BARRHEAD - A pain management course used by patients at the Stollery Children’s Hospital is one of the four Locally-Developed Courses (LDCs) recently authorized for use by schools within the Pembina Hills School Division.
During their March 18 meeting in Barrhead, division trustees passed a motion extending the authorization for Chronic Pain 35 and Forensic Studies 25-3, 35-3, and 35-5. By doing so, Pembina Hills schools may continue to deliver these courses until Aug. 31, 2021.
Despite the name, the term LDC refers to any course that was developed internally by a school authority across Alberta, not just Pembina Hills.
As indicated on Alberta Education’s website, LDCs can help accommodate the needs and interests of students in areas outside of the normal curriculum, address unique community priorities, help mitigate the risk of students leaving school early and promote successful transitions to further education by exposing students to advanced subject matter and learning environments.
However, LDCs must go through a process before they can be offered by schools. They must first be submitted for review by Alberta Education, and if the course meets certain requirements, a course code letter is generated for the LDC to be entered into the Locally Developed Courses Online Management System (LDCOMS).
This process also requires school boards to authorize the use of LDCs by their local schools.
Assistant Supt. of education services Mark Thiesen said these four LDCs would have expired on Aug. 31, 2020. However, because of the situation with COVID-19, Alberta Education is allowing school divisions to approve these courses earlier than normal.
Thiesen indicated they were looking for other LDCs that can be authorized earlier than usual by the board. However, these courses needed to be authorized so they could be put into the Alberta Distance Learning Centre’s (ADLC) course lists for the future.
“There may be a few more, but these are the ones that were crucial to ADLC at this point,” he said.
Noting that he was aware that the three Forensic Studies courses are very popular, trustee Kerry McElroy asked about the popularity of the Chronic Pain course.
“Chronic Pain is very popular if you have chronic pain and you’re in the hospital,” Thiesen replied.
He explained the Chronic Pain course is utilized by patients at the Stollery Children’s Hospital to help manage their conditions.
As such, it doesn’t get hundreds of registrations, but it is of crucial importance to the few dozen patients who need it.
