Lifelong Learning Assessment

All materials submitted with the LLA paper are subject to verification. This includes, but is not limited to, phone calls and interviews with individuals who are able to verify your life experiences, requests for additional evidence such as certificates and analysis of all documentation by plagiarism checking software.

In the event that academic dishonesty is discovered or suspected, you will have all due process rights according to university policies. View the University Policy Handbook for more information.

Be sure to use the LLA template as your guide for typing your paper. Any papers not submitted in this format will not be evaluated.

Depending on the number of credits you request (either two credits or four credits), you will cycle through each of Kolb's four stages as you write about the required number of subtopics:

• Concrete experience (learning experience)
• Observations and reflections
• Generalizations
• Applications

You must include the following documentation for your paper to be accepted and evaluated. Documentation is provided at the time essays are submitted for evaluation. The documentation should be relevant to your personal experience within the topic area. These documents help evaluators assess the significance of a personal event as they appraise the learning experience.

1 Official Document 

• Issued by governmental or corporate entities (e.g. Social Security Administration, IRS, Red Cross, etc.)
• Examples: Birth certificate, marriage certificate, pay stubs, medical documents, special operators licenses

-Or-

2 Community Sources

• Provided or validated by clergy, police, educators, news sources
• Examples: Newspapers excerpts, publications, reports, accounts, links to news accounts, videos

-Or-

3 Third Party Testimonials

• Accounts from colleagues, eye witnesses, coworkers, peers, other credible adults
• Examples: Affidavits, personal photographs with affidavits attached

Review the Topic Description List to see if there are any matches to your personal experiences. You will write the LLA paper to demonstrate that you have knowledge and experience equivalent to college-level learning related to the subtopics associated with the topic you chose.

LLA papers are evaluated using three specific criteria, outlined below. This helps to ensure that essays are properly reviewed and credit is given when appropriate.  

1. Knowledge and Experience
The evaluator examines your essay to see that it contains both knowledge and experience. Your experience provides a frame of reference for your knowledge. The LLA essay cannot be only an interesting experience, nor can it be a term paper that presents only ideas and principles but never mentions your experience. Furthermore, there must be an obvious relationship in the essay between knowledge and experience.

2. Evidence of Comprehension and Mental Processing
Evaluators look for evidence of comprehension of the learning experience. The evaluator is looking for evidence that you have interacted with the knowledge and gained an understanding of it. There must be an obvious connection that led to greater knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge. This interaction may take the form of explaining the subject, analyzing it, rearranging it or combining it with other knowledge on the subject.

3. College-Level Learning 
GCU recognizes that there are many useful and valuable areas of knowledge not taught within the college system. Certain valuable industrial or commercial knowledge is only taught within industry and highly personal learning is only a product of life experience. The purpose of evaluation is not to attempt to credit all learning but to credit only the subject areas normally studied within a college setting.