Major Updates

 

Other News

Newly Implemented Regulations

Distance Education Regulations July 1, 2021 Effect Date

Isakson and Roe Act for Veteran Students August 1, 2021 Effect Date

While many of our colleagues across the country are in the throes of fall orientation, the first weeks of classes, and maybe even a little bit of college football, those of us on the quarter system have well over a month until our fall courses start. And if I’m being honest, I’m still knee deep in annual student survey data from this spring. It’s one of my favorite summer projects, and probably the most time consuming. As I analyze new data, comparing it to the themes we’ve heard over the last three years, I’m excited to share what trends in student satisfaction and support we’re seeing at Oregon State University Ecampus. Student satisfaction is something we track carefully using a number of questions to paint a larger picture of the student experience. As we plan for this new academic year, these are some trends that are top of mind for our Student Success Team.
  1. Engagement, of all kinds, is critical. Students tell us each year how much they crave engagement with faculty, students, and course content. Mostly we hear about positive experiences in this area, but the constructive feedback shared is most useful to our course development and training teams as they work with faculty to build high quality online courses. A new theme in the last year, however, has been engagement with the campus community. Students aren’t simply wanting to connect with faculty or other students in their online courses, but they want to more intentionally engage with our campus, services, resources, and other co-curricular experiences outside of the online classroom. They want equitable access to valuable experiences that are offered to our on-campus students.

     

  2. Success is ultimately defined by the student. We added a new question this year asking students to share with us how they defined student success for themselves. Overwhelmingly, students cited mastering course content, making progress toward career goals, GPA, and obtaining healthy work-life-school balance. Each of these elements of success can be addressed through robust faculty training, holistic student services, and proactive success interventions. We’ve also found that there is generally a lack of awareness among online students of what resources they have at their disposal to achieve their definition of success. Collaborative partnerships with student affairs units as well as creative and repetitive communications have helped to increase awareness and use of services that has lead to greater student satisfaction.

     

  3. Personal obligations are significant barriers. Our students reported a shift in personal obligations from last year to this year, likely due to the varied impact of the pandemic on students throughout the country. In spring of 2020, 60% of respondents indicated they were working full or part time, and 26% reported they were caring for children or other family members. In 2021, those numbers dropped to 32% and 18% respectively. Two new options were added to the survey this year, which also happened to top the list of obligations that students cited – 26% indicated they were managing physical and/or mental health issues and 20% reported they were managing financial hardships. As we continue to navigate through the pandemic and see first-hand what the long lasting effects may be, we are choosing to invest in services to support our students’ physical and mental health as well as additional emergency aid to maintain student satisfaction and persistence.
At the end of the day my takeaway is that all roads lead back to caring about our online learners and fostering a sense of belonging and inclusivity among them. What online learners need to have a positive student experience simply comes back to acknowledging their unique attributes and providing the resources and support to ensure the whole student is cared for. If we’ve ever met, you’ve probably heard me talk about the correlation we’ve seen at OSU between sense of belonging, student satisfaction, and intent to persist. We’ve heard directly from students how experiences of belonging and inclusivity have solidified their place at OSU and kept them going during challenging times. We’ve also heard how a lack of belonging and a sense of being excluded or invisible can absolutely break the experience and lead to departure. If you’re interested in hearing more about how we’ve integrated belonging into the online student experience at OSU, please reach out to me ([email protected]). Cheers to all who have made it through the initial weeks of the fall semester and best of luck to those still counting down to the start of classes next month!
Marleigh Perez, Ed.D. is director of student success at Oregon State University Ecampus. Marleigh also serves as chair-elect of UPCEA’s Marketing, Enrollment, and Student Success (MESS) Network.

UPCEA is pleased to announce the 2021 cohort of Bethaida “Bea” González Diversity in Leadership Scholars. We look forward to these eight individuals joining our learning community as they pursue the courses in their chosen certificate program. 

Representative and diverse leadership is a cornerstone of UPCEA’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusive Excellence. The goal of the Diversity Scholars program is to equip diverse professionals at any stage of their career with the skills and knowledge needed to move into leadership positions on campus, in the field of professional, continuing, and online (PCO) education, and in UPCEA.

“This year’s applicants demonstrate the meaningful and impactful work of UPCEA members to enhance diversity and inclusive excellence at their institutions. We look forward to the continued professional development of the 2021 González scholars and their role as change agents in the future,” said Dr. Christina Sax, Provost and Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Maryland University of Integrative Health and co-chair of UPCEA’s Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Committee.

The Diversity in Leadership Scholars program is named for Bethaida “Bea” González, 2014-15 UPCEA President and longtime leader at Syracuse University’s University College. 

