Online Education Leadership
The resources, tools, and network you need to run a successful online enterprise
UPCEA is dedicated to advancing quality online learning at the institutional level. UPCEA is uniquely focused on excellence at the highest levels – leadership, administration, strategy – applying a macro lens to the online teaching and learning enterprise. Its engaged members include the stewards of online learning at most of the leading universities in the nation.
UPCEA advances online learning by providing:
- professional development and events
- industry-leading networking
- quality standards and best practices
- research and benchmarking
- advocacy; and
- consulting
UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence
Standards, aspirations, and principles essential to a successful enterprise
Online education is now critical for the future of America’s universities. Institutions can no longer establish a presence in this arena without a concerted institutional strategy and structure to accomplish this now major undertaking.
The UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership are an attempt to articulate those features and principles that will create opportunities for students that far exceed anything already achieved in higher education, take pedagogy to a new level, and demonstrate the capacity of universities to be an even more vital force in our society.
The Hallmarks of Excellence in Professional and Continuing Education are an opportunity to define a set of standards that reflect the ambitions, potential, and importance of the PCE unit’s work—standards few achieve often enough to be complacent. Commitment to mission, enrollments, innovation, and academic excellence are the inseparable aspirations of professional and continuing educators.
These Hallmarks of Excellence presume that professional and continuing education is central, pervasive, and critical within institutions of higher learning—crossing internal boundaries and extending external ones, promoting change, and responding to current dynamics that convert challenges into opportunities.
The Hallmarks of Excellence in Credential Innovation are intended to be both aspirational and a practical toolkit to assist those in Online and Professional Continuing Education to think systematically and concretely about the nature of credentials at their institution as well as the strategy and logistical components of supporting learners throughout their lifetimes.
These Hallmarks focus on alternative credentials, which includes certificates, micro-credentials, digital badges, or micro-certificates, signaling specific competencies, certification, and sometimes licensure.
Benchmarking Research & Consulting
Data you can use, and the experts to help you get it
UPCEA offers the gold standard of research and benchmarking information in the industry. UPCEA Research and Consulting conducts several free studies per year for the benefit of all UPCEA members.
Whether you need benchmarking studies, market research for a new program, or specific information to evaluate and develop strategies to take your online programs and instructional design to the next level, UPCEA Research and Consulting is the right choice. UPCEA also offers Peer Review Teams for on-site visits.
Career Center
Job Board - Connect the right person with the right role for your team
UPCEA offers online job recruitment advertisement on its website. Ads are posted immediately for members and within 2-3 business days for non-members. Ads are posted for 60 days. UPCEA also provides social media and publication promotion of job listings.
To submit an ad:
- If you want to post a job ad and have a UPCEA login, click here.
- If you are a non-UPCEA member: Please complete our online job ad form.
Benefits of a UPCEA Job Ad:
- Prominent mention in one of our UPCEA Briefing email communications sent to all UPCEA Members
- Posted to our social media pages
Rates Per Individual Job Posting:
Member Rate: $500
Non-member Rate: $675
If you have any questions or problems with posting a position on our Job Board, or are a third party posting on behalf of an organization and need to receive the member rate, please contact Mel Edwards at [email protected] or 202-400-2569.
For UPCEA internal positions, please follow the instructions for applying. We do not accept calls from recruiters.
There are no refunds given for job ads. Credit card payment due prior to posting of ads.
Executive Search with AGB Search
UPCEA has partnered with AGB Search to bring full executive search capabilities to professional, continuing, and online education. AGB Search is focused exclusively on all aspects of executive search for higher education institutions.
Publications
The timely and topical information you need
UPCEA Weekly Briefing
The UPCEA Weekly Briefing gives UPCEA members and others in the field a quick look at professional, continuing, and online education news, along with upcoming events and association updates. Delivered most weeks, this newsletter features content by and for our higher ed community.
Membership Matters
Membership Matters is a monthly newsletter exclusively for UPCEA members. Members have access to a wide array of benefits, including discussion groups, resources, and networking. Look forward to each issue of Membership Matters for membership news and updates on maximizing your benefits.
Unbound: Reinventing Higher Education
Unbound: Reinventing Higher Education served as UPCEA's online journal dedicated to exploring innovations and addressing the challenges shaping higher education, particularly for adult learners. The name "Unbound" symbolized the limitless possibilities of education, transcending the boundaries of geography, technology, and tradition.
While Unbound is no longer publishing new content, its rich archive of articles and videos remains accessible, continuing to inspire educators and leaders committed to advancing the future of higher education.
Learn & Work Ecosystem Library Glossary
Maintained by our partners at the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, this comprehensive glossary provides real-time access to terms and definitions from the learn-and-work ecosystem.
