BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 386
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 386 (Levine)
As Amended May 28, 2013
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 13-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Williams, Chávez, Bloom, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Fong, Fox, Jones-Sawyer, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Levine, Linder, Medina, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Olsen, Quirk-Silva, | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| |Weber, Wilk | |Hall, Ammiano, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, Wagner, Weber |
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SUMMARY : Expresses the intent of the Legislature that by the
beginning of the 2015-16 academic year, students enrolled at the
California State University (CSU) be provided an opportunity to
enroll in online courses available at other CSU campuses, and
that on or before January 1, 2015, for purposes of measuring the
effectiveness of online education, the Trustees of the CSU shall
establish a series of uniform definitions for online education;
authorizes any CSU student enrolled at a CSU campus to enroll in
an online course provided by another CSU campus; requires the
CSU Trustees, on or before January 1, 2015, to establish an
easily accessible online database of online courses available at
the CSU; and, states that the CSU Trustees, on or before January
1, 2017, report to the Legislature on performance data on online
courses as specified. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the CSU Trustees, on or before January, 1, 2015, to
establish the following:
a) An easily accessible online database of online courses
available at all CSU campuses in order to provide CSU
students with a streamlined process within the CSU system
to allow students to find and enroll in courses that will
earn them credit toward graduation, general education, and
major requirements; and,
b) Plans for an intrasystem cross-enrollment process to
expedite student learning that will be operational at the
beginning of the 2015-16 academic year.
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2)Allows, by the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year, any
student enrolled in a CSU who meets the requirements of this
measure to enroll, without formal admission, and without
payment of additional tuition or fees, except specified, in a
course provided entirely online by another campus of the CSU
on a space-available basis.
3)Specifies that nonresident and international CSU students who
meet the conditions of this measure may also enroll in an
online course provided by another CSU campus and that they
shall pay their unit fees for the online course at the host
campus.
4)Specifies that a student is qualified to participate in the
program established by this measure if he/she is enrolled in a
CSU campus and meets the following requirements:
a) The student has attained a grade point average of 2.0 on
a four-point scale for work completed; and,
b) The student has paid appropriate tuition or fees, or
both, required by the home campus for full-time enrollment
for the academic term in which the student seeks to
cross-enroll and the student has no outstanding tuition or
fees owed to the home campus.
5)Specifies that the host campus may charge participating
students a reasonable administration fee and specific
course-based fees, not to exceed an amount sufficient for the
campus to recover reasonable administrative costs it incurs
pursuant to this measure.
6)Requires the CSU Chancellor's Office to establish a convenient
online methodology so that students meeting the requirements
of this measure may do both of the following:
a) Be informed of the opportunity to access courses
provided entirely online by another CSU; and,
b) Simultaneously enroll in courses at their home campus
and enroll in courses provided entirely online at another
CSU campus, as provided for in this measure.
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7)Stipulates that a matriculated CSU student will have priority
access to courses provided at his/her home campus, and a CSU
student, meeting the requirements of this measure, seeking to
enroll in courses provided entirely online by another CSU
campus shall be able to enroll.
8)Specifies that cross-enrollment students have an opportunity
to enroll in these online courses at any time after the
priority enrollment period for continuing students, as
determined by each host campus, and that the host campus
enrollment policy, to the extent possibly, shall encourage
cross-enrollment.
9)Stipulates that courses provided entirely online pursuant to
this measure shall be accepted for credit at the student's
home campus on the same basis as it would be for a student
matriculated at the host campus.
10)Stipulates that the enrollment of a student at a host campus
pursuant to this measure may be counted in the calculation of
headcount or full-time equivalent student enrollment at the
host campus and that the home campus and the host campus at
which the student is cross-enrolled may count in the
calculation of headcount or full-time equivalent student
enrollment only those units for which the student is enrolled
at each respective campus.
11)Specifies that for the purposes of this measure, the
definitions created by the CSU Trustees, at a minimum, shall
include a systemwide definition for an online course where the
course can be entirely completed remotely.
