We celebrate the recognition of prior learning. An experimental activity that began in earnest less than a half-century ago in a handful of North American colleges and universities is now practiced in thousands of institutions, large and small, across the world and referred to in many ways. Initiated as a means to legitimate the power of experience, to acknowledge the limitations of traditional assumptions about knowledge, and to question seat time as the only means to judge true learning, the recognition of prior learning has become a critical tool of access and a significant part of a movement for educational and social justice.

This inaugural issue of PLAIO focuses on the historical roots of prior learning assessment and examines how these foundations are connected to--or disconnected from--current trends in higher education.