Resources

UPCEA is your one-stop shop for all things professional, continuing, and online education. Find qualified candidates for open positions via our Career Center, stay ahead of the pressing issues in our field with timely and topical publications, and more.

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

UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership

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.

UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Professional and Continuing Education

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.

UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Credential Innovation logo

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 through UPCEA Research and Consulting. Under the experienced leadership of Jim Fong, the 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 medwards@upcea.edu 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.

AGB Search Higher Education Executive Search

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

Key Findings from 2024 UPCEA Marketing Survey

April 17, 2025

As more and more institutions face internal and external pressures to identify and cultivate new revenue streams, many are turning to online and professional continuing education to attract new learners and address fiscal shortfalls. While this continued increase in supply undoubtedly benefits the student, it makes an already saturated market even more competitive. UPCEA’s 2024…

The Disruptive Future of Society as AI Dominates the Workplace

April 16, 2025

The technology of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) gained worldwide attention with the initial release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, and it has continued to expand at awesome speed and capability ever since. This has generated fear and anxiety among some observers and enthusiasm among others. The enthusiasm is for the many ways in…

UPCEA Announces Retirement of Chief Research Officer Jim Fong, Reinforces Strength of Research and Consulting Division

April 7, 2025

Washington, D.C. – April 7, 2025 – UPCEA, the leading association for online and professional education, today announced the upcoming retirement of Jim Fong, its founding Chief Research Officer, after years of transformative leadership in the field of higher education research and consulting.  Fong first became involved with UPCEA as a volunteer leader while at…

Observations from a (Pretend) Prospective Student: The Do’s and Don’ts of Enrollment Communication

April 3, 2025

I’ve been through the college enrollment process before, and to be honest, it’s not exactly something that I wish to do again. And yet, as part of my role at UPCEA, I regularly step into the shoes of a prospective student during our Enrollment Process Reviews. These “secret shopper” exercises involve posing as potential applicants…

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.

Intentional Teaching podcast logo