Bill > SB520

This bill establishes an incentive grant program to help faculty and campuses within the University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), and California Community Colleges (CCC) systems offer more online courses for strategically selected lower-division subjects, aiming to address high enrollment demand and reduce the time it takes for students to complete their degrees. The program will be administered separately by each of the three systems, with each system identifying up to 20 high-demand lower-division courses necessary for program completion or general education requirements. Incentive grants will be awarded to faculty and campuses to create partnerships, including those with online course providers, to develop and deploy these online courses, with priority given to courses that are also identified by other systems. Courses developed through this program will be considered equivalent to traditional courses for transfer and degree requirements and will be made available systemwide. The bill also makes technical amendments to existing sections of the Education Code related to the California Virtual Campus, which will house these new online courses, and clarifies that funding for the program will be provided through the annual Budget Act.