Whereas, The Online Network of Educators was established in conjunction with the California Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative to provide free or low-cost robust and comprehensive innovative professional learning and development opportunities for California community college faculty, staff, and administrators in order to increase student engagement and success through the effective use of digital tools and platforms;
Whereas, The Online Network of Educators (@ONE) team of educators provides such innovative pedagogical and technical training that they are routinely called upon as experts in distance education pedagogy, setting the highest standard for the systematic delivery of professional development for online teaching, their catalog of courses and their delivery are so instrumental in the delivery of distance education that many colleges have built their entire professional development plans around @ONE’s continued offerings, and @ONE’s focus on equitable and culturally responsive distance education practices has supported individual faculty members and colleges to supplement local efforts, especially for smaller colleges that may not have the resources for full-time instructional designers;
Whereas, The Online Network of Educators’ training and support to faculty have been pivotal in the development of Canvas trainings for faculty and colleges that aim to design and implement a local Peer Online Course Review (POCR) process, and these trainings were pivotal to helping faculty across the system pivot quickly to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to increase online learning accessibility and equity-minded online teaching practices, especially since many colleges do not have adequate distance education coordinators, specialists, or instructional designer support for faculty; and
Whereas, Funding for the Online Network of Educators has been provided through the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and managed by the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District but, as of March 14, 2023, has not been renewed by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office for the 2023—2024 academic year, and there is no current plan to address the loss of these resources that are needed to support the increased online instruction that continues after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges assert the value of the work done by the Online Network of Educators around their student-centered and equity-driven approach to supporting the faculty of the California community colleges in creating, innovating, and enhancing online education as important foundational work for online accessibility and equity; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to include consideration of the need for and local reliance on pedagogical and technical training, including on equity and culturally responsive distance education practices, when evaluating service providers associated with faculty professional development, including for distance education.
M/S/C