An alarming number of Americans have become unemployed due to the Covid19 pandemic ⁠— 21.5 million as of June 4, 2020. To keep up with a redeveloping economy, many people will need to go back to school to change careers or to refresh their resumes. 40,000 students are expected to attend classes when San Diego Continuing Education’s (SDCE’s) summer session begins, Monday June 8, 2020.

Job Seekers can pursue a professional certificate in high demand trades from Automotive, Healthcare, Digital Media, to Business and Accounting.

In addition to critical enrollment into summer programs, SDCE aims to reach students with further extensive training. It might have been Covid-19 that prompted every higher education institution across the nation to ramp up online classes, but at San Diego Continuing Education, one of California’s largest noncredit educational organizations, something far more innovative has launched--ICOM Academy.

ICOM Academy is a digital platform that could potentially house hundreds of online career options for adults, as California’s first fully-accredited online noncredit institute. Initial programs focus on Small Business Entrepreneurship, Digital Media, and Information Technology. ICOM Academy will deliver fully online career education certificates to support California’s working adults who need fast, free career training in a flexible learning environment.

With a plan to pilot ICOM Academy in the fall, SDCE was prepared to move 5 certificate programs including wrap-around supports--to a fully online environment in spring 2021. When SDCE campuses were forced to temporarily close in March due to the Covid19 pandemic, the ICOM pilot was accelerated and will launch next month. Not only has the launch set been expedited, but the number of programs has also been increased ahead of schedule. By fall, ICOM Academy will deliver 11 career education certificates entirely online, with 3 additional programs launching in January.

ICOM Academy Certificate Programs

Small Business Planning

Virtual Data Center

Mobile Application Development

Linux Server Administration

Python

Programming with Python

Windows System Administration

Cybersecurity Analyst

Child Provider

Infant Care Specialist

Quick Service Technician

SDCE developed a five-year strategic plan to overhaul its infrastructure and introduce a new way of learning to California’s working adult students. ICOM is not intended to be a traditional online learning environment.

Live interaction between faculty and students will make the experience dynamic. A collaborative project-based learning design authentically connects students to one another. ICOM is modernizing workforce development online in a way that no other adult noncredit institution has been able to achieve--and SDCE has developed this synchronous learning online platform by bringing exceptional faculty together to design a new way for working adults that cultivate skills necessary for success in today’s uncertain economy.

“Our strategic plan centered on an ambitious charge to develop a state-of-the-art online platform to serve working adults, which has been accelerated due to the pandemic,” said Carlos O. Turner Cortez, Ph.D., President of SDCE. “We anticipate that ICOM Academy will set a new standard for adult online career education and invite any adult student living in California to learn with us.”

ICOM Academy will make history by redefining adult online education. While other large platforms offer online instruction, no other platform offers face-to-face, live interaction with faculty and other students in a fully online classroom. Human-to-human relationships matter at ICOM Academy, which explains why SDCE embraces collaborative project-based learning in every career training program offered through ICOM.

To ensure success, students will receive robust supports in a virtual eco-system that is built to complement the instructional platform.

Since the Covid19 closure, SDCE has moved all student services to online delivery. But the preparation for this transition to remote support began well before this spring. SDCE now provides career counseling, exploration, and placement services online and has held multiple online job fairs over the past several weeks. ICOM Academy will connect working adults to promising, new employment opportunities.

In 2019, SDCE was named Heather Van Sickle Entrepreneurial College of the Year by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE). The prestigious honor was given in recognition of SDCE’s groundbreaking innovative culture including the creation of ICOM Academy. “The award recognizes a college for its significant entrepreneurial achievements in the local communities it serves,” said Rebecca Corbin, Ed.D., President and CEO of NACCE.

Career training programs have been designed intentionally as intensive, short-term certificates that lead to jobs with livable wages. The Virtual Datacenter program prepares students to install, configure, and manage VMware’s vSphere software-defined data center technologies. Available fully online, students use a mix of hands-on labs; online class meetings with faculty and fellow students; discussions, and knowledge checks to gain essential cloud-based system administration skills that are in demand by many organizations. The Virtual Datacenter program can be completed in 18 weeks and combined with systems administration skills, students could work as computer support specialists earning from $18 up to $41 per hour per hour.

Another ICOM Academy example is the Mobile Application Development program that can be completed in just 12 weeks. Students participate in the online class 7 hours each week for a total of 84 hours and learn skills to plan, develop, and publish cross-platform mobile applications. Upon successful completion, students can make apps for Android and iOs and with additional expertise can find employment as software or web application developers earning up to $57 per hour.

"The collaborative nature of the instructional design is what makes ICOM Academy different than other online learning," said Michelle Fischthal, D.B.A., Vice President of Instructional Services at SDCE.  “Learning is elevated with student-to-student interaction, an element often missing from online instruction." Faculty in the academy confirm the focus on online live instruction connecting students not only to trained instructors but also with classmates. Students will be required to work together both outside of and during the class.

The synchronous and collaborative instruction is not something that any other community college educational system has been able to create in the entire state; at zero cost to the student, and available to any adult residing in California. Programs are built with Open Educational Resources (OER) or low/zero cost textbook options. SDCE is not only serving historically marginalized students but any and every adult student. ICOM Academy is a one-stop online portal with all the resources a student needs to succeed.

An entire institution is creating and building the infrastructure to support faculty so adult students can be served through ICOM Academy. SDCE’s goal is to build the best remote instruction in all academic areas. Academic institutions could not have anticipated the challenges of the Covid19 pandemic, but innovative platforms such as ICOM Academy will make higher educational organizations remain relevant.