Today's Law As Amended


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SB-520 Student instruction: California Online Student Incentive Grant programs.(2013-2014)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) In recent years, California’s public higher education institutions have faced skyrocketing demand for enrollment at a time when they lack capacity to provide students with access to courses necessary for program completion and success.
(b) In the 2012–13 academic year, 85 percent of California Community Colleges (CCC) reported having waiting lists for their fall 2012 course sections, with a statewide average of more than 7,000 students on waiting lists per college.
(c) Similarly, impacted courses have contributed significantly to difficulties within the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems, with figures indicating that only 60 percent and 16 percent of students, respectively, are able to earn a degree within four years, with lack of access to key courses a factor in increased time-to-degree.
(d) With rapidly developing innovation in online course delivery models, California’s public institutions of higher education have a unique opportunity to meet critical demands for enrollment and reduce time-to-degree by providing students with access to high-quality, alternative, online pathways to successfully complete and obtain credit for the most impacted lower division courses.
(e) California could significantly benefit from an incentive grant program aimed at assisting faculty and individual campuses within the UC, CSU, and CCC systems to provide students increased opportunities to take strategically selected lower division courses online.

SEC. 2.

 Section 66409.3 is added to the Education Code, to read:

66409.3.
 (a) The California Online Student Access Incentive Grant programs are hereby established. The grant programs shall be developed and administered by the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, for each segment respectively, in consultation with his or her respective statewide academic senate.
(b) The three grant programs shall provide incentive grants to faculty and campuses to facilitate appropriate partnerships including, but not necessarily limited to, intersegmental and intrasegmental partnerships, and partnerships between online course providers and faculty members of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges for the development and deployment of high-quality online options for strategically selected lower division courses.
(c) For purposes of accomplishing the objectives of the grant programs as specified in subdivision (b), the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall each, in consultation with his or her segment’s statewide academic senate, do both of the following:
(1) Develop a list of 20 high-demand lower division courses at his or her segment that are deemed necessary for program completion, deemed satisfactory for meeting general education requirements, or defined as transferable lower division courses under the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum.
(2) (A) For up to 15 of the courses selected under paragraph (1), provide incentive grants to faculty and campuses of his or her segment with the goal of facilitating up to 15 appropriate partnerships, including, but not necessarily limited to, intersegmental and intrasegmental partnerships, and partnerships between online course technology providers and faculty of the segment providing the grant and, if the grantor deems it appropriate, faculty of one or both of the other segments, to significantly increase online options for matriculated students and high school pupils for the fall term of the 2014–15 academic year.
(B) When choosing recipients for incentive grants pursuant to this paragraph, the president or chancellor of each segment shall give priority to courses that have also been selected by one or both of the other segments pursuant to paragraph (1).
(d) Incentive grants shall not be provided to facilitate any partnership to develop or deploy a course pursuant to this section unless the course has associated with it a member of the faculty of the segment providing the grant who serves as the instructor of record, and the course is approved by the academic senate of that segment. A course developed or deployed with incentive grant funds pursuant to this section shall be deemed to meet the lower division transfer and degree requirements for the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges, as applicable, and shall be made available to students systemwide, regardless of the campus at which they are enrolled.
(e) When evaluating a potential faculty or campus grantee to receive an incentive grant pursuant to this section, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall consider the extent to which the developed or deployed course will do each of the following:
(1) Provide students with instructional support and related services to promote retention and success.
(2) Provide students with interaction with instructors and other students.
(3) Contain a proctored student assessment and examination process that ensures academic integrity and satisfactorily measures student learning.
(4) Provide a student with an opportunity to assess the extent to which he or she is suited for online learning before enrolling.
(5) Use, as the primary course text or as a wholly acceptable alternative, content, where it exists, from the California Digital Open Source Library established pursuant to Section 66408.
(6) Include adaptive learning technology systems or comparable technologies that can provide significant improvement in student learning.
(7) Be made available to students of another system, regardless of the system at which they are enrolled.
(f) In implementing this section, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall do all of the following:
(1) Regularly solicit and consider from their respective statewide student associations advice and guidance on the implementation of the incentive grant program.
(2) Collect, review, and make public data and other information related to student success in courses supported by the incentive grant program by gathering and reporting data on accepted student success metrics, including, but not necessarily limited to, student enrollment in online courses supported through the incentive grant program, and student retention and completion rates.
(g) Online courses supported by incentive grants pursuant to this section shall be placed in the California Virtual Campus, through which students may access the courses. A matriculated student of a campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges, or a California high school pupil, who completes an online course developed through an incentive grant program and achieves a passing score on the corresponding course examination shall be awarded full academic credit for the course at the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges, as applicable.
(h) Funding for the implementation of this section shall be provided in the annual Budget Act. It is the intent of the Legislature that, notwithstanding Section 67400, the receipt of funding by the University of California for the implementation of this section be contingent on its compliance with the requirements of this section.
(i) Public funds shall not be used to fund any private aspect of a partnership developed pursuant to this section between faculty of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges and an online course technology provider.
(j) Intellectual property created or developed by a segment in the implementation of this act shall be owned and managed by that segment according to its existing policies pursuant to applicable provisions of this code.

