out of class assignment meaning

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Informational

Out of Class Experience for Examination Purposes

Human resources, office of workforce planning, out-of-class experience for examination purposes.

An Out-of-Class (OOC) assignment is an assignment where an employee is performing duties not consistent with the employee’s classification of appointment. An example would be a Correctional Officer performing the duties of a Correctional Sergeant. The employee would perform the full range of duties of the higher classification and the duties must consist of more than 50 percent of the employee’s time. An OOC assignment can be used when there is an organizational need to fill a position temporarily.

Employees can use OOC experience to meet minimum qualifications for examinations. There are two types of OOC experience that will be accepted; paid and non-paid experience. In each case, employees must obtain verification of the OOC experience. A list of what is required to meet the minimum qualifications for examination purposes is listed below:

Paid OOC experience will be accepted if it meets all of the following criteria:

• Must  be  pre-approved  (memorandum  from  the  Personnel  Office  placing  the employee on an OOC assignment).
• The employee performed the OOC duties for the appropriate amount of time per their Memorandum of Understanding.
• An approved Completion of Out-of-Class memorandum completed by the Personnel Office.
• An OOC Assignment memorandum documenting the completion of the OOC duties approved by the Personnel Office

NOTE: A copy of the documents listed above must be submitted with the employee’s application for the examination for which they are applying. OOC experience will not be accepted to meet the minimum qualifications for an exam if these documents are not submitted with the employee’s application.

Non-paid OOC experience will be accepted if it meets all of the following criteria:

• Employee made a written request no later than one year from the last date the OOC duties were performed, consistent with State Personnel Board (SPB) Rule 212.
• The employee performed the OOC duties for 30 consecutive days, consistent with State Personnel Board (SPB) Rule 212.
• An OOC memorandum documenting the completion of the OOC duties for exam purposes approved by the Personnel Office.

NOTE: A copy of the approved OOC memo must be submitted with the employee’s application for the examination for which they are applying. OOC experience will not be accepted to meet the minimum qualifications for an exam if these documents are not submitted with the employee’s application.

It is in the best interest of the employee to ensure that any OOC experience performed is documented by the Personnel Office. Unfortunately, any undocumented OOC experience will not be accepted. If you have questions regarding the OOC process, please contact your Personnel Office.

July 7, 2010

How Do I Design for Effective In-Class and Out-of-Class Learning?

Faculty have found that integrating the right mix of in-class and out-of-class activities can support student learning and engagement, regardless of whether they are teaching face-to-face, fully online, or a combination of the two formats. How can you maximize the benefits of in-class and out-of-class learning? Below are the advantages of each option followed by some considerations we encourage you to reflect on to find a balance that makes sense for your course and your students.

Advantages of In-Class Learning

In-class learning experiences (i.e., those that happen in real-time, either in an in-person class or synchronously through a video and/or chat tool) offer direct social engagement and feedback and can more closely resemble face-to-face interactions.

Some advantages of in-class learning activities include:

• create a space for social support among peers and the instructor;
• allow students to provide context to their responses and to receive immediate feedback from their peers and instructor; and
• offer the instructor a chance to clarify misconceptions on material in real-time (Giesbers et al., 2013).

Advantages of Out-of-Class Learning

Out-of-class learning experiences (i.e., those that happen asynchronously and don’t require concurrent participation) provide flexible opportunities for interaction and communication.

Some advantages of out-of-class learning activities include:

• benefit students by accommodating when they can access the course;
• offer more time and space for students to reflect on their learning, practice, and refine their contributions to class activities; and
• generate an archive of information (e.g., discussion posts, instructor recaps, recorded videos) that students can return to throughout the semester (Johnson, 2006).

Finding Balance

Students may positively perceive in-class learning because they receive immediate feedback and feel like they are part of a community. However, students may also appreciate that they are able to engage with the content on a deeper level outside of class. Finding a balance between both formats, regardless of your teaching context, would help in supporting students’ cognitive and social needs.

The considerations below aim to guide you in your course design decisions on how to maximize in-class and out-of-class learning in any teaching context.

