Episode 3 - PLAR at New Brunswick Community College, and more, with Mackenzie Bartlett and Patrick Reinartz

About Mackenzie:

Recognition of Prior Learning Coordinator, New Brunswick Community College (NBCC)

Mackenzie manages the credit transfer and equivalency application processes through the Office of the Registrar at NBCC. Since joining the college in 2019, she has coordinated various continuous improvement projects to strengthen assessment practices, generate workflow efficiencies, and expand RPL services to provide better opportunities for students to achieve recognition for their prior learning. Her background is in teaching and curriculum development in post-secondary institutions.

About Patrick:

Recognition of Prior Learning Coordinator, New Brunswick Community College (NBCC)

Patrick serves as Coordinator for NBCC’s Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) pilot. In this role, he contributes to systems and process development aspects of the project, while also providing service, documentation and support for participants. Patrick has a decade-long background in corporate training, where he acted as LMS administrator and technical support for a leading US-based health services provider. 

Episode 2 - Military PLAR at British Columbia Institute of Technology with Justine Arsenault

About Justine:

Justine is a Program Planning Analyst with BCIT’s SITE Centre and responsible for assessing the knowledge, skills and experiences of adult learners and advising them on educational pathways based on the advanced placement and prior learning (APPL) method. She also manages the BCIT Legion Program, providing prior learning assessments as well as career development and transition support to Canadian Armed Forces members.

Episode 1 - Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition with Dr. Christine Wihak

About Christine:

Dr. Christine Wihak retired as the Director, PLAR at Thompson Rivers University – Open Learning and Director of the Prior Learning International Research Centre (PLIRC)in 2018. Her involvement in PLAR developed when she was teaching Inuit students at Nunavut Arctic College.

Dr. Wihak holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Alberta, a Masters of Psychology and a Graduate Diploma in Public Administration from Carleton University, and an Honours BA in Psychology from Queens. She was also a registered psychologist (Alberta), specializing in Occupational and Organizational Psychology.