Distance Education Coordinator, Heidi M. Kozlowski said online classes have grown from three courses to 67 classes since 2003.

“Student demands for convenience because of changing work hours or parental responsibilities fuel the flexibility of online course growth,” Kozlowski said. “Online courses give the student the opportunity to graduate from a flexible and convenient course schedule. The online courses give the equalivant of the on-campus experience.”

Online classes allow faculty to teach from out of the area and high priced housing market.

Moodle, the current learning management system will soon to be replaced by Canvas, but this decision was quite thorough.

By separate email, Academic Senate President, Jesus Covarrubias said, “currently faculty is being provided with training and both platforms are still available for now.  In the end, we hope that this change will be more beneficial to students.” Covarrubias said, “The Online Education Initiative (OEI) is providing incentives statewide for all California Community Colleges to adopt Canvas. We know that SJSU uses this platform as well”

Vice Chancellor of Information Technology, Ben Seaberry said, “canvas is very feature rich, can be accessed and easy to use from a smart phone with its mobile application and has 24/7 hour support.”

Online instructor of AJ 127 Intro to Judicial Branch, Ken Torre is still skeptical of the move, but supports the change. Torre said, “I have not examined Canvas so far. My first training is in June; however I support SJCC’s change from Moodle to Canvas.”

The migration from Moodle to Canvas will be complete by summer 2017.