California K-12 schools to gain free access to UC online college prep courses on powerful high-speed network.
Millions of California students and teachers will gain free access to UC quality online college prep courses and online lessons through a new partnership between University of California College Prep (UCCP) and the K-12 High Speed Network, a high-speed, high-bandwidth statewide network that reaches over five million California students and educators.
UC College Prep, a statewide program of the University of California, will house its state- and College Board-approved online courses and digital lessons on the K-12 network’s servers so that California high schools can easily pull down the courses to teach online at no cost. The network’s Calaxy Web site (www.k12hsn.org/calaxy) includes a wealth of resources including free access to a learning management system needed to teach online credit-bearing courses. Rather than acquiring and maintaining servers and technology to instruct the courses, schools can access the courses and content through the network.
“We are excited to be working with UCCP in meeting the needs of schools across California,” said Todd Finnell, chief executive officer of the K12HSN. “The ability to leverage the resources of each organization and coordinate our services will ensure students in all areas of the state have access to compelling content and learning opportunities.”
The two programs will also collaborate on a pilot to reach rural and underserved schools so students and teachers in dire need of Advanced Placement and college prep courses may access UC College Prep’s approved courses through the network. Both organizations are dedicated to providing access to materials through technology for the advancement of students everywhere in California with a special emphasis on underserved students.
Founded in 1999, UC College Prep develops and distributes UC-approved online Advanced Placement and other college prep courses for use by California teachers and students. Its courses are considered some of the highest quality multimedia courses in the world. Last year, over 83,000 California students used UCCP’s online content and over 153,000 students across the world accessed UC online course content. For more information on UC College Prep, visit www.uccp.org