Considerations

What are the essential components of your course? Before deciding on the types of learning activities you want to include in your course, you should first examine your course content, learner needs, and your course goals. Certain in-class or out-of-class activities work better for particular purposes. For example, creating time to connect and develop a classroom culture, providing informal feedback and guidance, reviewing content to check for understanding, and celebrating learning may lend itself better to in-class activities, while teaching new skills or concepts and extended practice may be better suited for out-of-class activities where students have time to reflect and refine their thinking. The image at the top of the page is one example of a course structure that incorporates in-class and out-of-class learning activities. The out-of-class activities on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday include a mix of watching videos and readings (Monday), working on problems (Wednesday), and revision of the problems (Friday). During class on Tuesday and Thursday includes whole-class practice and instruction and small group work with the instructor.

What technology do you and your students have? Having a sense of what technology students have access to could also inform your decisions around in-class and out-of-class activities. For example, suppose you are thinking of having students work together in class on a collaborative document while also drawing from the readings or external research. If students are using a tablet, cell phone, or a small computer monitor, it may be difficult to access multiple documents and platforms at once.

It is also important to consider what classroom technology you will have access to for your course. Are you located in a classroom equipped to support online synchronous sessions, where some students may be attending class in-person while others are attending virtually? Is Echo360 lecture capture available to record your class sessions? Knowing what technology you have available to you will be important as you plan and select different activities.

How can you build in flexibility? Keeping students engaged throughout the semester means they have multiple opportunities to interact with the instructor, the content, and with each other. Many faculty have found that having a mix of in-class and out-of-class activities supports student participation and overall engagement in their courses. For example, some faculty pre-record videos, embed questions into recorded video lectures, use discussion forums, and give low-stakes quizzes as outside-of-class activities to promote deeper understanding and reflection. In-class time is spent providing immediate feedback to students when they had questions about the content, small group check-ins, and building community through collaborative work.

What aspects of the course should contribute to a grade? It’s always effective to connect your assessments back to your learning outcomes. Consider whether every activity should count towards a student’s final grade, or if some activities could be optional or ungraded. If you decide to provide students with a choice on how they would like to engage (e.g., attending an in-class review session or posting questions in a discussion forum), consider how (or if) you would like to track their participation in the LMS.

Please contact the CTL with any questions or for more details about the examples shared at [email protected] .

Giesbers, B., Rienties, B., Tempelaar, D., & Gijselaers, W. (2013). A dynamic analysis of the interplay between asynchronous and synchronous communication in online learning: The impact of motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30 (1), 30-50. doi: 10.1111/jcal.12020

Johnson, G. M. (2006). Synchronous and asynchronous text‐based CMC in educational contexts: A review of recent research. TechTrends, 50 (4), 46-53. doi: 10.1007/s11528‐006‐0046‐9

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Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 2, § 438.6 - Use of Out-of-Class Experience

• State Regulations

Note: Authority cited: Section 19050.8 , Government Code. Reference: Section 19050.8 , Government Code.

State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.

New Legislation Limits Out-of-class Assignments for CalPERS Members

Effective January 1, 2018, Assembly Bill 1487 added section 20480 to the California Government Code, which limits "out-of-class" appointments by PERS contracting agencies to 960 hours per fiscal year, and imposes a penalty for work in excess of this limit.

The new law applies to public agencies that have contracted with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. These employers must take steps to identify employees who are in an "out-of-class appointment" as defined by AB 1487, to track and report their hours worked commencing January 1, 2018, and to ensure each employee is compensated for the work according to a collective bargaining agreement (for represented employees) or a public pay schedule (for non-bargaining unit employees).

The purpose of the legislation is to "limit the amount of time a worker can serve in an out-of-class temporarily upgraded position." The limitation is enforced by a penalty payable to CalPERS.

CalPERS has not indicated its intentions for implementing and enforcing AB 1487. To avoid penalties, employers are advised to: (1) carefully scrutinize all out-of-class assignments to determine whether they are subject to AB 1487; (2) begin maintaining accurate records of all such assignments to facilitate reporting; (3) consider commencing out-of-class assignments that may exceed 960 hours midway through the fiscal year, to avoid exceeding 960 hours in a fiscal year; and (4) consider in advance the applicable penalty if an out-of-class assignment will exceed 960 hours per fiscal year.

