XAMK

Overview
South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, generally known as XAMK, is a university in Finland that offers a number of degrees in a variety of fields. Of interest to students not in Finland is their Open University program. Within this university program, different courses/diplomas are offered at no charge. These courses are in things such as nursing, business, programming, and language.

It is currently theorized that some of these could be used to meet the RA credit requirements of Charter Oak State College or Thomas Edison State University. Due to the cost of having these credits evaluated, it is recommended that students have 10 or more ECTS from XAMK before attempting to transfer their credits to an American institution.

Of particular note to students who wish to attempt this path are:
 * Introduction to Video Games Creation - Rolling enrollment. 25 ECTS if you complete all of the modules. 5 ECTS minimum.
 * Diploma of Higher Education in Tourism and Business Management - Appears to be offered 2x per year. 60 ECTS total.
 * Diploma of Higher Education in Rehabilitation - Appears to be offered one or two times per year. 60 ECTS total.

Peppi
Once you register for a XAMK course that is not the Introduction to Video Games Creation certificate, you are granted a login to XAMK's Learn system. Through Peppi, you are able to see exactly which courses you have completed and what your grade for each course was. This is also where you are able to download a PDF transcript to be evaluated for transfer to the school of your choice.

Even if you only want the Introduction to Video Games Creation certificate, it is recommended to sign up for at least one other course so that you have access to Peppi and to your records directly.

HAKA (Other Universities)
Forum user sarahmac discovered that a XAMK login can be used to access free or low-cost courses at many other Finnish universities. If XAMK doesn't directly offer sufficient courses for your needs, you may be able to find what you need elsewhere. You will want to take at least one course from XAMK in order to get your login. Please finish this course so that XAMK continues to allow open enrollment!

Bear in mind that each new university transcript that needs to be evaluated will incur a separate fee. Even so, this can still be a cheaper alternative to credits obtained from a US RA institution. This is especially the case if you take at least two courses from each university where you plan to have the transcripts evaluated.

Evaluation
You have two basic ways of getting a transcript from XAMK: you may order a certified copy for 30€ or you may download a verifiable PDF for free. Due to the way the free XAMK transcripts work, the two most recommended evaluation services (WES and ECE) will not evaluate these transcripts. Fortunately, ACEI has no issues with evaluating the PDF. Forum member ROYAISAGIRL had one such transcript evaluated by ACEI.

According to ROYISAGIRL's evaluation, the full video games certificate should be worth approximately 75 credits. A course worth 5 ECTS was evaluated as being worth 15 US credits.

ECTS to US Credits
Usually, 2 ECTS = 1 US credit. If you do two 5-ECTS courses for a total of 10 ECTS, you should have at least 5 US credits. (As noted above, however, you could have up to 30 US credits!) At $200 for an evaluation, breaks down to $40/credit. If you have 20 ECTS on a single transcript, you should get at least 10 US credits for a cost of $20/credit. This is significantly cheaper than US RA sources and may be more cost effective than many alternate credit sources.