The Commons Annual Report for 2019-2020 is now available to download!

Released roughly six months later than usual due to the disruption of the pandemic, the report highlights the importance of the Commons to so many who are adapting to the world of remote teaching and learning. We have added 4,600 members since June (a 19% increase), almost all of them students and faculty (or both). This brings our total member count to 28,600.

We’ve added 3,000 Sites and 212 Groups over the same period, a 25% and 12% increase since June. Of these, a substantial number were explicitly set up for coursework, bringing our total course-related Sites and Groups on the Commons to more than one thousand. We’ve come a long way since launching undergraduate teaching less than two years ago, when we had no idea how crucial it would become.

Please download the entire report to learn more about how our community-owned infrastructure functions as an open classroom for students across the CUNY campuses, hosting more than a thousand courses, 2,700 student portfolios as well as numerous student thesis and capstone research projects.

Responding to the COVID crisis, the Teaching & Learning Center at the Graduate Center created the Considerations for Instructional Continuity site to address concerns about campuses closing, online teaching resources, and much more.

Our recent releases have featured improvements to our Courses pages and our Group Library. Responding to the needs of our community (especially to teachers), we added functionality to clone sites and groups.

In solidarity with Black Lives Matter protest movement, the Commons shares a commitment to anti-racism and is using the community platform of the Commons to promote equality and connection. Our new efforts include reviewing hiring practices, opening up the CUNY Academic Commons Subcommittee to new members, creating the new group Anti-Racism at CUNY, and creating a series of programs to highlight anti-racist work.

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