Playlab puts the power to build AI tools — not just use them — directly into the hands of educators, counselors, and administrators across all 116 California Community Colleges. This is Vision 2030 in action.
"The California Community Colleges system is committed to ensuring that all students, faculty, and staff have equitable access to the transformative potential of artificial intelligence."— California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, Vision 2030
Vision 2030 calls California's community colleges to lead on equity, innovation, and student success. That means closing gaps — not just in outcomes, but in who gets to shape the systems that produce those outcomes.
The collaboration between the Chancellor's Office and Playlab is a direct answer to that call. Playlab was founded on the belief that AI should be accessible to everyone — not just engineers and tech companies. Together, we're putting that belief into practice at the largest system of higher education in the nation.
When a counselor at a rural community college can build a student support tool in an afternoon — that's what democratized AI looks like. That's Vision 2030.
The platform gives educators, counselors, and administrators the ability to design, build, and deploy AI solutions for the specific challenges they face every day. The technology is the means. The mission is equity.
Build AI tools through prompt engineering and no-code tool construction — no programming required. If you can articulate a problem, you can build the solution.
Every CCC campus has a private, secure workspace. Build and share tools within your community — and keep your institution's data exactly where it belongs.
Playlab was built for the margins first — for multilingual learners, first-generation students, and the programs that serve them. Equity isn't a feature; it's the foundation.
Share what you build across your college or the entire CCC system. One well-designed tool, deployed at scale, can transform the experience of thousands of students.
A structured, cohort-based program for CCC faculty and staff ready to go deep — building real AI tools while developing transferable skills for their college. Participants receive a modest honorarium in recognition of their work.
The Chancellor's Innovators Program puts CCC faculty and staff at the forefront of leading the future of teaching, learning, and innovation in higher education — in the AI era, on their own terms, for their own communities.
Two focused tracks — one for faculty building discipline-embedded AI literacy, one for administrators and staff driving operational transformation. Both culminate in a working AI tool deployed at your college. Participants receive a modest honorarium for their contribution.
For instructors across all disciplines ready to become the pioneers defining what AI fluency looks like in their field. You are not reacting to AI — you are shaping how your students, your department, and your institution understand it.
Summer 2025 Cohort Dates
Mondays: July 6, 13, 20 & 27 · 4–6 PM PT
For administrators and classified professionals who see the operational challenges clearly — and are ready to lead the institution into a new era of efficiency, communication, and student support at scale.
Summer 2025 Cohort Dates
Tuesdays: July 7, 14, 21 & 28 · 4–6 PM PT
T3 is for experienced Playlab users ready to become AI champions and trainers within their own college communities — not just learning to facilitate, but actively shaping what that facilitation looks like. Participants receive a modest honorarium for their contribution.
T3 is a selective pathway. Reach out to Dr. C (Christyna Serrano, Head of Community Learning & Growth at Playlab, Hartnell College Alumna, and Berkeley Changemaker Professor): christyna@playlab.ai
Summer 2025 Cohort Dates
Mondays
June 8, 15, 22 & 29
4–6 PM PT
There's no playbook for this yet — so T3 is where it gets written. What does it actually look like to coach a colleague through their first AI tool? How do you meet someone who's skeptical or overwhelmed where they are? T3 is a cohort figuring that out together, across institutions, in real time.
Playlab is the foundation — but the best work often pairs it with other tools. T3 trainers learn how to help colleagues stack Playlab alongside tools like Gemini and NotebookLM, building combinations that fit their discipline, their students, and their workflows. Coaching others means knowing what to reach for and when.
Nobody has this figured out — and the CCC system is charged with preparing a workforce for an economy AI is actively reshaping. T3 is for the people willing to sit in that discomfort and still move forward, alongside their colleagues, building the path as they walk it. The best guides for this work aren't the ones with all the answers — they're the ones who know their institutions, their students, and their communities deeply enough to ask the right questions.
The AI Solutions Studio — currently active as the Playlab Database Pilot — is a crowdsourced solutioning initiative led by Dr. Tiffany Kuo at Mt. SAC.
The mission: build a shared, open-access library of AI tools and prompts purpose-built for the California Community Colleges context — searchable, remixable, and credited to the people who created them. Every contribution becomes a resource available to all 116 colleges.
This is distributed leadership in practice. Contributors receive full authorship attribution, demonstrating their leadership across the CCC system.
If you've built a Playlab tool that's working — for a course, a department, a student-facing service — contribute it to the Studio. Your solution may be exactly what another college has been searching for.
Your expertise, your authorship, your impact — at scale. Projects are ongoing and welcome new contributors throughout the year.
Contribute to the Studio →Getting started with Playlab takes two steps. If you're new, we recommend completing a brief onboarding session first — then connect to your college's workspace and you're ready to build. A self-paced async option is available if none of the live session times work for you.
Every CCC college already has a private Playlab workspace. CCC Connect is how you join yours — connect to your college's workspace and start building AI tools with your colleagues.