SEC. 3.

 Section 78910.10 of the Education Code is amended to read:

78910.10.
 (a) (1) The California Virtual Campus, pursuant to funding provided to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges for this purpose in the annual Budget Act, may pursue all of the following purposes, to the extent funding is available:
(A) To enrich formal and informal educational experiences and improve students’ academic performance by supporting the development of highly engaging, research-based innovations in teaching and learning in K–12 public schools and the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California.
(B) To enhance the awareness of, and access to, highly engaging online courses of study, emphasizing courses of study that support a diverse and highly skilled science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce.
(C) To support education research, the implementation of research-based practices, and promote economic development through the use of next generation advanced network infrastructure, services, and network technologies that enable collaboration and resource sharing between formal and informal educators in K–12 public schools, the California Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of California, independent colleges and universities, public libraries, and community-based organizations at locations across the state.
(D) To increase access to next generation Internet services, 21st century workforce development programs, and e-government services for students and staff served or employed by education entities and students served primarily online through partnerships with public libraries and community-based organizations.
(E) To enhance access to health care education and training programs to current or future health care workers.
(F) To manage digital assets and develop contracts for services necessary to provide the technical and management support needed to maximize the benefits of the high-speed, high-bandwidth network infrastructure available to public higher education entities in California.
(G) Through the aggregation of demand for network enabled technologies and related services from public education entities, and through partnerships with the private sector, to provide education entities with access to technical support and staff who can facilitate statewide efforts that support innovations in teaching and learning that are necessary to provide for a well-educated citizenry, and economic and 21st century workforce development.
(2) To accomplish the purposes of paragraph (1), the California Virtual Campus may partner with local educational agencies, the State Department of Education, the 11 regional California Technology Assistance Projects, the California Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of California, independent colleges and universities, public libraries, and community-based organizations to facilitate ongoing collaboration and joint efforts relating to the use of technology resources and high-speed Internet connectivity to support teaching, learning, workforce development, and research.
(3) Efforts conducted as a result of this chapter shall not prohibit or otherwise exclude the ability of existing or new educational technology programs from being developed, expanded, or enhanced.
(b) For purposes of this article, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Online courses of study” means any of the following:
(A) Online teaching, learning, and research resources, including, but not necessarily limited to, books, course materials, video materials, interactive lessons, tests, or software, the copyrights of which have expired, or have been released with an intellectual property license that permits their free use or repurposing by others without the permission of the original authors or creators of the learning materials or resources.
(B) Professional development opportunities for formal and informal educators who desire to use the resources in subparagraph (A).
(C) Online instruction.
(2) “Online instruction” means technology enabled online real time (synchronous) interaction between the instructor and the student, near time (asynchronous) interaction between the instructor and the student, or any combination thereof.
(c) The California Virtual Campus grant recipient may accomplish all of the following:
(1) Convene at least four leadership stakeholder group meetings annually composed of representatives from the State Department of Education, the California Technology Assistance Project, and other related programs administered through the department, including adult education, local educational agencies, the California Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of California, independent colleges and universities, the California State Library, and representatives from community-based organizations to ensure the efforts affecting segments represented are appropriately meeting the needs of those segments. The leadership stakeholder group shall also coordinate and obtain assistance with the implementation of efforts delineated in this article, to identify and maintain an up-to-date list of the technology resources and tools that are necessary to support innovation in teaching and learning, and to identify opportunities for leveraging resources and expertise for meeting those needs in an efficient and cost-effective manner. For purposes of this paragraph, the representatives from the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California shall include, but not be limited to, faculty members from these institutions.
(2) Lead efforts to make online courses of study available across the state that include, but are not limited to, the following:
