Policies And Procedures For Consortia Courses
Central College is a member of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and has access to the CIC Online Course Sharing Consortium (CIC-OCSC), via Acadeum’ s Course Share technology. There are circumstances that may arise in which a course may be needed during the regular fall or spring term but is not offered. Those circumstances can include, but are not limited to, medical leave (by a faculty or student), students need to quickly retake a course to rebuild their college GPA, or courses offered are sequence for timely graduation. Such cases will be considered individually, initiated by the department chair in consultation with the student’s faculty advisor. Courses may be made available during the winter term (our winter break), January term or summer.
To distinguish them from our on-campus courses, these courses will be denoted for student enrollment and transcript purposes with “ACM” suffix (e.g., ECON 112ACM Principles of Microeconomics). ACM courses are not considered transfer courses. They are transcripted as Central College courses and counted in the “attempted” and “earned” credit categories for Satisfactory Academic Progress calculations.
The approval process for courses in the consortium follows the transfer credit procedure. Courses are evaluated based on course description and syllabus by the registrar’s office as follows:
- All courses are evaluated in advance by the registrar’s office, and determination of credit equivalence is made by the registrar in consultation with disciplinary faculty. Course review may include the evaluation of the course’s specific educational goals, academic content, and the level of credit earned.
- Accepted courses may be used to satisfy course prerequisites, Core requirements or, at the discretion of departmental faculty, major and minor requirements. The registrar determines whether credits fulfill any Core curriculum requirements, in consultation with faculty or Curriculum Approval Committee as needed. Students may not use transfer credits to fulfill CIV 110 Civitas or CIV 210 Civitas requirements.
- Consortial credits apply toward completion of a Central College degree.
- Grades and credit earned in consortial courses are included in the calculation of a student’s Central College cumulative or major grade point averages.
- Upon completion of each ACM course, the registrar of the teaching institution submits the final grade in the ACM portal. Central’s registrar then posts the final grade on the student’s Central College transcript. This practice makes it possible for students to improve their GPA by substituting consortia course grades for D’s, F’s or W’s or continue to make progress towards graduation. Repeating course procedures will apply.
- Central College will not intervene in grade dispute cases where a Central College student is dissatisfied with the final grade issued by the teaching institution. Additionally, students are responsible for adhering to course participation and policies of the teaching institution, which includes logging in on the course start date, submitting assignments, securing textbooks, and learning materials and following through on all required action as stated on the syllabus and by the teaching institution.
- Central College will not intervene in disputes regarding date of drop or with drawl, nor regarding refunds in cases in which the student did not correspond with the teaching institutions per the deadlines for each ACM course.
Consortia Course Enrollment Eligibility
Students must have satisfied the pre-requisites prior to enrolling in a consortial course.
ACM Enrollment Actions
Students must request ACM enrollment actions (add, drop, withdraw) through registrar’s office or their academic department chair. After an ACM course request is submitted on behalf of the student, the teaching institution will send one of two email communications to the student’s school email address:
- Denied, which requires finding an alternate course for the student.
- Approved, which gives the student key information about the course. Watch your email for a message from support@acadeum.com. This will include a welcome letter and instructions for accessing course information. If you have been approved for registration and you DO NOT get this message prior to the course start date, check your spam/junk folder first, then contact support@acadeum.com or registrar@central.edu.
Billing
Students pay the Central College tuition rate per credit hour for the ACM course. Summer tuition rates apply for winter term, January term and summer courses. If a course is taken during the regular fall or spring semester, semester tuition applies. During the regular semester financial aid may apply. Students who exceed full-time enrollment due to the addition of an ACM course(s) will be charged overload tuition rates as outlined in the Central College tuition and fee schedule and must seek permission for the overload in advance. Students are responsible for all learning material costs, including textbooks, as determined the teaching institution.