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Perspectives on Online and Professional Education
from UPCEA’s Research and Consulting Experts

Degrees on Hold: Bringing “Some College, No Credential” Learners Back

December 16, 2024

Higher education is facing a real challenge—and yes, I said challenge. (Because let’s face it, we really do love a good “opportunity” in higher ed, don’t we?) With over 41 million people in the U.S. who’ve started college and left without a degree, there exists a massive group of learners who are unfinished, yet far…

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A Reflection on My Predictions: What it Means for 2025 and Beyond

November 25, 2024

Higher education is facing its greatest challenge in decades. Our field may be at a transformational cusp where the transactional currency for education may shift from credits to competency, competency dictated by new, to-be-determined factors, shaped by our evolving economy, as well as the political landscape. Historically, and for the era, 120-credits was a fairly…

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Unique biweekly insights and news review from Ray Schroeder, Senior Fellow at UPCEA

Semester Without End: An Idea Resurrected

December 19, 2024

It was more than two decades ago that I was advocating the concept of enabling students to continue to follow the evolving developments and topics in the classes I taught through news blogs offered to support the learning in class. I called the concept, “Semester without End.” Now, OpenAI is suggesting that custom GPTs be…

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Higher Education in 2025: AGI Agents to Displace People

December 4, 2024

The new year may bring a host of virtual assistants and administrative staff to higher education. They will begin as assistants to humans, then over time they will evolve into autonomous AI staff members. The winds of change in our field are rapidly converging, as we discussed in the previous edition of “Online: Trending Now.” The…

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Your one-stop shop for the latest Association happenings, policy updates, plus thoughts from the desk of CEO Bob Hansen.

Department of Education Seeks Input on State Authorization Rule Delay

As we notified you of a few weeks ago, the Department of Education is seeking to delay the implementation of regulations relating to State authorization that are to go into effect June 1 of this year. The main reasons for the delay were concerns around disclosure issues and student residence for distance education programs and…

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Letter to Congressman Denham for Permanent DACA Fix Bill

UPCEA joined with ACE and 32 other organizations to thank Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) and other representatives who supported H.Res. 774, thanking them for taking action to provide a permanent solution for Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The resolution uses a House rule known as “Queen of the Hill” to hold votes on four different…

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Department of Education Releases 2018 Condition of Education Report

The US Department of Education has released its yearly dataset The Condition of Education 2018. The report covers all levels of education measured through key indicators, including not only higher education, but K-12 as well. The congressionally mandated report is provided to Congress to each year to inform policy making to show trends and the…

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US Department of Education Delays Distance Education Regulations

On December 19th, 2016 the Department published regulations relating to the State authorization of distance education providers. These regulations originally were to go into effect July 1 of this year, but has been suggested to be delayed for two years until 2020. The Department has signaled that it intends to commence negotiated rulemaking on these…

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Musings on trends and updates from UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen.

A new direction for the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference

November 7, 2024

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…

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Beyond Degrees: How Credential Innovation is Closing the Gap for 42 Million Learners

October 24, 2024

A 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…

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Valuable insights from UPCEA's trusted corporate partners.

Strategic Marketing Best Practices to Reach Military-Connected Students

November 27, 2024

Military-connected students (veterans, active duty service members, National Guard and Reserves members, and their families) represent a valuable but often overlooked demographic in higher education. These individuals bring a strong sense of purpose, discipline, and a commitment to service to campus—qualities that make them outstanding students and future leaders. As higher education institutions seek to…

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Understanding Cost Per Inquiry in Higher Education Marketing

November 26, 2024

Marketing cost per inquiry (CPI) is a primary signifier of how well your marketing is performing, but it has historically lacked a critical aspect that makes it a valuable barometer for success: its very own benchmark. Search Influence and UPCEA have addressed this crucial gap in higher education marketing with our Marketing Metrics Research Report:…

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