College graduation rates have been on the academic and political agenda. The United States graduation rate is 59%, however, 68% of nontraditional students do not graduate with baccalaureate degrees within the time frame of six years. Scholars are attributing the decreasing graduation rates to barriers encountered by nontraditional undergraduate students, declining subsidies to colleges, and increasing tuition cost. One of the strategies employed by colleges to address this problem is the assessment of experiential learning credits. Because there has been scarcity of information on the impact of experiential learning credits on the quality of education, understanding educators' perceptions of experiential learning as an option for degree completion will assist colleges in the effective design and implementation of experiential learning strategies and may help to inform the experiential learning theory. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to identify educators' perceptions of the use of experiential learning credit as an option for degree completion. The Perception Survey was sent to college educators throughout United States via social networks. Themes were further explored through 15 personal interviews with educators and administrators at a proprietary college with 19 campuses located in New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. According to Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory, the theoretical framework in which the research was based, suggests that the perceptions of educators may be a dominant factor in the acceptance of experiential learning. While the study revealed that over 50% of educators believed that degree programs that allow credit for experiential learning are as credible, effective and academically rigorous as the traditional classroom, conversely, the results posit that reluctance of administrators to embrace the award of credit for experiential learning may hinder its acceptance in higher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]