Sophia Learning, UMGC Military-Connected Learner Data Show That Credit Transfer Translates to Student Success

CAEL's Military Community of Practice was formed to help spread the word about effectively serving military-connected learners. Thanks to CAEL's Member Hub, that's a year-round process. To build on that ongoing discussion, the community of practice also convenes regularly in a series of structured meetings focused on trending issues. The first meeting of 2026, held last month, featured a joint presentation from the University of Maryland Global Campus, a CAEL institutional member, and Sophia Learning. Sophia is also a partner of CAEL.Credit for prior learning and serving military-connected learners are priorities for both organizations. "Credit can be earned for almost any undergraduate course for which UMGC can prepare and administer a suitable exam or assessment," Dr. Christine Licata-Hoang, senior account manager of global workforce solutions, told attendees. A dedicated team of UMGC specialists guides students through the university's many avenues to CPL, which even include credit for military rank for select courses.

Sophia Learning is a self-paced, online learning platform that allows students to commence or continue their education with affordable and flexible college-level general education courses. Courses are ACE-recommended for college credit and are designed to transfer to many colleges and universities. In fact, CAEL is collaborating with Sophia to conduct research that defines different stages of CPL program "maturity" and the implications for CPL use and student success at each stage.

UMGC offers more than 135 degree programs and enrolls more than 90,000 learners. More than half of them are military affiliated, said Licata-Hoang. "Our typical student … is a working adult in their late 20s or early 30s with a career and a family."

With students’ prior learning so often rooted in military service, UMGC has invested significantly in supporting military-connected learners. "Military students are supported by a network designed to meet them where they are," said Kristin Byerly, director of veteran initiatives and outreach for UMGC. "Dedicated success coaches, military and veteran advisors, many with firsthand military experience, provide personalized guidance from enrollment through graduation."

"Because of that diverse population in all stages of life, we're really committed to being as transfer-friendly as possible," she said. "Awarding credit for prior learning is a key part of our mission to be the most transfer-friendly institution. The philosophy is simple. We value what students already know, and we want to accept that knowledge in diverse forms."

For many UMGC students, those forms include courses from Sophia Learning, also a popular destination for military-connected learners. According to the 2024 Sophia Subscriber Survey, 15% of all learners surveyed are currently affiliated with the military, said Nick White, chief learning officer for Sophia Learning.

Sophia awarded more than 4.8 million transfer credits based on the completion of more than one million courses, he said. "Based on average annual tuition at public four-year, in-state institutions from College Board Trends in College Pricing Report (2025)," White estimates that students have saved more than a billion dollars by taking Sophia courses.

Citing CAEL research, White reminded meeting attendees that as CPL shortens the distance between students and their goals, it also results in more of those goals being attained. "There can be a misconception that if institutions support credit for prior learning, they will lose tuition revenue. In fact, the [CAEL] paper shows that it's correlated with students completing more credits at their institution compared to students that did not benefit from [CPL].”

"More and more of our students are coming to UMGC with transfer courses from Sophia," said Licata-Hoang. "This is particularly useful for our military-affiliated students, who are slightly more than half of all of the learners who bring Sophia courses to UMGC. Having such a large portion of our students utilize Sophia courses as a part of their journey has allowed us to dig into their stories a little bit more."

The organizations did so through a joint data project. It revealed that UMGC students who took Sophia courses tended to be more successful at UMGC. UMGC students who completed Sophia courses completed their first term at a 17% higher rate and continued to their second term at a 31% higher rate.

The positive correlation was most pronounced among students with the fewest transfer credit, suggesting that Sophia courses may be especially beneficial for less experienced students, said Licata-Hoang. However, she emphasized that the benefit persisted among military learners, a student population known for its resilience and ability to work through challenges in course completion.

With these benefits in mind, UMGC's military success coaches are experts in piecing together the prior learning puzzle, said Licata-Hoang. "UMGC is investing a lot of time and energy into ... those frontline folks with our ... military-connected populations. They are the experts."

"You pull in from all different sources to make sure that you've got everything that you need," said Byerly. "And Sophia is just such a great opportunity for service members, especially for veterans that might be running out of benefits."

Byerly's insight on serving military-connected learners is well informed. Her father and husband are both veterans, and her son is on active duty. During the Q&A following the presentation, she shared a story that supplemented, if not surpassed, the general findings in calling attention to the potential of military CPL. "I had a student walk in who was in IT. He walked in, sat down, had never taken a college course in his life, and walked out of the office as a junior because we took that much credit from his joint service transcript."

CAEL's Military Community of Practice cultivates a national network of practitioners dedicated to supporting military-connected individuals in their education and work experience. The community of practice is open to all CAEL members and today totals more than 200 participants.