PLA/PLAR and Open Learning: Finding Connections

Author Biographies

• Nan L. Travers, SUNY Empire State College

  Nan L. Travers, Ph.D., Director of the Office of Collegewide Academic Review, SUNY Empire State College. Nan focuses on self-designed student degree programs, assessment of prior college-level learning, and ePortfolios. She conducted extensive research and is published in various areas of adult learning, including prior learning assessment. She serves on the board for the Prior Learning International Research Centre (PLIRC) and the start-up board for LearningCounts.org, CAEL. She is the founding co-editor of PLA Inside Out: An International Journal on the Theory, Research, and Practice in Prior Learning Assessment (www.plaio.org). Her doctorate is in Adult Learning from the University of Connecticut.

• Amy McQuigge, SUNY Empire State College

  Amy L McQuigge, Coordinator of Open Education, SUNY Empire State College.  Amy focuses on open education initiatives including digital badging, open textbooks, MOOCs, prior learning assessment, and open access publishing.  She has presented nationally on several important trends and movements in higher education and alternative student learning methods.  Amy is leading the Open SUNY efforts: SUNY REAL and Complete SUNY, and is the grant manager for the Lumina and TAA grants at the college. Amy is working on a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Policy Studies at the University at Albany.