Living local can be a challenge when you need things that are not available on the Island — for instance, higher education. But learning local is becoming possible here, too. Courses that provide college credit have been creeping into the growing program of adult education offered by ACE-MV.

This is not about sitting at a computer, watching recorded lectures online and submitting papers to a professor you never see. This is a community of learners in an extraordinary community able to offer unusually expert teaching. In the next offering, an American history class, Elaine Weintraub will be leading the discussion each week but also author John Hough will take one of the classes, and other Island writers and historians with deep knowledge of this country up to and including the Civil War will also be on board as guest lecturers. The course is technically HIS 103-67, United States History to 1865, offered here through Cape Cod Community College.

It’s open to anyone. Some Islanders have taken several college-credit classes through ACE and are working steadily toward associate degrees. Some high school students also get a jump on their hours by taking these (presumably they’ve exhausted those old Advanced Placement options; this is called dual enrollment). Some graduates test the waters to see if they are ready for college now. Some just come because they are interested in the subject matter (past college classes through ACE have included English, human communication and children’s literature).

ACE MV director Lynn Ditchfield said the core group studying for their associate degrees has become a tight group, studying together. “They’ll be resources to each other for life,” she said. Mrs. Ditchfield hopes that as the program grows, the Vineyard will develop its own branch of a higher learning institution, with autonomy but able to meet the needs of students who would like to pursue a degree while living and working here.

These classes can be taken simply for enrichment, and ACE MV offers this fall more than 40 other enrichment classes, from social networking to ceramics, wild edibles to world religions, QuickBooks to cake decorating. Times and costs vary, but for those with children there is an added bonus this fall — the Family Center of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services is offering free child care for all Thursday evening ACE classes, at the regional high school.

Course catalogs for the fall session are available at libraries and schools, or online at acemv.org. Or you can ask a live human being while you are at the Living Local Harvest Festival this weekend. Lynn Ditchfield will be there to field your questions of any kind at the ACE MV booth. There also will be in-person registration on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 4 and 5, when Lynn will welcome walk-ins from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the regional high school.