Closing Gaps with the Peralta Online Equity Rubric

Just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Peralta Community College District began its Online Equity Initiative to reduce district-wide, equity-based gaps in online learner retention and success. The initiative created a course design rubric and a professional development training for Peralta faculty to redesign their courses after learning about common equity-related issues identified in research literature. When the pandemic caused the four Peralta colleges to close their campuses, the rubric and training helped faculty to support online learners who were forced to complete online and emergency remote courses. In this chapter, the authors describe the rubric and training, the results from an early impact study, the district’s post-pandemic goals, and lessons learned as the initiative matured.