“All of us teaching and learning in these programs benefit by how the Diversity in Leadership Scholars program enhances our courses and enriches the student experience,” added Dr. Jay Halfond, UPCEA Online Professional Development Faculty Director and Professor of the Practice Emeritus at Boston University. “This helps keep the diversity dialogue front-and-center. Our students come from very different backgrounds, institutions, and regions – and our Gonzáles Scholars further expand the rich, nationwide perspective students glean from our courses.”

The 2021 Diversity in Leadership Scholars are: 

  • Rhonda Beckett, Assistant Director of Onboarding and Student Initiatives at Thomas Edison State University
  • Lauren Benton, Social Media Coordinator at Mississippi State University
  • Sarah Korpi, Acting Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Dinah Manns, Academic Research Director at Capella University
  • Kristine Rodriguez-Kerr, Academic Director and Clinical Associate Professor at New York University
  • Anthony Scott, Director of Undergraduate Applied and Professional Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
  • Lalitha Subramanian, Assistant Director at the University of Washington
  • Brad Washington, Manager of Design and Development at Western Governors University’s Teachers College

Each Diversity in Leadership Scholar is receiving a full scholarship for the PCO Professional Certificate or the PCO Leader Certificate (both certificates consist of five courses). 

 

Learn more about UPCEA’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusive Excellence.

Learn more about UPCEA’s online professional development program.

Overpriced, outdated and no longer required by an increasing number of employers; is the baccalaureate in a death spiral?

Enrollments at American colleges and universities have been on a decade-long skid. This past year, enrollments dropped by 600,000 or 3.5%. While some of those drops may have been prompted by the pandemic, the trend is clear; fewer and fewer students are entering college.

Since the inception of the first university, the University of Al Qarawiynn, some 12 centuries ago in what is now Morrocco, followed in 1088 by the founding of the University of Bologna, institutions of higher education have held a self-important, “we know what you must learn” attitude. Colleges and universities specify and require general education studies that must be mastered without timely, regular and deep research and consultation for relevance to societal trends, employer needs, and student preferences.

One must ask if we in higher education have kept up with the rapid acceleration of social, technological, and societal changes in every one of our courses, prerequisites, general education requirements, and curricula? Are we teaching the competencies and emphases that will be required to thrive in 2025? I fear not. To keep up to date would require adjustments every single semester – updating every class and every curriculum with a visionary foresight of what will be in place in four, five or six years when incoming freshmen will commence their careers. In truth, our sluggish revision doesn’t keep up with life in this 4th industrial revolution. That would require anticipating and incorporating the accelerating changes and impact of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and associated technologies. It would require anticipating and incorporating social shifts in working and leisure, and it would require teaching for the future rather than the past. These practices, I fear, are far out of the collective reach of our higher education leaders and faculty.

It is true that in the preceding centuries, the rate of technological and social change was somewhat more leisurely. Change from 1821 to 1822, or 1921 to 1922, was likely somewhat less frenetic than we see from 2021 to 2022.

I have sat through debates as to whether foreign language courses (not foreign culture courses) should be required of every student in a time when computer-driven automatic written and oral speech translation is readily available. I find the argument for such requirements akin to the debate some decades ago, of whether college students should be allowed to use calculators. Let me be clear that I do not suggest that such courses should not be available to students, rather that they should not be required of all students in this 21st century.  And, I have seen course syllabi and required textbooks that have not changed in years. I have wondered whether students in those classes are being prepared for the future that they will encounter or rather that they are being prepared for the way things were five or ten years ago. 

We currently document our baccalaureate degrees with transcripts that are owned and controlled by the colleges and universities. This documentation of what has been achieved is withheld if parking tickets have not been paid or other infringements have been committed. A growing movement demands that transcripts shift to blockchain delivery controlled by the students. This holds the potential for students to assemble their own transcripts with selected courses, internships, monitored experiences, projects, and more from a variety of sources – not just one university – that can be validated by HR departments and others reviewing the transcripts. It is possible that a lifelong transcript could be supported that would include continuing and professional education throughout a career. When we go deeper beyond curricula into like these in terms of data storage and dissemination, we may be even slower towards being forward-thinking.

Employers and students are seeking shorter credentialing than the baccalaureate; in particular they are looking for alternative credentials in the form of professional and continuing and online programs that are to-the-point and immediately applicable in the workforce. A survey recently conducted by UPCEA and Evolllution reported that higher ed leaders agree. According to the survey, “seven in 10 higher education leaders (71 percent) said that “alternative credentials” could help them achieve institutional revenue and enrollment goals. Yet, just 60 percent considered credential initiatives ‘totally’ or ‘very’ aligned with their institutions’ strategic plans.”

