What is the Peralta Online Equity Initiative?
The Peralta Equity Initiative is a district-wide effort to increase learning equity for all learners at Peralta Community College District.
- First, the Peralta Distance Education (DE) Committee introduced equity as a core value in the district’s DE Strategic Plan.
- Next, to help faculty address learning equity in their courses, a small team first created the Peralta Equity Rubric and then developed a related online Peralta Equity Training course.
- Most recently, to make the initiative even more inclusive and robust, the team facilitated the first-ever Peralta Online Equity Conference.
The Peralta Community College District’s Online Equity Team hosted our first Online Equity Conference virtually from April 21 to April 23, 2021. Our goals for the annual conference are 1) to increase the visibility of all efforts to increase learning equity in higher education and 2) to bring together institutions that want to share and adopt equitable practices for all online students globally. Over 800 people registered for our first event, and we learned alongside equity-minded students, educators, staff and leaders who represent colleges, universities, non-profit organizations and vendors from all around the world. All sessions were recorded — you can find them on our Online Equity Conference YouTube playlist. Stay tuned for announcements about next year’s conference!
How do I get involved?
If you work within the Peralta Community College District
Contact equity@peralta.edu for details about the next Equity Training cohort.
If you are interested in starting an equity initiative at your institution (beyond Peralta), we have shared the Equity Rubric and related materials, and the Equity Training course using a Creative Commons – Attribution (CC BY) license. You are free to download and use these resources to increase learning equity for students at your school.
