News
Bringing Systemwide Technology Success Stories to Light
March 20, 2020
Across the California Community Colleges, awareness of CCC Technology Center solutions is quickly spreading as implementation success stories demonstrate the real benefits for students, staff, and colleges of adopting systemwide technologies.
Various avenues of communication are used daily to broadcast the ways our solutions help colleges address legislative requirements and streamline delivery of instructional and operational resources. However, two separate efforts have shined a spotlight on early adopter success stories: the project-focused Technology Center webinar series, and the statewide Digital Futures newsletter produced by the Foundation for California Community Colleges.
Tech Center Webinars
The Tech Center webinar series originated in 2017 with the CCC MyPath team, as a popular monthly series devoted to MyPath developments and feature demonstrations. In June 2019, the focus of the webinars was expanded to highlight a different Tech Center project each month. Since then, the hour-long sessions have attracted an average of 200 registrants, representing nearly every college across the system.
Tech Center webinars are promoted statewide to more than 5,000 CCC staff and leadership to provide a more complete picture of the wide array of systemwide technologies being developed within the Tech Center organization, and how the various pieces can fit together to help our colleges. Produced jointly by the Tech Center Communications, Enabling Services, and project teams, the online sessions typically feature a product demo, development update, and a presentation from a user college. Recent Tech Center webinars have focused on the SuperGlue integration architecture, the Multiple Measures Placement Service, CCCApply, OpenCCC, and the CCC MyPath student onboarding platform. Webinars are recorded and archived online at CCCTechCenter.org.
Tech Center webinars may be accessed via CCC ConferZoom web conferencing or by phone. The next webinar is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, April 8, at noon. Tech Center personnel should refer to the Statewide CCC Meetings internal calendar for information about upcoming webinar topics and how to attend.
For information about upcoming webinars, or to propose a topic, contact Sandoval Chagoya at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Systemwide Newsletter
Digital Futures newsletter is published quarterly by the Foundation on behalf of the Chancellor’s Office, and distributed via email to thousands of CCC staff and leadership statewide. Each issue offers success stories about programs within the community college system that simplify the student journey, and tools that are available to help our colleges improve delivery of student services or instruction, meet legislative mandates, streamline operations, or reduce costs. Additionally, a professional development listing provides the opportunity to promote upcoming events such as webinars, trainings, and workshops.
Since the inaugural issue in May 2018, Tech Center projects have been featured in at least 30 Digital Futures news stories. Stories have focused on CCCApply redesign efforts, CCC MyPath adoption and metrics, launch of the Multiple Measures Placement Service, and Information Security and Accessibility services, to name just a few. An archive of past issues and all stories is online at DigitalFutures.cccco.edu/News.
Submissions for the May 2020 issue of Digital Futures are due in early April. To propose a news story about your program, contact Sandoval Chagoya at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Library Services, MyPath Projects Win Statewide Tech Awards
March 20, 2020
Two high-profile projects of the California Community Colleges (CCC) Technology Center - the Library Services Platform (LSP) and CCC MyPath student onboarding tool - have recently been named as recipients of prestigious awards that recognize achievements in technology used to enhance higher education in California.
The LSP project received the CCC Chancellor’s Office Technology Focus Award, which highlights projects within California’s community college system that “solve significant problems to the benefit of students, staff and/or faculty.” The annual award was presented to the LSP project at the 2020 CISOA Technology Summit in Monterey, Calif., on March 2.
The CCC MyPath student services platform was recognized with CENIC’s Innovations in Networking Award for Educational Applications. CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, bestows the award each year to highlight “exemplary innovations that leverage ultra-high bandwidth networking, particularly where those innovations have the potential to transform the ways in which instruction and research are conducted or where they further the deployment of broadband in underserved areas.” The award was to be presented at the “CENIC 2020: The Right Connection” conference in March. However, that event was cancelled as a safety precaution due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Unprecedented Statewide Participation
The LSP project has quickly garnered widespread support throughout the community college system. In January, the project successfully transitioned an unprecedented single-year cohort of 110 participating California community college libraries to a unified resource management system, based on Ex Libris’ Alma and Primo library management software.
