Off-campus Education  |  High School Credits for External Learning

Students may be able to get high school credits for learning opportunities they take on their own to support career and life planning. These external courses:

• are not part of provincial curriculum
• happen outside school through government-recognized organizations (e.g. Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Red Cross)
• give students a more personalized and flexible way to complete high school
• let students pursue their passions and earn up to 5 credits toward a high school diploma or certificate
• are not substitutes for required high school courses
• do not require Alberta Education pre-requisites for students to participate
• do not provide funding to school authorities

Approved external learning opportunities will be listed in the Provincially Authorized Senior High School Courses and Course Codes. Students may consider taking these external courses and they can ask for new ones to be approved and added.

Students can only earn high school credits when they complete an external course and receive a credential from the organization that provided it. They cannot earn credit just for writing an external exam such as the Alberta Class 5 Road Test or the Diplôme d’Études en Langue Française.

Students’ responsibilities

When students take an external learning opportunity, they are responsible for:

• asking their teacher, guidance counsellor or principal to have a it approved for high school credit – either before or after they receive their credential from the organization
• being enrolled in high school

Schools’ responsibilities

The school where the student is enrolled is responsible for:

• asking Alberta Education to approve new learning opportunities at any time during the year by contacting offcampusedu@gov.ab.ca
• selecting and adding the approved credit to the Provincial Approach to Student Information (PASI)
• awarding credits using the corresponding course code and assigning a ‘P’ for pass when the student successfully completes the course
• ensuring students are enrolled in high school throughout their external learning opportunity

Organizations’ responsibilities

Organizations that provide these learning opportunities are responsible for:

• demonstrating their organization is governed or recognized by the Alberta or Canada government (e.g. the Canadian Armed Forces)
• ensuring a course has rigorous learning outcomes that meet or exceed Alberta Education’s requirements
• assessing students on achieving the learning outcomes
• having qualified instructors delivering the learning outcomes and assessing students

Alberta Education’s responsibilities

The department is responsible for:

• reviewing the external learning opportunities
• ensuring organizations providing the external courses fulfill their responsibilities and meet requirements for approval
• creating course codes, names and specified high school credits
• adding new opportunities to the Provincially Authorized Senior High School Courses and Course Codes