SACRAMENTO – Community college students throughout California will soon have access to new technology that will help them identify their academic goals, develop structured, personalized plans for success and make informed course choices about their education.

“This represents another big step forward for our drive to improve student success,’’ said California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris. “The education planning and degree audit platform now being deployed will help increase student completion rates by providing centralized technology tools for customized student services and education planning.”

Nine college districts will pilot the software beginning fall 2015 before it will roll out to the remaining colleges beginning in 2016.

Teams from the Education Planning Initiative and Hobsons, developer of the technology platform selected for the project, are working closely with college IT personnel and student service representatives to discuss technology planning and implementation for these pilot college campuses:

1.    City College of San Francisco
2.    Los Medanos College (Contra Costa Community College District)
3.    Fresno City College (State Center Community College District)
4.    Crafton Hills College (San Bernardino Community College District)
5.    Mt. San Jacinto College
6.    Santa Barbara City College
7.    El Camino College
8.    Victor Valley College
9.    Santa Rosa Junior College

The platform will assist students in mapping out multi-year course plans to see a clear, streamlined path to reaching their education goals while balancing work and childcare schedules, financial concerns and other challenges.

In addition, the platform helps community colleges support student success and completion rates by breaking down communications silos on campus, allowing instructors, academic counselors, tutors and others to quickly connect with the student and with each other to keep students on track toward graduation.

“Students, faculty and staff will have access at various secure levels to design and monitor completion progress,” said Norberto Quiroz, a counselor at Santa Rosa Junior College and a member of the Education Planning Initiative steering committee. “Students will have access to counseling at the tip of their cursor, and counselors will have the ability to create short and long term comprehensive planning that will point toward students’ stated goals.”

The Education Planning Initiative (EPI) is a project of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

As part of a systemwide Student Success Initiative, the EPI’s mission is to increase student completion rates by providing centralized technological tools for student services and education planning that customize information and activities for individual student needs.

For more information about the initiative, visit http://cccedplan.org .

The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation composed of 72 districts and 113 colleges serving 2.1 million students per year. Community colleges supply workforce training, basic skills education and prepare students for transfer to four-year institutions.

The Chancellor’s Office provides leadership, advocacy and support under the direction of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges.

For more information about the community colleges, please visit http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/ , https://www.facebook.com/CACommColleges or https://twitter.com/CalCommColleges .