Defining Microcredentials and Their Value Microcredentials, shorter educational programs that develop specific skills or competencies, have seen tremendous growth in recent years. Both adult learners and traditional students increasingly seek these credentials for upskilling or career advancement. While the term “microcredentials” is relatively new, short-form credentials have been offered by higher education institutions for decades,…
Read MoreEnrollment management plays a pivotal role in the success of any online and professional continuing education units through impact on revenue generation, learner engagement, and program sustainability. AI-driven business process automation (BPA) offers transformative solutions to streamline enrollment workflows, enhance recruitment strategies, and improve the overall student experience through allowing staff to focus on human…
Read MoreArtificial Intelligence continues to develop at an unprecedented rate and scale. What will be the changes that we will see in higher education by the end of this year? Let’s begin with the advent of generative AI (GenAI) in 2022. It was on November 30th of that year that OpenAI released ChatGPT. The release resulted in…
Read MoreA revolution is quietly taking place in academic and scholarly research prompted by the advent of AI research tools. This will reshape the very nature of our studies and greatly accelerate synergies and collaborations across academic fields. AI research tools such as OpenAI o1 have now reached test score levels that meet or exceed those…
Read MoreUPCEA Partners with LX Pathways by iDesign
We’ve partnered to help you increase capacity around instructional design Do you need to increase your team’s capacity around instructional design? Would you like to add instructional design to your skillset? Great news! UPCEA has recently partnered with iDesign to offer even more online professional development through iDesign’s self-paced learning opportunities, LX Pathways. Our partnership…
Just Released: UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Credential Innovation
Over the past five years UPCEA has published two Hallmarks of Excellence frameworks, first in Online Leadership and then Professional and Continuing Education. These quality frameworks have been endorsed and used by countless organizations and institutions as they evaluate, enhance, and sometimes even build professional, continuing, and online enterprises. Today, I am so pleased to…
Colleges Show Great Interest in Alternative Credentials But Weak Follow-Through (Campus Technology)
No matter what type of alternative credential students are earning, most institutions don’t retain official information about it. In a recent survey, just a third of institutions (38 percent) that offer alternative credentials said they allow those to be represented on students’ university records. Nearly half (48 percent) said they weren’t in student records; and…
Major Announcement: Introducing online professional development from UPCEA
I am pleased to share a major announcement today regarding a profession that is indispensable to the future of higher education. The field of Professional, Continuing, and Online Education (PCO) has truly come of age in the 21st century – and our importance and sophistication continues to expand exponentially as our members play an increasingly…
Over 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 MoreA Movement, Not Just a Community Convergence is emerging as the place where the credential innovation community for higher ed comes together. But more than a community, it’s a movement. Not a movement to make degrees less valuable, let alone obsolete. Rather, it’s a movement to complement degrees by meeting the needs of those for…
Read MoreIs an OPM partnership right for your institution? The answer is rarely a simple yes or no. The decision to work with an Online Program Manager (OPM) is complex—shaped by factors like institutional readiness, cultural alignment, operational needs, staff expertise and financial considerations. Some universities thrive with deep OPM partnerships, others prefer independence, and many…
Read MoreTen Ways to S.K.I.L.L.: Strengthening Knowledge Through Industry-Linked Learning in Higher Education
During a recent Virtual Masterclass titled Strategies for Integrating Micro-Credentials into Curriculum, I had the privilege of joining Lancie Affonso from the College of Charleston to explore how industry-recognized microcredentials can enhance course outcomes. Lancie shared examples of how microcredentials can bridge the gap between academic theory and professional practice while meeting students’ diverse interests…
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