BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 387
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 23, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Das Williams, Chair
AB 387 (Levine) - As Amended: April 15, 2013
SUBJECT : Public postsecondary education: California State
University: online education.
SUMMARY : Expresses the Legislature intends for the Trustees of
the California State University (CSU) to have a uniform
definition of online education for the purposes of measuring its
effectiveness and requires, among other things, that the CSU
Trustees, on or before January 1, 2017, report to the
Legislature on performance data. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the CSU Trustees, on or before January 1, 2015, for
the purposes of measuring the effectiveness of online
education, to establish a series of uniform definitions for
online education that shall include a systemwide definition
for online education.
2)Specifies that for the purposes of this measure, the
definitions, at a minimum, shall include a systemwide
definition for an online course where the course can be
entirely completed remotely.
3)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
online courses;
d) Grade point average for students enrolled in online
courses;
e) The number of students cross-enrolled in online courses
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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.
4)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.
5)Requires that as the CSU develops new programs of instruction,
not less than 10% of new course offerings shall be online
courses as defined in this measure.
6)Requires the CSU Trustees shall 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.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the California Distance Learning Policy, which
sets forth the guiding goal and principles for the utilization
of technology in California postsecondary education (Education
Code � 66940).
2)Establishes, until January 1, 2014, the California Virtual
Campus, under the stewardship of the CCC Board of Governors
and pursuant to annual 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 �
78910.10).
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FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background . According to the Legislative Analyst's
Office (LAO) 2013-2014 Analysis of the Higher Education Budget,
distance learning offers numerous benefits. These include
providing greater access to educational and training
opportunities due to 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 California Community Colleges (CCC) to expand
their online offerings. The 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 (SJSU) 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.
Need for the bill . According to the author, this bill is aimed
at addressing several policy problems that exist within the CSU.
The CSU is seeking to deliver new and existing courses through
online education; which is a powerful tool, but as it continues
to develop, the Legislature should ensure that it is
appropriately measured so that adjustments and improvements can
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be made moving forward.
This measure is a companion measure to AB 386 (Levine) which
seeks to streamline the concurrent enrollment process to allow
CSU students to seamlessly cross-enroll in online courses
offered throughout the CSU campuses.
Percentage of CSU created online courses ? The bill requires
that as the CSU develops new programs of instruction, not less
than 10% of new course offerings shall be online courses as
defined in the bill. The CSU maintains academic freedom, should
the state mandate the percentage of CSU created online courses?
Staff recommend that the author delete � 89226.5 of the measure
so that the CSU is not required to ensure that not less than 10%
of new course offerings shall be online courses.
Other measures to address online education . There are several
online education related measures pending Legislative action
this session:
1)AB 386 (Levine), which will be taken up today in the committee
hearing, would require that by the beginning of the 2015-16
academic year, students enrolled at the CSU be provided an
opportunity to enroll in online courses available at other CSU
campuses, would authorize any CSU student enrolled at a CSU
campus to enroll in an online course provided by another CSU
campus, and would require the CSU Trustees, on or before
January 1, 2015, to establish an easily accessible online
database of online courses available at the CSU.
2)AB 895 (Rendon), which will be taken up today in the committee
hearing, would establish the California Postsecondary Online
Education Task Force to evaluate and collect data on the
current status of postsecondary online education.
3)AB 944 (Nestande), which will be taken up today in the
committee hearing, would require the Trustees of the CSU and
the Board of Governors of CCC and request the Regents of the
UC, to report to the Legislature, by January 1, 2016, and
every two years thereafter, on workload and key performance
data on distance learning courses.
4)SB 520 (Steinberg), which will be taken up on April 24, 2013,
in the Senate Education Committee, would, among other things,
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create the California Online Student Access Platform under the
joint administration of the UC President, the Chancellor of
the CSU, and the CCC Chancellor, with the academic senates of
the respective segments, and would require the platform to
provide an efficient statewide mechanism for online course
providers to offer transferable courses for credit and to
create a pool of these online courses.
5)SB 547 (Block), which will be taken up on April 24, 2013, in
the Senate Education Committee, would, among other things,
require the academic senates of the UC, the CSU, and the CCC
to jointly develop and identify online courses that would be
made available to students of each of the three segments for
enrollment by the fall of 2014.
Prior legislation . AB 626 (Blumenfield, 2011), which remained
in this committee, would have established a definition for
"distance learning." AB 851 (Nestande, 2011), which was similar
in nature to AB 944 (as described above); failed passage in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Bay Area Council
California State Student Association
California State University
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960