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UCCP is proud to have developed special initiatives and pilot programs to explore effective ways of developing and delivering UC-approved online courses in California and beyond. As a research-based organization, UCCP strives to improve its courses and services based on best practices, mission-driven outcomes and explores new models of delivery which may benefit students, schools and partners. UC College Prep began a special partnership with Riverside Unified School District in 2006. At that time, Riverside's teachers used UCCP's servers and learning management system to instruct their students. When UCCP shifted to its new strategic direction, it used this pilot program to inform its design of licensing courses to schools and districts instructing students online. Today UCCP's catalog of courses form the core curriculum of the Riverside Virtual School, an online school formed by the district. Through the auspices of the K20 California Educational Technology Collaborative, a pilot partnership was formed with California community colleges and the California Virtual Campus to offer UCCP courses through a network of community colleges. In 2008 California Virtual Campus and Los Angeles Trade and Technical College began enrolling Los Angeles Unified School District students in UCCP courses taught by local community college instructors online. Current plans include widening the program to several community colleges, and to begin statewide enrollment. Online learning's next big advance may be the incorporation of digital or print-on-demand textbooks to accompany online courses, or even to serve as more affordable textbooks for classroom use. UCCP has posted the text of its AP Environmental Science course on Connexions, a site developed by Rice University. UCCP plans to add other courses materials to the site in the near future. Many of UCCP's courses are licensed outside California by the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, which maintains the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), a collection of UCCP courses and derivative courses created from UCCP content. Through NROC, UCCP courses are used across the United States and all over the world. Riverside Virtual School |