What Are the Benefits?

Benefits of POCR

There is no doubt that it takes tremendous effort and dedication to produce POCR "Quality Reviewed" classes, but there are so many benefits that serve our students, and make your job as their instructor easier! 

Increase Student Success and Address Equity Gaps

• A 2025 study by Pierce College, involving 316 sections of 25 different classes between Spring 2018 and Spring 2025, revealed an overall 10% increase in course success rates following POCR alignment. 

• In a 2024 study of success rates by ethnicity, the greatest increases in success rates were among Asian (+10% increase), Filipino (+9% increase), and Hispanic (+9% increase) students  (shown below), and students under 20 (+7% increase) and 20-24 (+8% increase) years of age. Increases of 3% to 13% were seen across all genders. 

• These results illustrate the power of POCR to increase student success and help close equity gaps. 

Provide an Equitable, Positive Learning Experience for our Students

• POCR-aligned courses are 100% accessible and ADA-compliant. Through our POCR training, you are shown how to embed your course content into accessible Canvas pages, how to add close captions to videos, and how to add appropriate alt text to images. During the POCR review, any accessibility concerns are identified and fixed.  

• POCR-aligned courses capture different learning styles and engage and support students of all backgrounds. For example, an important facet of POCR-aligned courses is establishing a sense of community among students. POCR-aligned courses offer students opportunities to engage with each other on course content-related topics but also provide a safe and inclusive space for them to interact with each other informally in an unstructured format. This social engagement is especially important for our minority students.

• Socially integrating students and providing opportunities for peer collaboration have been shown to increase student commitment to an institution, enhance academic achievement and student attitudes, and decrease the likelihood of attrition. Cooperative learning also promotes interpersonal relationships and improves social support, elements that have proven to be especially important for minority students. Students must feel safe and accepted if they are to focus on the higher-level needs required for learning.

• POCR-aligned courses scaffold learning to provide support to struggling students and to challenge those who excel, through individualized learning opportunities such as remedial activities or resources for advanced learning. Providing additional support to assist struggling students has been shown to increase retention.

• POCR-aligned courses utilize a variety of media throughout the course, such as text, audio, video, and images, to capture the interest of students with various learning preferences. Integrating a variety of instructional methods into the curriculum in this way supports student learning and has been shown to inspire the motivation to learn. 

• Assessments in POCR-aligned courses address the learning styles of students with different strengths and weaknesses, as they embrace both formative and summative assessment techniques. Meaningful and timely feedback is provided to students so they can learn from their mistakes, and feel empowered to make adjustments that increase their chances of success.

• All of these strategies contribute to the increases in student success that we are seeing in our POCR “Quality Reviewed” courses!  

Stipend and Badge

• Online instructors who fully align their course through LAPC POCR earn a $1,000 stipend for their first course and $500 for each subsequent course (pending funding each term).

• Once aligned, your course will receive a “Quality Reviewed” badge that is visible in the student search for courses in the California Community College Online Course Exchange. Badged courses rise to the top of the list, potentially increasing your enrollments. Your badge also appears on our LACCD Class Search! 

Student Testimonials

POCR “quality-reviewed” courses are special, and students notice a difference. Anonymous student surveys, an integral part of POCR courses, are revealing:

• "I really appreciate how well-organized this class is, it really makes it easy for me to focus and stay on track. It is probably one of the best-organized classes on canvas I've had so far!" (Ocean 1, Kokorowski)

• “I like the way you take your time and review our assignments and want us to revise it again. I feel I am really learning from my mistakes.” (ESL 8, Ray)

• "Thank you for being so helpful throughout this semester. I knew that if I was struggling I can easily reach out and expect a great response for you. Every time I would submit an assignment I was happy to know that I was going to receive valued feedback. Every word that you gave me professor was there to better myself and my understanding of the topic. I am extremely grateful for everything you have done to ensure your students do their absolute best." (Ocean 1, Kokorowski)

• "I like the organization of the course materials and how you can almost choose how you want to learn the material. Because I am a very visual learner, I prefer using the videos to learn as it is much easier for me. I also like how the homework is easy to navigate." (ACCTG 1, Ignatovski)

• "I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the incredible organization of your class. Your class and the way the homework is laid out, in particular, makes learning SO much easier. It is especially helpful because there is a lot of detailed information that must be understood before one can move on to the next section and the way you break it down into "bite-size pieces" makes all the difference. By the time I get to the 'study for the test part,' I really feel confident in what I already know." (Ocean 1, Kokorowski)

• “Everything in this online class is very well-organized, from modules to lectures and feedback. You have made it very clear and easy to follow the assignments” (ESL 8, Ray)

• “The things that I enjoy a lot in this course is that all the assignments and lessons are explained in full and in detail, and the other is that for each section there is a video or videos that you can understand the lessons better by watching them, such as a face-to-face class understood the topic under discussion, because in many cases it is not possible to understand the topic properly by reading the text.” (ESL 8, Ray)

• "What I particularly like about this course is how easy it is to manage my assignments and how to access them, how the instructor responded to my email quickly and nicely when I had questions, and how everything was labeled out correctly for what we have expected in this course." (ACCTG 1, Ignatovski) 

• I appreciate the structure of the course, as it is well-organized and easy to follow. The assignments and assessments are well-designed and provide a good balance of challenge and reinforcement. The course objectives are clear, and I feel that I am able to easily track my progress throughout the course." (ACCTG 1, Ignatovski)

• “I love how organized is the class. My favorite things are the feedback in my homework, the videos with explanations, the small group discussion, and that the grades are not a number”  (ESL 8, Ray)

• "I wish all my classes could be like this, but as you well know, many teachers focus on the testing and that just creates a lot of fear about the test, and less interest in learning." (Ocean 1, Kokorowski)

• "This is one of the most organized and detailed classes I've taken. Everything is explained so well and makes understanding all the topics so easy. I feel so supported in my learning." (Ocean 1, Kokorowski)

• "I like the fact that this course is very well organized and all the material that we need to succeed in the class is well-placed and easy to access. All the learning material provided makes learning important concepts very easy." (ACCTG 2, Ignatovski)

• "I like how organized the course is, with all the assignments listed in the weekly modules. A scavenger hunt is not needed to find out what is due for the week; everything is very organized and straight to the point." (ACCTG 2, Ignatovski)

• "What I most enjoy about this class is the organization. It is rare to see a class such as this one that is highly organized. Everything is easy to locate and very detailed. The modules are neat which makes learning this new information a bit easier. I appreciate the videos included in the modules. As well as the graded video quizzes. This helps me to check my understanding of the information." (ENV SCI 1, Kokorowski)