Higher education is rapidly changing. The 2025-26 academic year will be the first in which the number of fully online undergraduates surpass those who are fully residential.1 In particular, interest and innovation in workforce-related programming and credentials continue to surge, with this market emerging as one of the fastest growing in higher education. Two-thirds of…
Read MoreNow, possibly more than ever, it is critically important for colleges and universities to engage with employers for the benefit of our students. Higher education is facing an unprecedented time. The demographic cliff is upon us, the current political environment has led to policy whiplash and has upended funding sources for research. Our campuses have…
Read MoreLearning in contemporary higher education is rooted deeply in calendars and time rather than mastery of the topic of the learning. With an inflexible semester or quarter calendar and an often-inflexible schedule and length of meeting times, learners are marched through the system in the orderly method of an assembly line. As long as I…
Read MoreThis fall we are moving into the agentic generation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is generative AI that we have become accustomed to in the past couple of years. That will not go away, but increasingly, it will serve in support of agents. “Where generative AI creates, agentic AI acts.” That’s how my trusted assistant,…
Read MoreUPCEA Announces Retirement of Chief Research Officer Jim Fong, Reinforces Strength of Research and Consulting Division
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…
Annual Conference Follow Up: Translating PCOE Innovation into the Future of Higher Education
In an era of heightened urgency, higher education institutions find themselves at a pivotal crossroads—confronting enrollment cliffs, shifting demographics, and growing skepticism about the value of a degree. Further, shifting federal policy and changes at the Department of Education will challenge postsecondary leaders like never before. Amid this turbulence, one area consistently demonstrates adaptability, innovation,…
Which OPM Contract Terms Should Concern Campus Leaders and Why?
UPCEA is pleased to announce the release of a new brief, “Which OPM Contract Terms Should Concern Campus Leaders and Why?,” authored by Jeffrey C. Sun, J.D., Ph.D. and Heather A. Turner, Ph.D., and published jointly by the University of Louisville SKILLS Collaborative, Education Law Association, and UPCEA. When deciding whether to partner with an…
The Online Overhaul (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
“[…] The pressures to embrace online education aren’t equal across institutions, though. Those needing to retain or bulk up enrollment and those serving diverse, high-needs populations — community colleges and regional comprehensives, for example — are likely feeling more urgency to adapt, sources say. (Nearly 42 percent of the online-related jobs posted by public two-year colleges in…
We are pleased to share the foreword by UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen from the newly released Chief Online Learning Officers’ Guidebook: A Framework for Strategy and Practice in Higher Education. The guidebook, now available from Routledge in paperback, hardback, and eBook formats, provides a comprehensive framework for today’s online learning leaders. Learn more and purchase…
Read MoreOver the last three years, UPCEA engaged in an innovative partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to enable the latter’s Distance Teaching and Learning (DT&L) conference to continue under UPCEA’s leadership. The partnership’s goals included making this valuable event for the distance learning community more sustainable and accessible to online practitioners focused on teaching and…
Read MoreSince the 1980s, higher education has steadily shifted from passive lectures to more active, student-centered learning. As Bonwell and Eison noted in Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom, this shift not only reinforces content mastery but also fosters critical thinking and problem-solving. Cynthia J. Brame, writing for Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching, defines active learning…
Read MoreTurn learners into the cyber pros every employer is chasing with stackable, multi-credential pathways The Cyber Talent Gap Is a Moving Target Picture this: the bad guys keep upgrading their playbook, but the good guys are still running last season’s plays. That’s the cyber talent gap in a nutshell. It’s not just about more people…
Read More