It seems that the “clients” of higher education – both the students and the employers – recognize that the baccalaureate is too long and all too often teaches dated material rather than preparing students for the future. Shorter, just-in-time sequences of courses, could better address the emerging needs in the workforce and society as a whole. There is still room for the liberal arts in developing critical perspectives; thought processes; and essential skills and abilities. However, not all general education courses need to be required of all students just in case they might need those in the future. Instead, we should allow students more freedom to assemble stackable credentials in building their own set of learning experiences. We should expect that they will come back to the university again and again to update and upskill their knowledge and abilities. This will be the way universities will continue to be relevant and more responsive in serving students and society.

Who on your campus is leading the charge to update the curriculum; to cultivate alternative credentials; to promote revised transcripting that will turn the process over to the student as owner with the university becoming one of a whole host of participants offering documented credentials? Will your institution be left behind, charging $100,000 or more for an outdated and less-relevant baccalaureate while others will be offering less expensive, more relevant, just-in-time credentials that are valued by both employers and students?

This article was originally published in Inside Higher Ed’s Transforming Teaching & Learning blog.

A leading higher education association is setting its sights on alternative credentials, on Tuesday launching two new groups to simplify the process for institutions looking to implement more short-term programs.

The University for Professional and Continuing Education Association announced a council, composed of campus leadership drawn from its more than 400 member institutions, to lead research and discussion on logistics and strategy for offering alternative credentials. Alternative credentials, such as micro-credentials and certificates offered by bootcamps and massive online open courses, are often offered online and are skill-based.

Julie Uranis, the association’s vice president for online and strategic initiatives, told EdScoop institutions can struggle with the IT component of introducing credentials that aren’t based in credit hours, as student information systems are often built for traditional degrees.

“When we start thinking about the space a little bit more, we learn that there are barriers to access that are a product of policies and systems that that just need to be reconsidered or reworked,” she said.

Read the full article.

Dedicated community will deliver strategic and practical guidance for postsecondary professionals involved in the design, development, and delivery of alternative credentials, intended to align higher education programming with the needs of learners and the labor market.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 24, 2021)  Alternative and non-degree credentials continue to gain relevance and traction with students and higher education leaders. This has created a demand for credential innovation and for dedicated resources to advance quality standards, policy and best practices. It is within this context that the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) announces the formation of the Council for Credential Innovation and the creation of the Alternative Credentials Network.

 

Together, these new bodies will form a new community that is grounded in research, guided  by leading practitioners, and informed by UPCEA’s 100-plus-year history of serving adult and nontraditional learners with credit and noncredit programs. UPCEA is the only association that focuses on the holistic development and delivery of university credentials focused on learner and workforce needs. Its members are at the intersection of entrepreneurship, best practices, and praxis. 

 

A foundational resource in this effort is UPCEA’s Hallmarks of Excellence in Credential Innovation, a quality framework for non-degree credentials at the enterprise level. 

 

Also among the building blocks for this new credential innovation community is an important benchmark study released last month by UPCEA and research partners Modern Campus and The EvoLLLution titled, “Shifting Paradigms: Understanding Institutional Perspectives on Microcredentialing.” The report reveals how alternative credentials position higher education institutions to overcome one of the greatest critiques leveled at them, which is a lack of connectivity between programming and the needs of learners and the labor market.

 

“Our research shows alternative and non-degree credentials will be a vital driver of the future success and long-term viability of institutions,” said Robert Hansen, chief executive officer of UPCEA. “We see the creation of a dedicated community for credential innovation as an imperative, not only for advancing the field of alternative credentials, but for aligning higher education programming with the needs of learners and the marketplace.” 

 

In addition to its research, UPCEA convened the Strategic Task Force on New Credentials, a group of national leaders whose recommendations for advancing credential innovation include the formation of a community to engage academic leaders, practitioners and other non-degree credential stakeholders. 

 

“UPCEA possesses the ability to convene non-degree and alternative credential stakeholders to engage in solutions-based discussions focused on complex issues such as accreditation, non-credit to credit pathways, instructor credentials, budgetary as well as pedagogical models, and more,” said Henry Leitner, Ph.D., Associate Dean for IT, Chief Innovation Officer & Sr. Lecturer, Harvard University, & Co-Chair of Strategic Task Force on New Credentials.

 

The Task Force explained that in important ways, growth in the alternative and non-degree credentials field is analogous to the position of online education about 15-20 years ago – operating on the margins, its quality questioned by faculty and some employers, and uncertainty about whether it will evolve into a true disruptor.

