The variety of courses is usually very limited, but it is a way to get some units in a nontraditional manner. Cooperative education Cooperative education programs are a way to get college credit for paid or voluntary work. They may involve some classroom time, often with guest speakers. But basically you are getting credit for working, reporting on your work, and being evaluated by your employer. Cooperative education is designed to teach you how to market yourself, enhance your self-esteem, handle communication problems, and make career decisions.
Many schools allow students to gain some credits for projects that they do on their own.
Usually each academic department determines the requirements for such credit. Typically, a student meets with a specific instructor, often one that the student has had for a traditional course, and arranges to do the independent study. Usually there are prerequisites to be accepted into such a program. For instance, you may have had to have six or nine semester units for courses in a specific department to do an independent study in that department. Some schools will allow a certain amount of credit to be gained by taking courses through college extension programs or correspondence courses.