Leadership is not defined only by the circumstances we encounter, but also by how we learn from them and determine what comes next. Higher education leaders often accept positions because they believe in an institution’s mission and see opportunities to make a meaningful difference. They bring experience, professional judgment, and a commitment to supporting students,…
COLO Compass: Evidence and practical direction for chief online learning officers. Throughout National Distance Learning Week, I’ve written about how much online learning leaders are now expected to handle: AI governance, the financial case for online education, relationships with policymakers, financial aid fraud, and operations that extend well beyond their own units. The question for…
Clearly, many aspects of everyday living have begun to change in the emerging, evolving “Age of AI.” Higher education must acknowledge and adapt to those changes and anticipate the ones yet to come. Some faculty members fail to recognize that the world has changed and we must respond to those changes in how and what…
In a remarkable period of intense development of powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, leaders in the industry have called for a modest level of oversight to ensure safety and provide protections against misuse and abuse of the power of AI. Late last month, President Trump announced the formation of a “Superintelligence Force” to oversee AI…
Building the University of Tomorrow
In the recent opinion piece, “Imagine We Are Starting a University Now,” UPCEA Senior Fellow Ray Schroeder reflects on what will be necessary to prepare higher education institutions for the future through an engaging thought exercise of starting a higher education institution from scratch in 2022. Where would you begin? Central to the thought exercise…
National Student Parent Month Declared September 2022 | Policy Matters
Major Updates Public Comment Open on WIOA Indicator of Performance: Effectiveness in Serving Employers The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) legislation denotes that the programs that are part of the bill be measured by six primary indicators of performance. Current regulations define only five of the six indicators. Previously, the Department of Labor…
K-State Global Campus Goes Remote: What a Difference a Year Makes
By Karen Pedersen and Jennifer Thornburg In June of 2021, the lease for the 20,000+ sq foot building housing the Kansas State University Global Campus was up for renewal. Ten months before that, while in the middle of a global pandemic, the Global Campus leadership team began discussions about the possibility of going permanently remote….
UPCEA Announces 2022 Regional Award Recipients
20 Individuals and 14 Programs Honored Across 5 Regions WASHINGTON, September 22, 2022 – UPCEA, the leader in professional, continuing, and online education, has announced the recipients of the 2022 Regional Awards. Each of UPCEA’s five Regions recognizes both individual and institutional achievement of the UPCEA members within the Region. Award recipients will be honored…
In 1915, UPCEA’s founders built this association on a simple idea: carrying knowledge to the people. That founding purpose never had an expiration date, and it does not have one now. It is why, more than a century later, the question in front of us was never whether professional learning needs to change. It is…
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…
A learner who values independence may find an automated response convenient and sufficient. Another, facing the same question, may need guidance to understand the implications for their circumstances. Both expect the institution to help them move forward, but what that requires can look quite different. Boundless Learning’s 2026 online learner segmentation research, conducted with Hanover…
Over 80% of instructional designers reported using AI in 2025, and it’s safe to assume that number has grown this year. (At Six Red Marbles, all our designers use AI daily.) They’re using AI for everything from proposing guidelines for content development to formatting documents and creating visuals. At colleges and universities, instructional designers are…