Report 2017-102 Recommendation 29 Responses
Report 2017-102: California Community Colleges: The Colleges Reviewed Are Not Adequately Monitoring Services for Technology Accessibility, and Districts and Colleges Should Formalize Procedures for Upgrading Technology (Release Date: December 2017)
Recommendation #29 To: Los Rios Community College District
To increase the transparency of its annual review processes, by June 2018, American River should establish procedures requiring its departments to document attendees, input received, and agreements reached during meetings to consider instructional technology equipment requests.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2023
In February of 2020, the District amended Board Regulation 3412 to create an Educational Technology Committee (see section 2.1.3 of R-3412 attached). The Committee was created to discuss and make recommendations related to educational technology, classroom multi-media, distance education, etc., including classroom/lab and distance education software and equipment.
The Committee promotes transparency and collaboration on technology tools and needs across the District. The Committee holds regular meetings and its minutes are publicly available here: https://employees.losrios.edu/our-organization/committees/education-and-technology-committee
The Committee meets once a month and the minutes lists the attendees, topics discussed, and informational items. The Committee is composed of faculty members from each college, District IT staff, distance education coordinators, and various technology representatives. The Committee hears updates from the colleges and its IT leads, discusses future district-wide technological purchases, and suggests recommendations to policies or regulations.
Each college also has a local committee focused on technology that works with each department. Requests for technology equipment can be made at the local committee level or at the District level. The District has developed a central location within the employee self-service hub for technology or software requests, and an assistive technology software hub for help with various software such as screen readers and document conversions. A screenshot of all the employee self-service resources is attached.
The self-service hub documents and tracks individual equipment or software requests to ensure that requests are fulfilled (see screenshot of fulfillment stages). With a centralized hub, District IT has made it easier for employees to make requests and track requests until they are fulfilled.
- Completion Date: February 2021
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
On pages 35 to 39 of our report, we describe concerns related to the transparency in the decision-making process for the selection of instructional technology equipment by departments at several colleges, including American River. We address this concern by recommending that American River establish procedures to document certain elements within its department meetings when considering instructional technology equipment requests. Los Rios Community College District's amendment of Board Regulation 3412 does not address our concern. Although the amendment created a district-level committee to evaluate district-wide technology purchases, it did not establish procedures requiring American River's departments to document attendees, input received, and agreements reached during meetings to consider instructional technology equipment requests.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022
In the district's previous response on October 25, 2019, the response outlines the procedure that American River College is following to increase transparency of its annual review process. The documentation and training slides for users were also provided.
- Completion Date: October 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
As we described in our 2019 assessment, the annual unit plan and training slides submitted by American River do not include procedures requiring its departments to document attendees of the annual review process meetings to consider instructional technology equipment requests, input received in the meetings, and agreements reached during meetings.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From June 2019
The new Annual Unit Planning component of the Integrated Planning Portal was implemented in February 2019. Documentation of the process is here: https://apps.arc.losrios.edu/ProgramReview/Home/AnnualUnitPlanning
Training slides for users are here: https://apps.arc.losrios.edu/ProgramReview/Docs/Annual%20Unit%20Planning%202019.pdf
When a unit plan author (e.g. faculty department chair) indicates that instructional technology is being requested in support of a particular Action Step, the author is prompted with a message indicating that a follow-up process will occur in the fall for the author to provide future detail regarding the instructional technology needs (see screen capture image below). Included in this request for follow up is documentation of all faculty involved in the decision-making process for instructional technology requests.
- Completion Date: June 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
The annual unit plan and training slides submitted by American River do not include procedures requiring its departments to document attendees of the annual review process meetings to consider instructional technology equipment requests, input received in the meetings, and agreements reached during meetings.
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
1-Year Agency Response
As a component of the annual unit planning process, the College's new Integrated Planning Portal will require developers to provide a list of all faculty involved in the decision-making process for instructional technology requests. This system will be implemented in February 2019, which is the start of the annual unit planning process. Documentation of this process will be submitted in June 2019.
- Estimated Completion Date: June 2019
- Response Date: January 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
6-Month Agency Response
American River College has created procedures to increase the transparency as noted. Those procedures will be reduced to a formal memorandum by October 2018 and submitted. Generally, the procedure is as follows:
1. The EMP system for the annual unit planning process has been modified to include a checkbox for instructional technology equipment requests where instructional faculty demonstrate verification that "all faculty were provided the opportunity for input when making this request."
2. In fall 2018 the EMP (unit planning) system will be replaced by an integrated planning system, which will include annual unit planning at its core. Within the new planning system, unit planning objectives that are accompanied with requests for instructional technology equipment will require that all instructional faculty involved in the decision-making process be listed as part of the request.
- Estimated Completion Date: October 2018
- Response Date: June 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
American River College has identified a process whereby the Chair and the Dean are able to certify that all faculty were provided the opportunity for input. Reducing that process to writing has not yet been completed.
- Estimated Completion Date: June 2018
- Response Date: February 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2017-102
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.