Leaders: Keep Leading

Addressing Policy Questions

Blanket Distance Education Addendum

All California Community Colleges  are required to submit an addendum for Summer 2020 by May 20, 2020, in preparation for the likelihood that most instruction will continue to be conducted via distance education. Additionally, it is strongly recommended that colleges plan to submit an addendum for Fall 2020 by July 1, 2020, given current indications that the COVID-19 pandemic may last beyond Summer 2020. You can read the CCC Chancellor’s Office complete memo here (revised June 9, 2020).

Additionally, the state Chancellor’s Office has released guidance related to Distance Education Faculty Preparation and COVID-19.

Attendance Accounting

  • “…the vast majority (if not all) of distance education courses calculate FTES using the Alternative Attendance Accounting Procedure. …[For this procedure] one weekly contact hour is generally counted or substituted for each unit of credit in which the student enrolls. …Title 5, section 58009 provides an exception for DE Laboratory courses in terms of the weekly hours that can be substituted.”
  • Positive attendance courses
    • If converted to synchronous distance ed, “continue to apply the Positive Attendance Procedure.”
    • If converted to asynchronous distance ed, “colleges are permitted to estimate the number of contact hours that would have been generated in the affected courses, had the courses not been converted to distance education.”
  • See the complete CCCCO 03/13/20 memo re: attendance accounting and approved exceptions.

Hard-to-Convert Courses

Interruptions of Study

ACCJC guidance for interruptions of study as of March 20, 2020.  This document addresses five potential student and campus scenarios: that may prompt an institution to have questions about how to comply with Title IV, HEA requirements if the Coronavirus impacts a student or a campus:

  • A student was enrolled or was supposed to begin a travel-abroad experience and either the student has been called back to the U.S. or was never able to begin the travel abroad experience;
  • A student was enrolled in a program and met the requirements for full-time enrollment; however, due to the COVID-19, one or more classes – such as an internship, a clinical rotation, student teaching or fieldwork – have been cancelled and now the student has fallen below the 12 credit hour minimum and is no longer considered to be a full-time student;
  • A student is quarantined and misses class or a student is incapacitated due to COVID-19 illness;

  • A campus temporarily stops offering ground-based classes in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19;
  • A foreign school that serves U.S. students who participate in title IV programs temporarily suspends operations due to COVID-19.


State Chancellor's Office Resources

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office has a COVID-19 Resources page, which includes links to several important memos and system-wide guidance.

Addressing Equity Challenges

Support Students or Faculty Who Need Access to a Device


Individuals and families that meet eligibility requirements can receive a computer for free or very low cost from these organizations:

  • PCs for People refurbishes desktop and laptop computers for distribution to eligible recipients.
  • Computers for Classrooms provides guaranteed working computers with software installed for senior citizens, low-income families and those who cannot afford to buy new ones.
  • Computers with Cause provides gifted computers to eligible applicants.
  • The On It Foundation provides free computers along with computer training and Internet access to low-income families.

Support Students or Faculty Who Need Access to the Internet

Many Internet service providers (ISP) are providing free or low-cost internet services to college students.

  • The CVC-OEI is maintaining a list of  Reduced Cost or Free Internet Access.
  • The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) has compiled a list of current offers from ISPs that will help low-income households to acquire service at low or no cost. Most have eligibility limitations linked to income or program enrollment. The list also includes established, nationally available low-cost plans offered by nonprofit organizations. 

What About Data Caps on Mobile Service?

Sprint and T-Mobile are the only mobile providers to have lifted data caps for mobile phones entirely (for 60 days). Data caps for the two companies’ hotspots have not been eliminated, but both are providing hotspot customers with an extra 20 GB of monthly data for two months.

Support Students or Faculty Who Need Training or Support

Put together centralized, informational web pages directing students and faculty to training and support options.

  • All California Community Colleges have access to Canvas Tier 1 Support, funded centrally through the CVC-OEI.  Every college has a separate, dedicated faculty and student support phone number. To learn more, visit our Canvas Tier 1 Support page.
  • Faculty and staff may also contact canvas@cvc-oei.zendesk.com
  • The CVC-OEI has a variety of courses designed to support faculty becoming effective online instructors. Participants can learn the basics of Canvas, the fundamentals of course design, and the principles of quality online teaching. Courses can be taken a la carte or stacked to earn digital badges and certificates.


Support Students Who Face Food Insecurity

For students who no longer have access to a campus pantry, the following organizations help people find off-campus food banks or food pantries (near any location):

Helping Small Teams with a Large Workload

Campuses with very few or no full-time staff dedicated to distance education are feeling overwhelmed. Faculty and staff are being asked to work many additional hours to help build resource sites, facilitate virtual workshops, conduct drop-in support via Zoom, and more.

Pay faculty or staff for temporary additional time: Faculty members from distance education committees may be able to support campus- or district-wide efforts if you need to increase capacity. 

Ask chairs and deans to solicit veteran online teachers to be local mentors, conduct workshops, and/or facilitate virtual ‘open labs.’

If necessary, hire organizations that can offer short-term consulting help

Adopting Technologies for Online Teaching and Learning

Accessing Online Technologies

Your campus may decide to adopt new technologies to support teaching and learning in an online format. The CCC Chancellor’s Office is providing the technologies below through June 2020. Use the information below to learn more about the technologies and how to get them for your campus.

Implementation Instructions: 

Videoconferencing: ConferZoom

 Accounts are available for anyone who needs to schedule and invite students, faculty or staff to Zoom sessions.

Online Tutoring: NetTutor

No-cost access to NetTutor, an online tutoring service that includes tutoring across disciplines, including on-demand, multi-lingual 24/7 math and English tutoring as well as the ability for students to make appointments

  • Additional information: NetTutor and Pisces can integrate into college websites and local instances of Canvas. Please refer to the NetTutor & How to Pisces Guides for more details.

Online Counseling & Student Services: Cranium Cafe

No-cost access to Cranium Café, a meeting and collaboration platform designed specifically for online student support (including online counseling), is available to all California Community Colleges. This includes local implementation of the platform at colleges that do not currently use the system. 

  • Additional information: ConexED will work with your IT, Canvas Administrator and Webmaster to set up Single Sign On Authentication, and integrate Cranium Café cards into your websites and Canvas instance.

Online Accessibility Support: Ally

Easy-to-use platform focused on making digital course content more accessible and available in alternate formats.

Online Learning Readiness Tutorials: Quest for Success

A series of interactive multimedia tutorials that address the real challenges experienced by new and experienced online students. These tutorials help prepare students for greater retention and success in the online or remote learning environment. 

  • Additional information: Create links to the online learning readiness tutorials for your students. Along with the tutorials CVC-OEI has provided a set of interactive tools that are useful to students.

Virtual Science Labs: Labster

All colleges have access to Labster, a virtual lab environment, including expanded support and technical assistance for faculty. Labster has a dedicated faculty support page designed specifically for California Community Colleges.

Online Exam Proctoring: Proctorio

Unlimited no-cost access to Proctorio, which provides automated online proctoring services as well as identity verification.

  • Additional information: Please note that Proctorio can integrate into individual courses within your local instance of Canvas. Please refer to the Proctorio How to Guides for more details.

Canvas for Not-for-Credit Students

With all face-to-face classes and interactions being moved online, some colleges face a challenge with providing Canvas access to their Not-for-Credit or community education students. Our Canvas for Not-for-Credit Students webpage provides information on how to provide access to students who may not matriculate into your system in the same way as traditional students.