[img]2545|right|||no_popup[/img]West Los Angeles College has been selected to work on the development of an online education portal that will increase access to online courses and to help shape a common student assessment tool to be used by all California community colleges.
West was among 24 chosen from a pool of 112 California community colleges.
President Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh said that West “is a diverse urban institution. We already are providing local leadership in these areas.
“Successful implementation of these programs will facilitate student access to core courses on their way to completing degrees, certificates, transferring to a university or obtaining well-paid jobs.
“Whether online or in a traditional class,” said Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh, “students will have access to high quality learning experiences and the necessary supports to succeed.”
West L.A. College was selected to help develop the standards, operational policies and an access portal for online classes that will be offered to all participating California community colleges.
Fifty-six colleges applied to participate in this development group. Twenty-four, including West, were selected. The goal of the Online Education Initiative is to have the pilot colleges launch and implement a sophisticated online education system to increase student access to online courses and to improve student retention and success rates. The initiative is working to make it possible another school without needing to go through a separate admissions process and/or being required to have transcripts from the second college go through special evaluations at the home college.
West has one of the largest and most recognized online education programs within the CCCs. Twenty-five percent of the college’s instruction is provided online. The quality of the program, led by Academic Dean Eric Ichon, was noted in the college’s recent accreditation re-affirmation. In fact, West is unusual in that the success rate of students in online classes is almost identical to that in traditional classroom-based courses. At most colleges, the online success rate is lower.
The 24 colleges have been divided into three groups: Official Launch; Student Readiness; and Online Tutoring. West is in the Student Readiness group which is looking at how to help students succeed in online classes. West, for example, provides a brief seminar to help students understand what to expect and how to effectively function in the online format.
Ms. Long-Coffee may be contacted at longcofm@wlac.edu
