BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 46
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 46 (Pan)
As Amended August 5, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(April 18, |SENATE: |38-0 |(April, 9, |
| | |2013) | | |2013) |
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(vote not relevant)
Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED.
SUMMARY : Requires the California State University (CSU)
Trustees to make specified information on matriculated CSU
students enrolled in online courses available to the CSU
Academic Senate.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Requires the CSU Trustees, while complying with applicable
privacy laws, to make available to the CSU Academic Senate and
to campus academic senate upon request, all of the following
information:
a) The number of students enrolled in online courses;
b) With respect to each major course of study, the course
completion rates for online courses and for courses other
than online courses;
c) The grades earned by each student enrolled in an online
course;
d) The course completion rates for students who are
enrolled in online courses;
e) Any data available relating to a student's use of
university resources in connection with online coursework,
including, but not necessarily limited to, analytic data
concerning access to course materials; access to linked
materials; performance on quizzes, tests, or examinations;
and interactions with faculty, mentors, coaches, and other
students in the online course. This data shall include any
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available information about the average amount of time it
takes a student to complete an online assignment; and
f) Any available demographic data relating to students
enrolled in online courses, including, but not necessarily
limited to, the ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender
of those students, and the cumulative grade point averages
of those students disaggregated by those demographic
categories.
2)Requires the information to include all matriculated students
of the CSU enrolled in online courses, irrespective of whether
the courses or programs in which they are enrolled are
provided by CSU faculty or by another entity that is under
contract with the CSU or with one of its campuses.
EXISTING LAW : Requires the CSU Trustees, by January 1, 2015, to
establish a series of uniform definitions for online education
for purposes of measuring the effectiveness of online education
and to report key performance data on online courses, as
specified, to the Legislature by January 1, 2017, and every two
years thereafter.
Existing law also provides for cross-enrollment in online
education at the CSU and outlines the requirements to be met by
a student in order to be qualified to participate. Each CSU
campus is also required to inform students who may enroll in an
online course of the technical requirements for successful
participation, any prerequisite courses or other academic
preparation deemed necessary, and any materials, skills,
knowledge, or other elements necessary to ensure a student's
opportunity to succeed in the online course.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : According to the author, this bill is intended to
respond to concerns regarding a contract entered into in January
2013 by San Jose State University and Udacity, a massive open
online courses provider, for purposes of a pilot program to
examine online learning. The author's office contends that when
members of the CSU Academic Senate requested student data, the
information was not released by Udacity until a public records
request was filed, and the released data did not include all
information requested. The author's office also asserts that
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the company failed to comply with federal guidelines that
protect student information. The author's office is concerned
that, based upon a January agenda item presented to the CSU
Trustees on "Enrollment Bottleneck Solutions" course and
advising redesign programs will involve partnering with private
companies to deliver public education services. As the CSU
system works towards providing a robust and collaborative system
of traditional and online courses offerings, partnerships with
third-party contractors are expected to become more common.
This bill was substantially amended in the Senate and the
Assembly-approved version of this bill was deleted. This bill,
as amended in the Senate, is inconsistent with the Assembly
actions and the provisions of this bill, as amended in the
Senate, have not been heard in an Assembly policy committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0004419