“Sometimes it’s hard to digest that the California Community Colleges LSP project is the largest Ex Libris consortium and still managed to go live in less than one year,” said Amy Beadle, Statewide Program Manager for the LSP project.
The cloud-based platform gives students throughout the system greater and more equitable access to library resources, furthering the CCC Vision for Success, a multi-year plan designed to substantially increase transfer and graduation rates. Moreover, by positioning all CCC libraries to provide the fullest range of information resources to support instruction across all disciplines, programs, and modalities of instruction, while realizing significant reductions in operating costs, the LSP project is a strong example of the benefits and value of adopting a systemwide approach and solution for operational and programmatic needs shared throughout the system.
The project is a collaboration of the Chancellor’s Office and the Technology Center, in close partnership with the Council of Chief Librarians for the California Community Colleges.
‘A Model for Higher Education Institutions’
Meanwhile, CENIC announced it has selected the California Community Colleges as the recipient of the 2020 Innovations in Networking Award for Educational Applications in recognition of the CCC MyPath online student services platform, which helps millions of students seamlessly navigate through their educational journeys. Project leaders being recognized are: Mike Caruso, MyPath Product Owner, CCC Technology Center; Jennifer Coleman, Statewide Programs Director, CCC Technology Center; Barney Gomez, Vice Chancellor, Digital Innovation and Infrastructure, CCC Chancellor’s Office; and Rhonda Mohr, Vice Chancellor, Student Services and Special Programs, CCC Chancellor’s Office.
MyPath is a customizable, guided pathway onboarding tool that provides information and resources to incoming students and bridges the gap between online applications and a college’s local systems. With its integrated relationship to CCCApply, the systemwide online application for all California community colleges, MyPath sources information from each local community college, simplifies it, and provides students with an individually tailored and structured educational pathway from the time of application to graduation.
The MyPath tool is supported and facilitated by CENIC’s California Research and Education Network (CalREN), which provides robust internet service and facilitates data exchange between all of the community colleges throughout the state.
“MyPath is a model for higher education institutions that wish to implement far-reaching and high-impact technology strategies,” said CENIC President and CEO Louis Fox. “By empowering students and local colleges with streamlined access to educational pathways, California Community Colleges are facilitating student success and ensuring that California’s workforce remains competitive.”
As of February, 45 California community colleges have adopted MyPath, including all 9 within the Los Angeles Community College District. Of these 45 colleges, 26 were live, while another 19 were in the process of deploying the platform for their students. Metrics from Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Calif., showed that 84 percent of all incoming applicants from July to September 2019 engaged in the MyPath onboarding experience, while Solano Community College in Fairfield, Calif., showed rates of 75 percent. These percentages indicate that students were highly engaged during application and enrollment period, a time that typically shows a significant decrease between the number of students that apply and those that enroll.
Congratulations to the LSP and MyPath project teams!
California community colleges and districts are invited to apply for the annual Awards for Innovation in Higher Education, which support breakthrough models to close the achievement gap for underrepresented students that can be applied statewide.
In a recent online discussion on the Basic Skills Coordinators Listserv, the question was posed whether any of the California Community Colleges (CCC) provides mathematics instruction in Spanish.
In a recent online discussion on the Basic Skills Coordinators Listserv, the question was posed whether any of the California Community Colleges (CCC) provides mathematics instruction in Spanish.
In a recent online discussion on the Basic Skills Coordinators Listserv, the question was posed whether any of the California Community Colleges (CCC) provides mathematics instruction in Spanish.
In a recent online discussion on the Basic Skills Coordinators Listserv, the question was posed whether any of the California Community Colleges (CCC) provides mathematics instruction in Spanish.
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In a recent online discussion on the Basic Skills Coordinators Listserv, the question was posed whether any of the California Community Colleges (CCC) provides mathematics instruction in Spanish.