In the face of rising financial pressure, the Alternative Credit Project introduced by the American Council on Education (ACE) will make degrees accessible to any student.

The ACE’s new approach is designed to enable students who have left college to return to their studies, and to ease the burden for those attending who have with other pressing obligations.

The initiative means that selected course work from six non-College/University Online education providers now will be accepted by all 13 Colorado Community College System schools (including ACC) and count towards degrees and certificates. More than 60 online courses can be taken at any of six popular online learning programs for credit.

The ACE designated courses from the following organizations for acceptance at ACC and the other CCCS colleges:

• Pearson
• Straighterline
• Sophia
• JumpCourse
• Saylor
• Ed4Online

ACE is an education advocacy group that monitors education developments on Capitol Hill. It is conferring with federal representatives as public policy is made that affects institutions of higher learning and their students. “We advocate for all higher education institutions at the federal level,” the ACE website says.

ACE coordinates the approval of these credits through its new Alternative Credit Program. Implementation of this program will create new avenues for nontraditional learners to access higher education degrees with less cost and flexible learning opportunities.

“Nontraditional students who often are balancing multiple family and career demands now know where they can turn to take courses that will help them reduce time and expense required to gain a postsecondary degree or credential…,” said Deborah Seymour, ACE assistant vice president for education attainment and innovation, in a CCCS press release.

ACE solicited colleges and 4-year institutions to review suggested courses and decide within their institutions which courses each college or university would accept for credit toward their degrees or certificates.

ACE President Molly Corbett Broad said in a press release, “This is an important step for an initiative that already has significantly increased our body of knowledge about the most effective ways to increase the number of Americans able to earn a college degree or credential by using education, training and life experiences gained outside a formal classroom.”

CCCS was the only community college system selected by ACE to join four-year colleges and universities in this initiative.

“The Colorado Community College System is committed to offering high-quality and affordable higher educational opportunities to all Coloradans,” said Dr. Nancy McCallin, CCCS president. “We believe these alternative credits will offer additional pathways to help students complete their degrees in a timely, affordable manner.

“With 74 percent of all new jobs requiring a college education in the future, this alternative credit project will aid students in their pursuit of higher education,” she said.

The CCCS institutions will now accept more than 60 of the 110 online courses the ACE proposed for consideration as acceptable for credit towards certificates or degrees. Each course is a low-or-no cost lower-division online course chosen to be included in CCCS curriculum by representatives of faculty members across the state. Each course was judged to be equivalent in content and outcome to the corresponding CCCS courses.

“It is important that we consider significant learning experiences that weren’t acquired in a traditional setting (e.g. workplace training, military training and service, professional certifications) as we have always done as an institution,” said Dr. Diane L. Hegeman, ACC vice president for instruction.

The Disciplines* currently included by ACC:

• Accounting
• Anatomy & Physiology
• Art
• Business and Business Law
• Communication
• English Composition
• Human Resources
• Managements
• Math-Algebra,Calculus, Statistics
• Physics
• Spanish
• Student Development
• Technology

For more information and accepted courses within these disciplines go to:
https://www.arapahoe.edu/admissions/transfer-college-credit/alternative-credit-project

*All ACE credit recommendations are eligible for evaluation for credit at ACC. If you don’t see your course on this list [email protected] to learn about our ACE evaluation process.