Definition of "Out-of-class" Appointments

AB 1487 defines the term out-of-class appointment as an "appointment ... to an upgraded position or higher classification ... in a vacant position for a limited duration." The term vacant position "refers to a position that is vacant during recruitment for a permanent appointment," and expressly does not refer "to a position that is temporarily available due to another employee’s leave of absence."

Although this language is not entirely clear, it appears AB 1487 applies only to appointments to upgraded or higher positions that are vacant during recruitment for a permanent appointment. If so, positions that are not subject to recruitment would not be subject to the 960-hour limit.

The 960-Hour Limit per Fiscal Year The 960-hour limitation is tracked on a fiscal year basis. Under California law, statutes are generally presumed to operate prospectively. (Western Security Bank v. Superior Court (1997) 15 Cal. 4th 232, 243.) Accordingly, hours worked before January 1, 2018 likely will not count toward the 960-hour limit during the current fiscal year. As a result, employers with a July 1 through June 30 fiscal year may be able to assign employees to work out of class for up to 960 hours from January 1 through June 30, 2018, and work the same employees out of class for up to 960 hours during the new fiscal year starting July 1, 2018, without risk of penalty.

In future years, employers with a July 1 through June 30 fiscal year may opt to commence lengthy out-of-class assignments (exceeding 960 hours) midway through the fiscal year, to limit the possibility of exceeding the 960-hour threshold during a given fiscal year.

Tracking and Reporting Requirement Perhaps the most burdensome requirement of AB 1487 is tracking and reporting all hours worked in out-of-class assignments each fiscal year. Even if no employee is assigned to work out of class for more than 960 hours, the hours worked by any employee in such an assignment must be "tracked" and reported to CalPERS no later than 30 days after the end of the fiscal year.

Thus, employers must begin tracking these out-of-class assignment hours immediately (beginning January 1, 2018), and by July 30, 2018, report those hours to CalPERS. Currently there is no mechanism for reporting these hours; presumably CalPERS will create a reporting structure in the next few months.

Penalties and Possible Exception for "New Members" under PEPRA AB 1487 imposes a penalty for out-of-class appointments that exceed 960 hours in a fiscal year. The penalty is equal to three times the difference between "the employee and employer contributions that would otherwise be paid to the [PERS] system for the difference between the compensation paid for an [out-of-class appointment] ... and the compensation paid and reported to the system for the member’s permanent position."

Again, this language is not a model of clarity (the term "otherwise be paid" is not defined). The most likely interpretation is that the applicable penalty is three times the difference between the employee’s regular employer/employee CalPERS contributions and the actual employer/employee CalPERS contribution paid in connection with the out-of-class assignment.

Thus, the penalty for a given out-of-class assignment that exceeds 960 hours may be negligible or even zero. Even where the penalty is substantial, the operational need for the assignment may outweigh the possible penalty. But AB 1487 also imposes an additional requirement that the employer reimburse CalPERS "for administrative expenses incurred in responding to this situation." It is not clear what costs may be included in calculating CalPERS’s administrative expense.

As it specifically imposes administrative penalties, AB 1487 does not appear to create a private cause of action, meaning individual employees (or their unions) would not have the ability to sue employers for allowing out-of-class assignments to exceed 960 hours.

Notably, a broad exception may affect penalties applicable to "new members" under the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA; Government Code § 7522.04(f)). CalPERS has advised that "temporary upgrade pay" is not a reportable form of compensation for "new members" under PEPRA. (CalPERS Circular Letter 200-064-17, Dec. 6, 2017.) Therefore, the employer/employee CalPERS contribution paid in connection with an out-of-class assignment may be identical to the regular CalPERS contributions for the employee’s permanent assignment, since no additional contribution would apply to the temporary upgrade pay. As a result, there might be no net "penalty" for these employees when they exceed the 960-hour threshold.

Determining whether a given position is subject to the 960-hour limit, and if so, whether a penalty applies, will require a fact-specific analysis. Employers are encouraged to contact one of the authors or another AALRR attorney with questions about these new requirements.

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