Already have a Playlab account? Just log in with your existing credentials. Don't create a new account — doing so will result in an error. If you're new to Playlab, we recommend completing an onboarding session first (see below), then connect.
Open CCC ConnectAvailable to all CCC faculty, staff, and administrators. Use your college email address.
New to Playlab? The @One Canvas onboarding course walks you through everything you need to get up and running — at your own pace, on your own schedule.
If you're new, completing an onboarding session (live or async) before joining your college workspace ensures you get the most out of the experience from day one. This self-paced course fully satisfies that step.
Start Canvas CourseAvailable to CCC employees through the @One professional development catalog.
If you're planning to have your students build in Playlab — for coursework, projects, or AI literacy initiatives — please reach out to Dr. C at christyna@playlab.ai first. We'll set up student-specific configured workspaces for your course to ensure data privacy and an appropriate learning environment.
All sessions are offered at no cost. If you're new to Playlab, start with an onboarding session — live or self-paced — to get oriented before joining your college workspace. Additional sessions may be added based on demand, so check back for updates.
These sessions are designed specifically for California Community Colleges faculty, staff, and administrators. The content is tailored to the CCC system — your workspaces, your use cases, your colleagues. If none of the live times work, the self-paced Canvas course is available anytime.
A dedicated onboarding session tailored to the CCC system context and your college workspace. Get set up, explore the platform, and build your first AI tool.
Register on Luma →A dedicated onboarding session tailored to the CCC system context and your college workspace. Get set up, explore the platform, and build your first AI tool.
Register on Luma →A dedicated onboarding session tailored to the CCC system context and your college workspace. Get set up, explore the platform, and build your first AI tool.
Register on Luma →Complete onboarding at your own pace through the @One Canvas course. Same content, your own schedule — start anytime.
Open Canvas Course →A two-session deep dive for CCC community members. Session 1 covers prompt engineering foundations and your first build. Session 2 extends into more complex tool construction. Attend both to get the full experience. Our 101 sessions also introduce how Playlab fits alongside other AI tools available to you — like Gemini and NotebookLM — so you can build real capacity across your entire toolkit.
Hands-on prompt engineering and your first tool build in Playlab. This session lays the foundation for Session 2.
Register on Luma →Build on Session 1 with more complex tool construction. Walk away with a working AI app you can deploy immediately in your course or department.
Register on Luma →A two-session advanced series for CCC community members who have completed 101. Session 1 focuses on refinement techniques and iterative prompting. Session 2 adds analytics and institutional-scale design patterns. Attend both. In the 201 series, we go deeper on combining AI tools — using Playlab's transparent, analyzable conversations alongside other resources to refine both your tools and your teaching practice.
Deepen your builds through iterative prompt refinement and advanced construction patterns. Foundation for Session 2.
Register on Luma →Integrate analytics and design for institutional-scale tools. Complete the 201 series ready to deploy meaningful AI at your college.
Register on Luma →While there are no May training dates currently scheduled, we may add additional sessions based on demand and need. Check back for updates or reach out to Dr. C if you'd like to be notified.
Playlab also hosts Public Learning Sessions that are open to anyone around the world — educators, researchers, policymakers, and curious builders. If the CCC-specific schedule or async option above doesn't work for you, you're welcome to attend any of these sessions to get started. Playlab regularly offers a wide range of workshops and training beyond what's listed here — visit the Playlab events page to see the full calendar.
Get your account set up, explore the platform, and build your first AI tool.
Register on Luma →Get your account set up, explore the platform, and build your first AI tool.
Register on Luma →Get your account set up, explore the platform, and build your first AI tool.
Register on Luma →Get your account set up, explore the platform, and build your first AI tool.
Register on Luma →Partnerships evolve, contracts renew, priorities shift. But Playlab was built on a promise: access. Everything you create on Playlab will always be available to you for as long as the platform exists — regardless of the status of any institutional partnership.
That means the AI tool you build this spring, the workflow you automate this semester, the student resource you design this year — those are yours. They belong to you and your institution. They will serve your students long after any single initiative concludes.
But this is about more than tools. You are building AI capacity — the skills, the frameworks, the institutional knowledge — that will shape how your college navigates the era ahead. You are not a passive receiver of technology. You are a changemaker defining the future of teaching, learning, and student support in higher education. That is the real investment, and it belongs to you entirely.
And because our trainings are designed to help you combine AI tools effectively — not just learn one platform — the capacity you build here extends well beyond any single tool. You're developing the skills and judgment to lead with AI at your institution, whatever the landscape looks like next year.
Everything you need to grow as a builder — from your first session to your most ambitious tool.
Guides, tutorials, and walkthroughs for building in Playlab — from getting your account set up to designing multi-step AI tools for your classroom or department.
Visit LearnBrowse tools and projects built by Playlab users around the world. Find something useful, remix it for your context, and see what's possible when educators build.
Explore PlaylabNeed help beyond what's in these resources — or want to learn more about the Innovators Program, T3, or the AI Solutions Studio? Reach out directly.