 

“Just as online education benefited from the sharing of best practices and other resources, credential innovation demands community input,” said Jennifer Bott, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Western Michigan University, & Co-Chair of Strategic Task Force on New Credentials. “UPCEA is uniquely positioned to serve as this credential innovation hub. Its members have led the world for more than a century in the area of noncredit credentials. Today, UPCEA’s members are at the forefront of the latest innovations in workforce aligned credentials.”

 

Two Bodies, One Community, a Shared Focus

The Council for Credential Innovation is comprised of senior leaders charged with driving non-degree credential strategy at the unit or campus level, and key thought leaders from other nonprofit organizations and companies that are actively contributing to the development of the  alternative credential space. The Council and its leadership will focus on leveraging the strategic potential of non-degree credentials and non-credit education and training to transform institutions of higher education as well as the talent marketplace. 

 

Each UPCEA member institution has the opportunity to identify a representative to the Council for Credential Innovation. Select nonprofit partners and corporate partners engaged in alternative credentials will also have an opportunity to participate.  

 

The Council’s strategic focus will be complemented by the practice-focused Alternative Credentials Network. The mission of the Network is to share best practices and emerging trends related to non-degree or non-credit credentials. This includes an exchange of ideas, programs, services, and initiatives that expand member knowledge regarding new, innovative, and entrepreneurial programs to serve the needs of diverse learners. The Network represents postsecondary professionals that work within externally focused professional, continuing and online (PCO) divisions and units at post-secondary institutions. As with UPCEA’s seven existing professional affinity Networks, participation in the Alternative Credentials Network is open to all UPCEA members.

 

The new Council for Credential Innovation and the Alternative Credentials Network will launch in September.
UPDATE: The Network and Council have launched, please see more here: https://upcea.edu/alternative-and-non-degree-credentials/ 

 

###

About UPCEA

UPCEA is the association for professional, continuing and online education. Founded in 1915, UPCEA now serves most of the leading public and private colleges and universities in North America. The association supports its members with innovative conferences and specialty seminars, research and benchmarking information, professional networking opportunities and timely publications. Based in Washington, D.C., UPCEA builds greater awareness of the vital link between adult learners and public policy issues. Visit www.upcea.edu.

We have experienced dramatic changes in the past year and a half as Covid disrupted our campuses, classes, research and services. What can we expect in the coming academic year?

Turmoil persists as we approach the opening of the fall term. With only a couple of weeks to go, we are experiencing a massive new surge in the virus due to the predominance of the far more contagious Delta variant that targets younger adults. The roller coaster ride of the past year and a half continues. 

The latest numbers show the largest enrollment declines in higher ed in a decade, with 600,000 fewer college students this past year than the year before. This trend downward is likely to continue at least one more term before stabilizing when the Covid crisis subsides for good. It turns out that the magic of the vaccines does not fully protect against infection or reinfection with the Delta variant. Looming on the horizon is a virulent Lambda variant that may further extend the epidemic and the drop in enrollments.

After a challenging spring 2020 term of remote-learning student evaluations, each succeeding term is seeing a shift in pedagogy to embrace online learning best practices with resulting better evaluations and increasing student demand. The continuing contagion crisis has helped to fuel an increase in online learning and hybrid/blended courses and degree offerings among universities that had not previously offered off-campus online programs. This has led many to predict a hybrid future for higher ed. 

Meanwhile an increasing number of employers have dropped their degree requirements, opening their doors to the non-degreed and under-degreed applicants. Concurrently, artificial intelligence has taken on more and more job roles at lower cost and higher reliability than humans. In part, this has fueled the increase in online non-degree certificate and certification programs. Competition has expanded with the growth of non-traditional providers such as LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, 2U (now with edX), and a host of others. Demand is high. The key to success seems to be to match programs with the ever-changing employer needs and to build industry networking among students to enhance placement numbers.

These trends have spawned an increase in enrollment in non-degree certificates and certification programs. Interestingly, nearly half of U.S. adults with a college degree now also hold a certificate in a non-degree education program, according to a Strada-Gallup Education Survey released in July. 

Universities are seeking ways to re-engage students who have dropped out. Colorado is leading the way in allowing universities to award Associate’s degrees to students who have dropped out, but have completed the necessary credits to otherwise qualify for the Associate’s degree. It remains to be seen if this practice will spread and will encourage students to return to the university for further learning.

