California’s Online Community College: Positive Results At Last?

Calbiright College, a start-up public community college in California, produces some successful outcomes. After an extremely rocky start, its enrollments and completions are growing and are about on par with other those at other two-year institutions in the state.

Most people outside of California might not know that in 2018 the California assembly, with support from Governor Brown, funded a new type of postsecondary experience. The institution would focus on short-term, workforce-focused credentials, offered online, focused on adult learning, be free or low-cost to students, and use competency-based education. That was a big lift.

The start-up college struggled out of the gate and early leadership managed to alienate its sister community colleges. Years ago, I attended a particularly dicey meeting where Calbright staff were dismissive of the accomplishments of other community colleges while being fuzzy about its own future. That presentation was not well-received. Instead of collaborators, it grew opponents.

Calbright’s lack of results led to calls from the assembly to cease its funding. It takes time to overcome resistance that comes from change. And even more time climb out of holes that you dig for yourself. 

Leadership changed. It became more focused and made slow progress. Recent reports show that Calbright’s enrollments and completions are up. Even so, its cost per graduate is still high compared to other community colleges. This financial results fit into my long-time position that online learning does not automatically lead to lower costs to offer courses. It can, but happens only if lowering the costs of production (and the price to students) is an explicit goal.

It is difficult to succeed with a new, innovative model. This is especially true when it is serving an adult population that is typically lower on the economic scale. In fact, the article shows that the low-income people are often not those enrolling. Many of Calbright’s students already have a degree. 

The long-run for innovations to reach success reminds me of my being involved in the first days of Western Governors University (WGU). It had similar problems with trying to tackle multiple innovation strategies and goals. It, too, struggled for quite some time and even too the unusual position for a while of reporting enrollments only once a year. Success came when it jettisoned some activities that were weighing it down. This allowed WGU to shift to its current focus on online competency-based education . 

Whether we are talking about Calbright College or WGU, these types of innovations take time. Meanwhile, patience is often at a premium. Unfortunately, the debate over Calbiright took the spotlight away from the online success of the other California community college. Their advancements should not be forgotten. 

I will be interested to see how Calbright College (and the other California community college) progress from here. Certainly, the recent success should be seen as encouraging, but I’m not the one having to pay their on-going bills. 

-Russ Poulin
CEO
EduPolicy Insights, LLC