12)Requires the CSU Trustees on or before January 1, 2017, and
on or before January 1 every two years thereafter, to report
to the Legislature key performance data on online courses as
defined in the measure, including, but not necessarily limited
to, all of the following:
a) The number of students enrolled at each campus;
b) Course completion rates for courses other than online
courses;
c) Completion rates for degree programs that include no
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online courses;
d) Grade point average for students enrolled in online
courses;
e) The number of students cross-enrolled in online courses
at a CSU campus other than the campus at which they are
matriculated;
f) Course completion rates for students enrolled in online
courses; and,
g) Completion rates for degree programs that include online
courses.
13)Specifies that student enrollment and completion rate data
shall be included in a report (and that the provision
requiring the report will become inoperative on July 1, 2021)
to be submitted to the Legislature pursuant to this measure
and must be made available by demographics, including age,
gender, and ethnicity.
14)Requires the CSU Trustees to report to the Legislature, on or
before January 1, 2015, on the feasibility of developing an
accelerated bachelor's degree completion program consisting of
online courses, aimed at students who started college but
never obtained a degree.
15)Defines "Chancellor" to mean the Chancellor of the CSU; "CSU"
to mean the California State University; "Home campus" to mean
the CSU campus at which the student is matriculated; and,
"Host campus" to mean the campus to which the student seeks
access.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the California Distance Learning Policy, which
sets forth the guiding goals and principles for the
utilization of technology in California postsecondary
education (Education Code (EC) Section 66940).
2)Establishes, until January 1, 2014, the California Virtual
Campus, under the stewardship of the California Community
Colleges (CCC) Board of Governors and pursuant to annual
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Budget Act funding to, among other things, enhance the
awareness of, and access to, highly engaging online courses of
study, 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 (EC Section 78910.10).
3)Allows any student enrolled in any campus of the three public
segments who meet certain criteria, to enroll without formal
admission to any of the segments, with certain specified
conditions (EC Section 66750 et seq.).
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, the CSU, over two years, will incur one-time General
Fund (GF) costs of about $1.1 million to: a) develop systems
and processes for students to enroll and register in available
online courses at any CSU campus, including reliable and timely
authentication of grading and integration into student
transcripts; and b) establish a reliable systemwide database of
available online courses and a means for students to determine
course availability. Ongoing GF costs are estimated at around
$200,000.
The CSU indicates the following: a) that it would use existing
resources plus a portion of the Governor's budget augmentation
to implement the above changes; and b) it is currently
developing a uniform definition of online courses. GF costs for
the initial report will be $50,000 and for the two subsequent
reports will be $15,000 each. These costs are absorbable.
COMMENTS : According to the author, the CSU is a leading
institution in online education; currently offering more than
13,300 fully online or hybrid courses. Within the CSU there is
tremendous potential for increased access through
cross-enrollment in online courses. This bill will provide
students matriculated at any CSU campus with a streamlined point
of access to online courses provided by any of the 23 CSU
campuses.
According to the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) 2013-14
Analysis of the Higher Education Budget, distance learning
offers numerous benefits. These include providing greater
access to educational and training opportunities due to
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increased scheduling flexibility, as well as allowing campuses
to serve more students without needing additional physical
infrastructure. According to the, LAO there is no common
definition of distance learning among California's public
postsecondary institutions, making it impossible for the
Legislature and segments to measure workload and track
enrollment trends.
Governor Brown has encouraged the University of California (UC),
the CSU and the CCC to expand their online offerings. he
2013-2014 Budget allocates $16.9 million to CCC and $10 million
to both the UC and CSU systems for online education.
Online education at the CSU. Launched in January 2013, CSU
Online is the newest platform of services that supports students
and faculty in teaching and learning through online programs.
CSU Online will host both graduate and undergraduate programs,
but has an initial focus on former students who have had to drop
out of the CSU and are looking to complete their degrees.
CSU at San Jose recently launched a joint pilot program,
partnering with Udacity (an independent online education company
and innovators of massive open online courses [MOOCs]) and EdX
(a nonprofit MOOCs provider). This joint pilot program creates
a major expansion of course offerings for students and plans to
expand its current enrollment of 300 students to 1,000. The
joint pilot program used three entry-level courses that
typically have high failure rates, intermediate algebra, college
algebra, and elementary statistics and currently has an 85%
retention rate.
Several online education related measures have been introduced
in the last couple of years; most of them were held on the
Suspense Files in the Assembly and Senate Appropriations
Committees.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0001010
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