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…
Read MoreIntroduction At the 2025 UPCEA Annual Conference, the session “Owning Your Awesomeness” reminded us that professional growth isn’t just about mastering skills—it’s about recognizing and amplifying the unique strengths we already have. For leaders and practitioners in professional and online education this means embracing both the outward image we present and the inner narratives that…
Read MoreMost 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…
Read MoreTwo weeks ago, we examined the transformation of higher education in the next five years. Today, we look at how this transformation will shift the emphasis of our teaching. As with the prior column, this week’s thesis evolves out of the Zoom Keynote to the Rethink AI Conference, sponsored in part by the International Academy…
Read MoreJust 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…
Look no further for your benchmarking and research needs
Today I’m writing to shine a light on UPCEA’s best kept secret: the Center for Research and Strategy led by Jim Fong and featuring some of the best consultants in the industry. The Center provides actionable research and benchmarking free of charge for all members; and high value custom consulting across the entire spectrum of…
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…
Read MoreWe 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 MoreStudent 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…
Read MoreSearch behavior has evolved, and so has the path to enrollment. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews shape how people gather information, verify details, and form opinions. For higher education marketers, that means program visibility depends on showing up wherever students look for answers, not only in search results but across…
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