Whereas, The California Community Colleges have demonstrated success with working through a remote environment as a result of the pandemic; and
Whereas, To support diversity, equity, and inclusion, institutions may use telecommuting and digital processes to provide greater flexibility and responsiveness to better meet the needs of students;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has long recognized the digital divide [1] evident in the lack of access to technology to support college instruction and services and has made system-wide and local recommendations in the 2003 paper “The Impact of Computer Technology on Student Access and Success in The California Community Colleges;” [2]
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has urged local academic senates to recommend to faculty that they consider the cost of books as one of the criteria in book selection (Resolution 09.07 SP 93), and California Code of Regulations Title 5 §59404 mandates that districts that require students to “provide instructional materials for a course shall adopt policies or regulations” that “shall direct instructors to take reasonable steps to minimize the cost and ensure the necessity of i
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI) was formally launched in early 2019 with funds allocated to the ASCCC in Assembly Bill 1809 (Higher Education Trailer Bill, 2017-2018) “to support the development of, and the expansion of the use of, open educational resources for the California Community Colleges” and has established a faculty-led infrastructure to support local open educational resources (OER) implementation efforts;
Whereas, California Education Code §66406.9 requires that each of the California community colleges “(1) (A) Clearly highlight, by means that may include a symbol or logo in a conspicuous place on the online campus course schedule, the courses that exclusively use digital course materials that are free of charge to students and may have a low-cost option for print versions,” a legislated mandate for which little guidance has been provided;
Whereas, The version of the Distance Education Guidelines currently in use was approved in 2008, and for at least the last four years the Chancellor’s Office Distance Education and Educational Technology Advisory Committee (DEETAC), composed of stakeholders including representatives of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, California Community Colleges Distance Education Coordinators, Chief Instructional Officers, and Chief Executive Officers, has updated the guidelines with the intent of releasing these updates to the field, and, as evidenced by Resolution 9.06 S19 calling
Whereas, California Community Colleges have largely moved to an online format because of the global COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has resolved to support the new distance education definitions in resolution 09.06 adopted in Spring 2019, but the Distance Education Guidelines have still not been approved by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office;
Whereas, Technology procurement at both the state and local level should be a transparent and inclusive process that involves all impacted constituencies and factors in both the direct and indirect costs associated with the adoption of new technologies;
Whereas, System-level purchases can be both economically and functionally advantageous;
Whereas, The use of CCCApply for all students to enter the California Community Colleges System is required as part of the implementation of the Student Success and Support Program;
Whereas, CCCApply is often the first opportunity in the enrollment and onboarding process for students to make choices about their academic careers, which will have a significant impact on their time to degree and dictate their course-taking behavior once enrolled;
Since the time that the first fully online course was taught in the California Community Colleges more than twenty years ago, the educational landscape has changed dramatically.