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Online college classes can be impersonal, isolating, and liberating. But California colleges and universities are trying to find it in high demand among their online students better practices for online teaching.
As Adam Echelman of CalMatters explains, about 40% of all college classes are online. Online courses allow students, especially those who work part-time or full-time, to complete their degree while juggling work, responsibilities or other obligations.
But taking these courses also requires “self-directed learning skills,” including “a very high level of independent time management,” said Dee Sue, a professor in UC Irvine’s School of Education.
- Sue: “In an in-person environment, interaction happens naturally. But in an online environment, especially an asynchronous one, that opportunity has to be built in. Otherwise, the student will feel very alone.”
Students prefer online coursesand they are cheaper to offer than colleges compared to attending.
Rebecca Ruane-O’Shaughnessy, director of program and strategy for the College Futures Foundation and former executive director in the Chancellor’s Office of California Colleges, said schools need to adapt. Some new approaches she pointed to as promising include shortening the length of classes or trying to integrate adult work experience since so many online students have jobs.
To address some of the drawbacks of online foreign language courses, Julia Simon, a professor of French at UC Davis and chair of the university’s Language Task Force, is considering a set of conversation courses.
Simon said students who take online courses miss out on opportunities to practice speaking. Once students enter UC Davis, they are unprepared, she said. But since “we can’t make them repeat the courses they’ve already had,” Simon said, a conversation class can be offered as remedial instruction to help students catch up.
We’re bringing our voter guide to life through Voting is important events across California this month, in collaboration with on-the-ground partners: local news organizations, colleges and nonprofits. Our last event is tonight at Modesto. We also have a DIY kit to organize your own event.
Other stories you should know
Competition in the Leveling Board
We know Californians are curious about this year’s Board of Equalization elections. Our page for this contest draws the second largest audience in our voter guide, second only to the gubernatorial race.
This is surprising, given the agency’s funny name and its rather narrow portfolio in the world of California taxes. The agency had much more power until 2017, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that stripped him of nearly all of his offices and powers.
- Betty Yeeformer state comptroller: “I really doubt how this board continues to matter.”
But we can also see that the races for the top four places will be competitive. Three current legislators are running for vacant seats, and a former lawmaker is up for re-election.
- State Senator Tom Umbergwho is running for a seat on the board: “While this is not a high-profile job, it is a critically important job, especially when we have so many revenue challenges in California.”
$25 million is needed to clean up the polluting road
The Tijuana River is heavily polluted. When it rains, the river’s waters rise and flood part of Saturn Boulevard in San Diego. The part of the road that the polluted waters flood worsens the already dire situation by spewing pollutants into the air.
Correcting this particular situation — not solving the pollution of the river, but limiting some of the negative health effects caused by airborne pollutants — will cost $25 millionDeborah Brennan of CalMatters reports. The positive effects of the renovation could be felt as early as next year, according to San Diego County officials, but finding the money will be a challenge.
Lawmakers filed a request in the state budget to cover $23 million and its eventual $10 billion in 2024 money. Proposition 4 could be used, as well as a county sales tax increase.
Finally: the CA requirement for an ICE ID
A federal appeals court has blocked California from enforcing a law requiring undercover federal agents to show identification during operations. CalMatters’ Nigel Duara and Director of Video Strategy Robert Meeks have a video segment on how the decision in April is a hindrance to the state’s efforts to curb aggressive immigration enforcement tactics, as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.
SoCalMatters airs at 5:58pm weekdays on PBS SoCal.
California voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: As the June deadline to pass a state budget approaches, Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers are facing resistance to budget cuts, particularly in education, health and social services.
To help fire victims recover financiallystate lawmakers must pass a bill that would expand mortgage protections established under last year’s Fire Emergency Mortgage Relief Act, write Rachel Jonas and Robert Fagnanico-founders of Disaster Mortgage Relief who lost their homes in the Palisades Fire.
Other things worth your time:
Record foreign money entering the race for governor of California // Los Angeles Times
Why Silicon Valley is the big bet on Mahan goes bankrupt // A politician
California voters abroad face new barriers after the Trump administration cut a key program // San Francisco Chronicle
After raids on American citizens and immigrants seeks millions for shootings, injuries, traumas // Los Angeles Times
CA Addis Assembly Member to protect student privacy through AB 1159 // Mustang News
The United Farm Workers built their political power around Chavez. Now he faces a reckoning // The Sacramento Bee
Brackets Bay Area on Trump’s tougher CalFresh rules // The Mercury News
Their meteoric rise changed the shape of the Bay Area and powers Silicon Valley. Is it near the end? // San Francisco Chronicle
Approximately 65% of the evacuees for Garden Grove, chemical threat may return home, officials say // The Orange County Register