Overall, it seems that many of the technologies and techniques that were stimulated by the pandemic will continue and expand in the coming months. The acceleration of technology and novel practices are here to stay

Along with the shift in enrollments; delivery modes; technologies; and trend toward shorter programs has come a very concerning trend among the victims of long-Covid. Significant, possibly permanent, cognitive loss is showing up among some long-Covid sufferers. As yet, these effects have been under-reported and have not hit the radar of colleges and universities. A large-scale research project hosted at the Technology Centre and Biomedical Research Centre at Imperial College London published in The Lancet uncovered a statistically significant loss of cognitive ability among some who contracted Covid (emphases below are mine):

The observed deficits varied in scale with respiratory symptom severity, related to positive biological verification of having had the virus even amongst milder cases, could not be explained by differences in age, education or other demographic and socioeconomic variables, remained in those who had no other residual symptoms and was of greater scale than common pre-existing conditions that are associated with virus susceptibility and cognitive problems.

The scale of the observed deficit was not insubstantial; the 0.47 SD global composite score reduction for the hospitalized with ventilator sub-group was greater than the average 10-year decline in global performance between the ages of 20 to 70 within this dataset. It was larger than the mean deficit of 480 people who indicated they had previously suffered a stroke (−0.24SDs) and the 998 who reported learning disabilities (−0.38SDs). For comparison, in a classic intelligence test, 0.47 SDs equates to a 7-point difference in IQ.  

Cognitive ability and mental agility are at the core of higher education. Imagine a colleague, a star scholar-researcher, down the hall from you, who experienced a bout with Covid, seems to have recovered fully, but without her top-notch mental acuity. She has lost her brilliance in mid-career. Or, what if your leading graduate students and postdocs suddenly lost their edge in creativity and problem-solving ability? Worse yet, what about those colleagues and students who are not at the peak cognitive ability of their peers? Will this push them out of the field?

In many cases, these seem to be occurring silently and without other warning. These losses likely will be hidden until discovered in deficits in performance of expected activities. Silently and seemingly without other symptoms, we in academe are confronted by compromises of the essential tool of our trade – our mental acuity.

How will we determine who has been impacted? Surely, we will not administer IQ tests to everyone we suspect has suffered a rough bout with Covid, or will we? If your colleagues or students had suffered strokes, services would be administered. In those cases, the afflicted would have a chance to improve through therapy and new work strategies. Without such a diagnosis, will those affected slowly slide out of higher education or remain underperforming in their positions without any assistance or support? Will this be a lasting scar of the pandemic in higher ed?

 

This article was originally published in Inside Higher Ed’s Transforming Teaching & Learning blog. 

The UPCEA Governance and Nominations Committee invites nominations for the following positions:

Board positions:

  • Board President-Elect 2022-2023, serving as the Board President in 2023-2024
  • Secretary-Treasurer, 2022-2024
  • Network Senate Chair, 2022-2024
  • Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Committee Co-Chair (2022-2024)
  • Board Director At-Large (7), 2022-2024

Non-Board Positions:

  • Finance Committee members (2), 2022-2023
  • Diversity & Inclusive Excellence Committee members (2), 2022-2023

Annually, and in accordance with the UPCEA’s Bylaws (2020), the Governance and Nominations Committee seeks nominations for various leadership positions within the association, striving to identify individuals who are willing to serve as strategic, fiscally-responsible, and inclusive leaders for the association.

UPCEA strives to be an inclusive organization that actively encourages and supports diversity among its members and institutions. UPCEA is committed to reflecting those values in selecting its Board of Directors and in the institutions they represent. UPCEA seeks leaders who will bring novel insights to address challenges in our field and to expand educational opportunities for students from all backgrounds and interests. Demonstrated commitment to UPCEA via prior contributions is a valued attribute of nominees.

The Committee will accept and review nominations from the membership and then present a slate to the Board. Any individual named on the roster of an UPCEA member organization is eligible to be nominated for any position. Click here to search the member directory to see if your potential candidate is an UPCEA member.

Nominations should identify the nominated person by name and institution and should include a brief statement (one or two paragraphs) as to why you believe the person should be considered for an UPCEA leadership position.

We encourage you to participate in the nominating process for your association’s leadership.

Click here to nominate an individual.*

Nominations will close on Friday, September 17, 2021.

 

Sincerely,

 

Lisa Templeton, Oregon State University (Committee Chair)

Asim Ali, Auburn University

Aaron Brower, University of Wisconsin Extended Campus

John Caron, Excelsior University

Michael Frasciello, Syracuse University

Tomea Knight, University of Pennsylvania

Jenni Murphy, California State University Sacramento

Steve VandenAvond, Northern Michigan University

Pamela Wimbush, California State University Sacramento


*If you wish to nominate more than one individual, please fill out one form per nomination.