. Despite the many benefits of the program, many service members are unaware that the program exists and as a result, fail to maximize their education credit potential. Similarly, military learners often waste time and money by taking courses that have already gained credit recommendation through military service.

Career Advisors: Connecting to Civilian Job Workforce

Business and industry can use ACE Military Guide data when evaluating learning outcomes for military service members to connect to the civilian job workforce. Every service member will transition at one point from the military. As a service member transitions, it is important that they have tools and resources to help them connect their military occupation and training to the civilian job workforce. As an employer it helps to understand all the competencies skills which a military learner can bring to your work environment. Using the public view of the ACE Military Guide allows users to evaluate military occupations and learning and understand the skills and work competencies associated quickly and easily. Visit https://www.acenet.edu/ militaryguide today to see how you can align military occupation and learning to competitive workforce competencies.

Here’s what service memembers can do today to make the Modernized Military Guide work for them!

Because of COVID-19, many academic institutions have been forced to re-think, innovate, and seek out more cost-effective ways to attract both traditional and non-traditional students into the classroom. As a result, student learners have had the flexibility of leveraging available education benefits, taking advantage of significant drops in tuition cost, and choosing the right schools that best fit their current situation and need. As the landscape continues to change within the world of academia, the future may still seem uncertain for many military learners. Regardless of the uncertainty, DANTES continues to provide a steady variety of resources to drive student success and assist military learners during their academic journey, to and through post service. • Military Learners - Upload your JST and see what credit recommendations apply to you, then share this information with your academic and education advisors. • Academic institutions – Sign up for your free account and see how easy it is to award credits to military-connected students using the tools and resources available, from onboarding training to webinars and community platforms to discuss innovative ways to better serve you and your military connected students. • Military Education Leaders – Explore the Modernized Military Guide and contact DANTES to get additional information about how your service members can benefit from ACE’s credit recommendations. • Education Counselors – Work with students and the Modernized Military Guide to see what credit recommendations they already have, and use the tools to see how those recommendations apply to degree programs and/or career choices. • Career Advisors – Explore the Modernized Military Guide to help Military Learners, Business and Industry Leaders translate their military occupation and training to the civilian job workforce.