California’s online community college will break new ground in higher ed
On Aug. 2, 2018, EdSource published an article titled, “California’s online community college will break new ground in higher ed.” Here’s an excerpt:
California’s online community college will represent a new vision for higher education when it launches next year and the online education field is watching to see whether it succeeds.
The new fully online college draws from a variety of sources, including public universities’ online degree programs, corporate worker training initiatives and programs at for-profit colleges. California plans to blend those existing influences to create something without precedent: A statewide, online-only public college focused on short, career-oriented certificates. …
The online college plans to begin offering courses in the fall of 2019 and is expected to cost $240 million over its first seven years, not counting funding the college will receive for each enrolled student. It will become the 115th institution in the community college system, the largest higher education system in the country. The System’s Board of Governors will meet to discuss the online college on Monday and is expected to take up a motion launching the search for the new institution’s CEO.
Proponents say the online college has the potential to reach a population of Californians who aren’t being served by any of the existing college options either in person or online.
“It is a different way of doing things,” said Lande Ajose, executive director of California Competes, which researches and advocates for strategies to increase the number of people in the state with college credentials. “The hope is that it will both satisfy some very specific and concrete labor market demand issues for individual workers, and potentially excite them about maybe going back to their local community college.”
Read the complete article on EdSource website.