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General FAQS

Course sharing is the term used to describe an agreement among colleges or universities to accept credit for courses taught at other institutions and/or to offer courses to students at other institutions that will be accepted at their home institution. Course sharing enables more students to get access to the courses they need, while allowing institutions to maximize resources by collaborating. Learn how course sharing helps institutions and students succeed here.

An effective course-sharing program requires two elements.

The first is an agreement between or among institutions. Usually this takes the form of an agreement among a number of institutions—anywhere from a handful to more than 100. We call these networks. Some of these networks consist of established consortia, but others are formed for the express purpose of course sharing. In other cases, agreements are between two schools.

The second requirement is a way to manage the program. Acadeum’s Course Share platform provides that infrastructure. It aggregates course information across participating institutions so academic leaders, students, and advisors can find the classes they need. It also securely processes payments and ensures that students receive credit and grades for completed courses, maintain residency requirements, and retain the ability to leverage financial aid.

Course sharing boosts student progress, broadens access to educational opportunities, promotes curricular innovation and operational efficiencies, and supports institutional sustainability and success.

For a list of ways that course sharing helps students succeed and drives institutional growth, download our signature Course Sharing Guide.

Acadeum helps colleges and universities create course-sharing partnerships with like-minded institutions to support student progress, academic innovation, institutional efficiency, and increased revenue.

Our platform, Acadeum Course Share, is similar to a marketplace where institutions collaborate to share courses. We provide the infrastructure, consortial expertise, personalized support, and unified payment processing platform so institutions everywhere can be successful with course sharing.

Through Acadeum’s course sharing platform, students receive course credit and grades for completed courses, maintain residency requirements, and retain the ability to leverage financial aid. Institutions working with Acadeum have complete autonomy over how course sharing is employed and enjoy a unique, simplified approach to payment processing and a variety of other features.

Course sharing represents a significant advance and removes much of the guesswork that plagues transfer policies.

For students, it offers financial aid eligibility, transparent payment processes, the ability to transfer grades as well as credits, and assurance that completed courses will be accepted and transcribed. The need to apply at another college and manage the hassle of transfer course approval and shuffling transcripts is eliminated.

For institutions, course sharing reduces workloads by eliminating the “maze” of determining course equivalency/transfer eligibility and provides quality control over which courses students can access.

Learn more about the differences here.

Colleges and universities collaborate through course sharing in two ways. Your school can choose to participate in one or both approaches:

  • As a Teaching Institution, by making online courses available to other schools in the Acadeum network.
  • As a Home Institution, allowing students to select courses from the network that meet their needs.

Learn more about both course sharing options here.

Home Institutions and Teaching Institutions can both increase revenue through course sharing.

By helping students make progress on their academic journey, Home Institutions see increased retention and completion rates and offer at-risk students additional options to recover from setbacks that may otherwise lead to stop-outs or drop-outs. In addition, course sharing helps Home Institutions avoid enrollment losses when students take a course through Acadeum, rather than a transfer course elsewhere.

Teaching institutions offer and sell excess course capacity through the network, allowing them to earn revenue that can be reinvested at their own institutions.

Yes, federal financial aid, including Pell Grants (regular term and summer), does apply, with certain conditions.

Because many students are juggling multiple priorities, most courses on the Acadeum network are offered asynchronously. Courses offered through Acadeum’s course sharing network are available across multiple terms and at varying term lengths, making finding the right course to suit students’ needs easy.

Courses are offered at varying term lengths, anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks, with about 70 percent offered in compressed session lengths.

The efficiency and maximum benefit of course sharing is built on the foundation of consortial agreements. Regional accreditors, such as SACS, HLC, and the MSCHE, do not view entering into a consortial course sharing agreement as a substantive change unless the course sharing agreement is supporting a new program.

Getting Started

Acadeum Accounts Representatives support schools by region. See a map of regional assignments here. Contact your Account Representative via email, or schedule time to meet with them directly.

We’ve created a step-by-step checklist for institutions to make getting started simple:

You will be matched with an account manager who offers personalized support throughout your time as an Acadeum member institution.

Our pricing has two components: an annual platform fee based on full time enrollment (FTE), and a small, per-enrollment revenue share paid by the teaching institution for each enrollment completed through the Acadeum network.

Members of our association partners, including CIC, the League for Innovation, and more, receive exclusive discounts. Contact us to learn more.

Acadeum empowers institutions to fully integrate (via SFTP or API) with existing systems and also hosts SSO (single-sign on) for simple student account access.

Acadeum is compatible with all student information systems (SIS) for transferring enrollment, course, and student data. We offer an integration with all Learning Management Systems.

Talk to your academic advisor about approved Acadeum courses to find the right option for your needs. Browse our Student resources page for more information.

Resources

Visit our Resources page for videos, case studies, blogs and more.

Acadeum Academy’s resources will help any Acadeum Course Share user at a Home Institution or Teaching Institution understand the basics of how to use the Acadeum platform.

Review our Communications Packet for sample email templates and messaging. We also encourage you to share our “Introduction to Course Sharing” resource page.

Platform Support

The Acadeum Course Share platform is available to school administrators to select and approve courses, manage student enrollments, post/retrieve grades, and track revenue information. Access and login at https://courseshare.acadeum.com/

The Acadeum Course Share Student Experience provides students with self-service opportunities to enroll in pre-approved courses and access registration and grade history. This application is only available at schools that have elected to offer a student experience.

To request the Acadeum Course Share student access at your campus, contact your Acadeum Account Representative.

The Acadeum Course Share platform is available to school administrators to select and approve courses, manage student enrollments, post/retrieve grades, and track revenue information.

Contact our support team here. Or, visit our support site for a list of platform-specific FAQs.

Acadeum Alliances

In addition to our course sharing network, Acadeum launches collaborative initiatives with leading EdTech companies and organizations that complement our course sharing efforts, create alternative revenue streams for institutions, and unlock new educational opportunities. Our partners include:

To learn more, contact the Acadeum Alliances team at alliances@acadeum.com.

If you are an existing Acadeum institution, speak with your account manager to learn more about the projects and revenue opportunities available via Acadeum Alliances. If you are not yet in the network, contact alliances@acadeum.com to learn more.

Request A Demo

How can course sharing help you achieve your goals?

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