The Community Learning Campus will be developing more programs and services following the hiring of a new director of learning last week.Barb Mulholland was to assume her new role Monday. She said one of her priorities is to work on the different types of learning opportunities available at the CLC for high school and college students as well as community members.“It's really taking the Community Learning Campus … to its next step in its evolution,” she said.Mulholland is looking forward to a provincial strategy on dual credit that will be released in about a month. Mulholland, in her previous role as point person on dual credit for Chinook's Edge School Division, helped steer a two-year pilot project allowing high school students the opportunity to take courses at both the high school and college level simultaneously. The pilot officially ran from March 2009 to March 2011 but was extended into the 2011-12 school year for some programs, and went extremely well, according to Mulholland. About 150 high school students from all 12 high schools in the CESD participated in the pilot.“The feedback from the students and parents has been positive,” she said.“All the work we've been doing around dual credit as part of a pilot project is going to help pave the way for that provincial strategy. When that comes out we'll have a better sense of what that will look like for the learners in our region, but I'm pretty sure that we'll just be able to build on what we've done in the pilot project,” she said, noting when the provincial strategy is released, CESD hopes to offer a few more educational opportunities.Mulholland said the advantage to dual credit is it gives students the ability to “test drive” a college course.“It really gave the kids a chance to try something that they wouldn't be able to get in their high school,” she said.Mulholland said her previous work on the pilot project will help lay the foundation for future opportunities at the CLC. Because Olds and area was part of the dual credit pilot, “we'll be able to hit the ground running when the dual credit strategy gets unveiled.”Mulholland said some of the key objectives of the CLC include raising the rate of high school completion, retaining students in post-secondary education, meeting industry needs and fulfilling the CLC's mission statement of enhancing rural community capacity through partnerships that allow for quality, accessible and innovative education for all learners.“It's really bringing to life what the Community Learning Campus is. It's a place for learning for people of all ages,” she said.
