June 3, 2021 - Vision in Action No. 36
STUDENT CENTERED DESIGN LAB RELEASES CASE STUDY ON CALIFORNIA COLLEGE PROMISE GRANT APPLICATION REDESIGN
The California Community Colleges Student Centered Design Lab (SCDL), housed and operated by the Foundation for California Community Colleges, recently released its first case study. The case study is focused on the redesign of the California College Promise Grant financial aid application.
In partnership with the Chancellor’s Office, the SCDL worked to redesign the application to:
- Reduce student hassles in application access and completion
- Increase overall student usage of the application
- Increase overall state financial aid dollars awarded to eligible students
Combining stakeholder research through a design sprint, usability testing, and a survey, the Chancellor’s Office and the SCDL produced a simplified application with more student-friendly language, a clearer pathway guiding students to completion, and the ability for colleges to customize branding and submission instructions.
Launched in 2019 under the Chancellor’s Office guidance and with seed funding from the College Futures Foundation, the SCDL provides design, research, and strategy services to system partners to improve student access and success within higher education.
Read the case study and learn more about the SCDL >
System Guidance/News/Webinars
Join the next Chancellor’s Office and POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) webinar series, Language Shapes Experiences, on Tuesday, June 8 from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Language and choice of words shape our experiences and perceptions every day. Research has shown that language also affects how people think and act. How does the language lens apply to police training, in police encounters, and to how we evaluate police incidents?
This panel will discuss the connection between language and the delivery of police services, including the “Warrior” and “Guardian” rhetoric, the way that officers communicate with individuals, the way the media and public conversations tend to describe policing and crime, and lessons from the field and academic research.
Register for the webinar here.
The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and The Puente Project are partnering to offer a two-day training institute to champion student success and support faculty professional development. The interactive and dynamic two-day Teaching and Learning Institute will inspire, inform and empower faculty to engage in critical self-examination and skill-building activities to lay the groundwork for sustainable, front-line, long-term, anti-racist equity work in their classrooms and institutions.
The Institute will explore the following key questions: What is our role in deepening equity work on our campus and beyond? What are our goals as equity workers? How can we begin to make tangible shifts in order to reach those goals?
All California Community Colleges faculty are welcome and we especially encourage the participation of counseling faculty and faculty teaching transfer-level Math and English.
The free, two-day program is Wednesday, June 9 and Thursday, June 10 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. each day.
Register here.
The Chancellor’s Office Government Relations & College Finance and Facilities Planning divisions continue their systemwide Policy Advocacy Webinars to provide timely updates on major policy decisions affecting the California Community Colleges, including state and federal legislative and budget actions. These webinars are intended for community college leaders who lead and/or support policy advocacy, including CEOs, chief business officers, marketing directors and/or government relations and public information officers, as well as student leaders, policy advocacy organizations and higher education stakeholders. The webinar is Friday, June 11 from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
The Chancellor’s Office Statistics Institute team will present a four-hour workshop at the virtual United States Conference on Teaching Statistics on Increasing Student Engagement at Two-Year Colleges Using Socially Relevant Contexts. The webinar is Saturday, June 26 from 8:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The lead facilitator is Dr. Roxy Peck, professor emerita of statistics at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and a nationally known leader in statistics education. Among her many honors, Dr. Peck was made a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and received the American Statistical Association’s Founder's Award and the USCOTS Lifetime Achievement Award in Statistics Education.
Register for the pre-conference workshop and conference at this link.
The next Chancellor’s Office System Webinar - Enacted State Budget + District Implementation Strategy - will take place on Wednesday, July 7 from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. If you are already registered for the Chancellor’s Office System Webinars, there is no need to register again. You will receive a reminder email prior to the webinar with your link.
Please share the 2021 System Webinars registration link with your colleagues that are not yet registered. (Registration is only required once and the same link will be used to access all System Webinars in 2021.)
The Chancellor’s Office is committed to keeping everyone informed during this uncertain time. We encourage administrators, faculty, staff and students to regularly check the Chancellor’s Office COVID-19 resource page and the Chancellor’s Office Communications to Colleges section for ongoing executive orders, guidance memos and announcements. Current and prospective students can also get connected with their local college to find out specific resources and support services available as well as enroll in their local community college.
Items of Interest
California could move to end some COVID-19 mask and distancing rules for workers.
California's vaccine lottery isn't boosting falling numbers.
Only 4 states are now in COVID 'high risk' level. Here's how they compare to California.
U.S. to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Biden announces.
Stimulus checks substantially reduced hardship, study shows.
