The Axcess Acadia Certificate
Over approximately four years, students at Acadia, Axcess Acadia students will earn 30 credit hours towards completing the Axcess Acadia Certificate. Credits are earned by doing participatory audits of classes (see Auditing Courses) and working on employment through summer jobs and or yearlong jobs (See Employment Goals). The certificate will be an opportunity for the student to highlight the skills they have gained through their work and studies. Upon the completion of the Axcess Acadia Certificate, students will graduate at convocation with their peers.
The certificate will be available in one of the following areas based on what the student chooses to focus their courses on:
- Certificate in the Arts
- Certificate in Science
- Certificate in Professional Studies
- Certificate in Interdisciplinary Studies
Auditing Courses
Students who are part of Axcess Acadia will work with the Coordinator to determine what courses they want to take based on their personal goals and interests. Once they have selected their courses, and the professor approves having an audit student in their class, the Axcess Acadia Coordinator will meet with the student to create a schedule, go over the syllabus and discuss what tests and assignments they would like to do during the course.
In this process, students are engaging in a participatory audit of the classes. Unlike a regular audit, participatory audits means that the audit students attending the class engage in the material by answering in-class question, participating in discussions, and completing some or alternate versions of the evaluations. The ways in which a student chooses to engage in their audit classes are individual and can be discussed with the coordinator. Many students will opt to still work on assignments and tests but in modified forms or complete assignments and tests with few or no modifications.
Examples of modified assessments include:
- Doing a presentation instead of a paper
- Writing a shorter or modified exam
- Finding and reading relevant research instead of writing a paper
- Talking about the test answers with their tutor instead of writing it