For years, digital learning professionals have been leading innovation across higher education, corporate training, healthcare, government, and nonprofit organizations. They design learning ecosystems, implement emerging technologies, lead change initiatives, and mentor others—often at a level that mirrors and complements what’s taught in graduate coursework.
Yet when these same professionals step into graduate programs, their experience is frequently treated as invisible.
Our new partnership between the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and Baylor University’s Moody School of Education Professional Online Learning Unit is challenging that assumption, and doing so in a way that could reshape how graduate professional education recognizes real world expertise.
At the center of the collaboration is an intentional expansion of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) at the graduate level, including within Baylor’s award winning, fully online Doctor of Education (EdD) in Learning and Organizational Change and their cutting-edge online MS in Learning Design and Technology. Together, OLC and Baylor are advancing a model that recognizes professional learning not as a shortcut, but as a legitimate, rigorous pathway toward advanced credentials.
Why Graduate PLA Matters Now
PLA is not new. For decades, colleges have used it primarily to support adult learners completing undergraduate degrees. What is new (and increasingly necessary) is the thoughtful application of PLA to graduate professional education.
Graduate enrollments continue to diversify. Today’s learners are more likely to be mid-career or senior professionals, working full time while pursuing advanced credentials to deepen impact rather than to change fields. Many enter programs with extensive experience in leadership, instructional design, organizational learning, mentoring, and systems change—precisely the areas that foundational graduate coursework often targets.
Research suggests that graduate PLA remains underutilized, even as workforce demand for advanced education grows and institutions seek ways to support retention and completion for part-time, working students. When designed with rigor, PLA offers a way to acknowledge what professionals already know while allowing them to focus their time, energy, and tuition on learning what they don’t yet have.
In other words, PLA is less about acceleration and more about alignment.
A Strategic Industry–University Partnership
The collaboration between OLC and Baylor’s Moody School of Education didn’t emerge by accident. It reflects a shared understanding of two realities:
- OLC members possess deep, practice-based expertise built through years of professional digital learning work.
- Graduate professional education must evolve to better honor and build upon that expertise.
Founded in 1999, OLC has long served as a global hub for instructional designers, learning experience designers, faculty developers, and educational leaders. Through conferences, professional learning programs, certificates, and practitioner scholarship, OLC supports continuous, high-level learning across the field.
Baylor’s Professional Online Learning unit was built with similar professionals in mind. Its fully online graduate programs emphasize cross-industry leadership, instructional design, and organizational change across education, business, healthcare, nonprofit, military, and government settings—delivered with the academic rigor expected of a nationally ranked R1 institution.
By aligning these two ecosystems, the partnership creates clear, intentional pathways from professional learning to graduate credentials.
From Professional Certificates to Graduate Credit
One of the most distinctive elements of the collaboration is how it connects OLC credentials to PLA opportunities within Baylor’s graduate programs.
For example, OLC members who complete the Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching may be well-positioned to pursue PLA credit for Baylor’s Online Teaching and Learning graduate course. Similarly, those earning OLC’s Advanced Instructional Design Certificate can apply for PLA consideration for both master’s and doctoral-level coursework in learning design and instructional design.
This isn’t automatic credit—and that distinction matters.
Instead, Baylor’s PLA process requires students to demonstrate mastery of course learning outcomes through a structured, faculty led assessment that includes:
- A professional portfolio of applied graduate-level work
- A written narrative explicitly mapping experience to learning outcomes
- A presentation and oral defense engaging faculty in discussion on the learning outcomes reflected through the professional portfolio
Credit is awarded only when faculty determine that the student’s learning meets graduate level expectations. The result is a process that protects academic integrity while meaningfully validating professional expertise.
Expanding PLA into an Award Winning EdD Program
Perhaps the most significant development is Baylor’s decision to expand PLA opportunities into its Doctor of Education (EdD) in Learning and Organizational Change, a program recognized with the 2022 Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) Program of the Year Award.
Doctoral education has traditionally been slow to adopt PLA, even in professional practice focused degrees. Baylor’s approach signals a shift.
Through the expanded policy, qualified EdD students may earn up to six doctoral credit hours by demonstrating mastery of select foundational leadership and learning courses—areas where veteran professionals often already operate at an advanced level.
Eligible areas include:
- Leadership and organizational change
- Community leadership and collaboration
- Mentoring and professional learning
- Instructional and learning design
For experienced professionals, this means a more focused doctoral journey; one that prioritizes applied research, innovation, and systems-level impact rather than redundancy.
What This Model Gets Right
What makes the OLC–Baylor partnership noteworthy isn’t simply that PLA is offered—it’s how intentionally it has been integrated into a broader professional graduate education strategy.
Three elements stand out:
- PLA is treated as an academic process, not a transactional benefit.
Faculty remain central, rigor is explicit, and learning outcomes—not résumés—drive the assessment. - Professional learning pathways are clearly mapped.
OLC certificates don’t sit adjacent to graduate programs; they connect directly through PLA opportunities. - The focus stays on impact, not just efficiency.
Yes, PLA can reduce time and cost; but more importantly, it allows learners to concentrate on growth that expands their leadership and influence.
Looking Ahead
As digital learning continues to evolve, so too must the structures that prepare its leaders. Partnerships like the one between OLC and Baylor’s Moody School of Education offer a glimpse of what’s possible when professional organizations and universities collaborate intentionally designing graduate education that respects experience while pushing practice forward.
For OLC members considering advanced study, the message is clear: your learning counts. And when assessed thoughtfully, it belongs in the graduate classroom—even at the doctoral level.
Chris Zakrzewski, EdD is Director of Learning Design at Baylor University and Affiliate Faculty in Baylor’s MS in Learning Design and Technology program.
Nicholas R. Werse, PhD is the Senior Director of Operations in the Baylor University Moody School of Education Professional Online Learning unit and Associate Graduate Faculty in Baylor’s EdD in Learning and Organizational Change program.