UPCEA Blogs
Catch up on the latest news from the UPCEA blog suite
Reflecting on the 2025 UPCEA CCI Convening: Designing Intentional, Learner-Centric Pathways
At the inaugural UPCEA Council for Credential Innovation (CCI) Convening, leaders from across UPCEA member institutions came together to explore what it means to build truly learner-centric, intentional credential ecosystems—ones that align with institutional mission, ensure financial sustainability, and elevate the student experience. Hosted as the first in-person gathering of CCI representatives, the event served…
Federal Grant Opportunities: Funding for Workforce Pell Programs and AI | Policy Matters (November 2025)
Major Updates Federal Grant Opportunities: Funding for Workforce Pell Programs and AI (Applications Due December 3) The Department of Education has launched a rapid grant competition under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE–Special Projects), with applications due December 3, 2025. The program is designed in part to help institutions build or scale…
Constructing the Future: Why Credential Innovation Needs Bold Leadership
The tagline for Convergence, Credential Innovation in Higher Education, raises two important questions: First, what kind of credentials are we talking about? Is the scope of credentials unlimited, blue sky, or confined to incremental changes on the margins of the status quo? And second, who is leading that innovation, and what do they need to…
The Right Message at the Right Moment: How Smarter Enrollment Operations Boost Retention and Student Success
Student success starts with the right conversation. By uniting data, technology, and human connection, institutions can shift from reactive outreach to proactive engagement that strengthens trust, equity, and long-term retention. Every Student Is a Story, Not a Segment “On the other side of every data point, every phone number, every email address, there’s a person…
Learning Mobility in Action: Removing Barriers and Recognizing the Whole Learner
Learning Mobility: A Movement Taking Shape At this year’s AACRAO Technology & Transfer: A Learning Mobility Summit, higher education leaders from UPCEA member institutions gathered to explore a question at the heart of the learner mobility movement: How can postsecondary institutions recognize, record, and reward all learning—wherever and however it occurs? Moderating this conversation alongside…
Transitioning to the Agentic University 2026–27
Most of us in higher education are now familiar with generative AI bots, where you formulate a prompt and get a reply. Yet, we are now beginning the advancement to agentic AI, the autonomous 24-7 project manager. The dramatic enhancement in the capability of AI as it moves from bots to agents will bring about…
Convergence in Action: Building Strategic Credential Frameworks Through Collaboration
At Convergence 2025, a conversation unfolded that perfectly captured the spirit of the event—collaboration across boundaries, disciplines, and traditions to create something more unified and learner-centered. In Convergence in Action: Strategic Credential Framework Collaborations Across Campus, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel featuring Elizabeth Kerr and Molly McDermott-Fallon of the University of Cincinnati…
Don’t Bring a Brochure to a Robot Fight: Winning Page One and the AI Overview
Imagine your bellwether program stepping into a modern search arena with a glossy tri-fold and a storied reputation, ready to battle any challenger. Across the ring rolls a robotic rival as “The Imperial March” blares over the speakers. The ref signals start; a blinding spotlight from the robot makes your program vanish from view. The…
Friday Focus: Nurture Your Career and Yourself
In celebration of National Distance Learning Week, UPCEA is highlighting key resources each day that showcase how online and professional education leaders continue to drive innovation, resilience, and transformation. It’s Friday—a perfect moment to pause, take a breath, and focus on you. Your career, your growth, and your well-being all deserve attention. UPCEA offers ways…
Future-Forward: Trends and Strategic Directions in Online and Professional Education
In celebration of National Distance Learning Week, UPCEA is highlighting key resources each day that showcase how online and professional education leaders continue to drive innovation, resilience, and transformation. Higher education is standing at the edge of rapid transformation, where the choices made today will define the universities of tomorrow. From shifting learner demographics and…
Professional, Continuing, and Online Education Update by UPCEA
A curated, daily update of news, research, and trends brought to you by our Senior Fellow, Ray Schroeder. See what's the latest in Professional, Continuing, and Online news!
Alternative Credentials in Higher Ed by UPCEA
Curated by our Senior Fellow, Ray Schroeder, this daily update provides the latest trends and news in the innovative and alternative credentials space.
Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education by UPCEA
Stay on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence news with this curated, daily update from UPCEA Senior Fellow Ray Schroeder.
Books
Featuring thought leadership from UPCEA members and others in the field
Using ROI for Strategic Planning of Online Education (2022)
Edited by Kathleen S. Ives and Deborah M. Seymour
Foreword by Paul LeBlanc
Published by Routledge in association with UPCEA
The Great Skills Gap (2021)
Edited by Jason Wingard and Christine Farrugia
Stanford University Press
Centennial Conversations: Essential Essays In Professional, Continuing, and Online Education (2015)
Edited by Daniel W. Shannon and Robert Wiltenburg
Foreword by Robert J. Hansen
Podcast
The Intentional Teaching podcast is hosted by Derek Bruff, and sponsored by UPCEA.
The Intentional Teaching podcast is aimed at college and university educators to help them develop foundational teaching skills and explore new ideas in teaching.
The name Intentional Teaching is a spin on Derek Bruff's 2019 book, Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching. The name Intentional Teaching is being used to indicate that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also how we develop as teachers over time.
Catch new episodes every other Tuesday in most of the usual places you get your podcasts. Just search for “Intentional Teaching” wherever you listen to podcasts.
