College's Accreditation Reaffirmed

Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges, reaffirmed Moreno Valley's College accreditation for the remainder of the cycle at its January meeting.

Last October, a follow-up team visited the institution for the purpose of determining whether the College had addressed the deficiencies identified by the peer review team during the spring 2020 comprehensive visit and demonstrated compliance with the standards cited in the Commission's June 29, 2020, action letter.

During its initial visit, the accreditation team identified a compliance issue having to do with policy on Distance Education and correspondence education. Standard II.A.2 requires that a college establish a policy defining regular and substantive instructor-initiated contact with students for Distance Education courses. The Commission requires professional development opportunities for faculty to ensure Distance Education courses include regular and substantive instructor-student interaction.

After receiving the deficiency notification College staff developed policies, guidance and processes to ensure Distance Education courses include regular and effective instructor-student interaction. In addition to creating administrative procedures, which were adapted Districtwide, the College created multiple DE professional development opportunities to implement the policies and guidance since the comprehensive visit to ensure Distance Education courses include regular and substantive instructor-student interaction.

An assembled faculty support team, a subcommittee of the Distance Education Response Team, developed a peer-to-peer support model beginning with the establishment of the Canvas shell. Additional faculty resources were released to support professional development, and nine multi-disciplinary associate and full-time faculty were each assigned a cohort of up to 40 faculty to intentionally engage and provide peer support. And, three professional development models were created to increase the level of online instruction. In all, a report from the College to the Commission showed faculty activity increased to nearly 10,000 hours.

Robin Steinback, Ph.D., president of Moreno Valley College, said the commission was impressed by the "spectacular and creative approach for distance education," and asked that the College consider sharing it widely with colleagues in higher education.

Steinback said, "We should expect many calls."

The next report from the College will be a midterm report, which will be due on March 15, 2024, followed up with a comprehensive review in fall 2026 and then a focused site visit in spring of 2027.