Online Education...a solution?

                           Online Education...a solution?

      If recent reports are true, that there is a 25.6% drop in first-time California community college students from spring 2009 to spring 2012, then the writing is on the wall. Something has to change in order for the nation's largest public higher education system to thrive once again. 

      The cuts to community colleges has created a situation for the past several years that continues to worsen. These fiscal problems have caused a decrease in the number of sections offered across all of the disciplines. Hardest hit from the fiscal cuts are the arts, such as music courses. These cuts have created hardships for students who can't transfer because they can't get into needed classes. The waitlists for required courses are long, and there is only so much room to add a few students.

      Online education could be the answer to some of these problems. Online courses need to be developed and then implemented to fill the current and future needs of community college students. An educated workforce has many benefits to the state and local community. It could be that some of the drop off in first time community college students has been fueled by the poor economy, with jobs taking over education just to keep afloat financially. Adding insult to injury has been the dire financial situation of our education system. 

     Senate president Pro Tem, Darryl Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has brought a bill for review, which is SB 520. He proposes that a panel of faculty from UC, CSU and the community colleges choose 50 oversubscribed lower-division courses to be taught online, perhaps through private providers such as Udacity, which is working on a faculty-led pilot project at San Jose State. UC, CSU and community college faculty have all expressed concerns about the bill, and there are issues to work out. However, if online courses could unblock the pipeline, especially for CSU and Community College students, then this bill may the the first step in the right direction.

~Kathy~

 *some information was taken from news reports and the Tri-Valley Times*