(A) Developing online courses of study that are pedagogically sound and fully accessible, in compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-336), by students with varying learning styles and disabilities.
(i) The development of K–12 online courses pursuant to this subparagraph shall be achieved in partnership with local educational agencies and the California Technology Assistance Project.
(ii) Online courses developed for grades K–12 pursuant to this subparagraph shall be aligned to the California academic content standards and guidelines for online courses.
(B) Overseeing the development of at least 12 model online courses of study that, collectively, would allow students to meet the requirements of the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) and at least two courses that support basic skills education courses in English, English as a second language, or mathematics.
(C) Encouraging the entities listed in paragraph (1) to do both of the following:
(i) Make accessible to each other their courses of study that are funded by the state.
(ii) Allow their courses of study to be accessible to the general public if they determine access would not inhibit their ability to provide appropriate protection of the state’s intellectual property rights.
(3) Ensure that the learning objects created as part of the California Virtual Campus online courses of study with state General Fund revenues are linked to digital content libraries that include information about course content freely available to California educators and students.
(4) Develop formal partnership agreements between the entities listed in paragraph (1) and the California Virtual Campus, including course articulation agreements that allow qualified high school students to accelerate the completion of requirements for a high school diploma and a two-year or four-year degree and agreements that provide opportunities for part-time faculty teaching online to obtain full-time employment teaching online.
(5) Develop formal partnership agreements with the entities listed in paragraph (1) and others to enhance access to professional development courses that introduce faculty, teachers, staff, and college course developers to the conceptual development, creation, and production methodologies that underlie the development of online courses of study and support students’ successful completion of those courses. The professional development opportunities may include, but not necessarily be limited to, all of the following:
(A) Addressing issues relating to copyright, permission for the use or reuse of material, use of resources in the public domain, and other intellectual property concepts.
(B) Accessibility for students with disabilities.
(C) Factors to ensure that content is culturally relevant to a diverse student body.
(D) Delivery options that incorporate multiple learning styles and strategies.
(6) Develop formal partnership agreements with entities, including, but not limited to, those listed in paragraph (1), to ensure access to online professional learning communities that incorporate the use of Internet-based collaboration tools and to support joint discussions between K–12 educators, higher education faculty and staff, and others to examine student performance data, student learning objectives, curriculum, and other issues that relate to students’ academic success and preparation for the workforce.
(7) In partnership with entities, including those listed in paragraph (1), develop an e-portfolio system that allows participating students to demonstrate their attainment of academic learning objectives, skills and knowledge that relate to their career interests, and completion of prerequisites for participation in courses or training programs. The e-portfolio system may do all of the following:
(A) Ensure that student privacy is protected in accordance with existing law.
(B) Comply with accessibility laws for students with disabilities.
(C) Be designed in a manner that supports the use of e-portfolio content in the accreditation requirements of schools, colleges, and universities.
(8) In partnership with entities, including those listed in paragraph (1), identify opportunities to enhance students’ access to medical education and medical services through the use of high-speed Internet connections to the campuses, and opportunities for education programs and services to support the telehealth efforts taking place within the state.
(d) The lead agency for the California Virtual Campus, in consultation with the leadership stakeholder group described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) if that group is convened by the California Virtual Campus grant recipient, shall contract with an independent third party with expertise in online teaching, learning, and the development of online courses of study, as approved by the board, to evaluate the California Virtual Campus. The evaluation shall include, but not be limited to, an assessment of the number of faculty, teachers, consortia, informal educators, and students that use the online courses of study, the quality of students’ experiences, student grades earned, and the cost of the online course content, comparing the online course content with traditional textbooks. The board may require additional information that it determines to be necessary to evaluate the effectiveness and viability of the California Virtual Campus. This evaluation shall be submitted to the Legislature no later than three years after the enactment of this act.

SEC. 4.

 Section 78910.30 of the Education Code is amended to read:

78910.30.
 This article shall remain in effect until January 1, 2017, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2017, deletes or extends that date.
SEC. 5.
 If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.