Leadership in Online Learning

UPCEA is dedicated to advancing quality online learning at postsecondary institutions and is uniquely focused on excellence at the highest levels–leadership, administration, strategy. Learn from the experts as you network with our engaged community from leading universities who steward the online enterprise at their institutions.

UPCEA provides resources for online leaders ranging from industry-leading events, quality standards and best practices, research and benchmarking, and consulting.

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News & Events

2024 UPCEA Annual Conference

March 26-28, 2024 - Boston, MA

Higher education is ever-evolving, and our work could not be more important than it is today. With a looming demographic cliff of traditional aged undergraduate students, institutions are looking to PCO units to provide revenue growth. We are charged with balancing that revenue growth by delivering on our mission to increase access and affordability to quality education; supporting our students in more holistic ways; actively building diverse, equitable and inclusive environments; and serving as a vital partner within our local communities. This is both an exciting and challenging time as we navigate these sometimes conflicting goals.

This year’s conference will be centered on themes such as growing our impact through expanded access and innovation (focused especially on emerging topics such as AI), broadened inclusivity, policy advocacy, organizational transformation, engaging faculty and other critical partners, and building our individual networks.

2024 Summit for Online Leadership and Administration + Roundtable (SOLA+R) and Distance Teaching & Learning (DT&L) Conference

July 22-24 - Minneapolis, MN

Building on the success and insights from 2023 event attendees, the 2024 Distance Teaching and Learning (DT&L) Conference and the Summit for Online Leadership and Administration + Roundtable (SOLA+R) are once again co-located to create a comprehensive, holistic, and unique opportunity for digital learning innovators to learn and network in one location. We willl celebrate the 40th Anniversary of DT&L and look forward to the next 40 years of innovation and transformation in beautiful Minneapolis, MN.

Digital teaching and leadership is integral to the financial stability and access mission of today’s institutions. These two events blend the pedagogical perspectives, best practices, thought leadership, and strategy that institutional leaders need to embrace digital transformation in postsecondary education. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience all the elements of digital transformation and leadership in a holistic way—from teaching and learning to leadership and administration—preserving the salient issues for two distinct professional communities, while catalyzing dialogue across all facets of the larger field.

Join key campus leaders – presidents, provosts, deans, instructional designers, faculty, and others focused on digital leadership, July 22 - 24, 2024.

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Get Involved

Join the Online Administration Network

The Online Administration Network (OA) serves as a bridge between the administrative functions of online learning (marketing, online student services, program development, etc.) and the design of online learning. Participation in the OA Network provides access to authentic institutional online operational models, best practice trends in online management, professional analysis of learning design applications, and the formulation of best practices in the use of technology and learning design in online instruction.

Join the eDesign Collaborative Network

The UPCEA eDesign Collaborative (eDC) Network serves higher education instructional design teams (instructional designers, multimedia developers and team administrators) seeking networking and professional development. Participation in the eDesign Collaborative Network provides access to a community of professionals who are interested in best practices for online course creation.

Gain Knowledge and Advance Your Career with UPCEA’s Online Professional Development

Get the essential skills and knowledge you need with UPCEA’s Learning Center. Bringing you the leading experts in the field of professional, continuing, and online (PCO) education, these programs offer high-value and relevant content for practitioners at all levels. Learn from expert facilitators and connect with peers online as a part of UPCEA's Professional Development courses.

UPCEA offers stand alone courses focused on key PCO education topics, along with two PCO certificate programs: UPCEA PCO Professional Certificate and UPCEA PCO Leader Certificate. 

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Resources and Publications

UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership

Online education is critical for the future of America’s universities, and require institutional strategy and structure to accomplish this major undertaking. These Hallmarks focus on the features and principles that will create opportunities for students that far exceed anything already achieved in higher education, take pedagogy to a new level, and demonstrate the capacity of universities to be an even more vital force in our society.

Online: Trending Now

Unique, biweekly insights and thought leadership from Ray Schroeder, Senior Fellow at UPCEA.

Uncharted Territory: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Higher Education

March 14, 2024

Imagine, if you will, a time in the not-too-distant future in which AGI is firmly established in society and higher education faces the pressing need to re-configure and reinvent itself. It is becoming increasingly clear that the advent of AGI is upon us. OpenAI includes in its mission that it “aims to maximize the positive…

Like a Good Student, AI Is Getting Smarter

February 29, 2024

The Generative AI (GenAI) tools we know as ChatGPT-4, Gemini-Advanced and their competition in 2024 are all getting many more features than the versions we used just a year ago. Speaking at the World Government Summit earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said GPT-5 will be ‘smarter’ and perhaps faster and more multimodal than…

Prompting Progress: Advancing Your AI Skills

February 15, 2024

Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to greatly enhance your creativity, efficiency, productivity and relevance in nearly every role in higher education. The pathway to success in using generative AI is to become proficient in composing the initial prompts and follow-ups that fully, precisely and unambiguously communicate your needs to the tool. It is a…

Lifelong Learning with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

February 1, 2024

What will it mean to higher education when AI systems carry out tasks at an intelligence level that matches or exceeds humans? Recently, both OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made somewhat surprising announcements regarding Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). In an interview with Bill Gates, Altman said AGI could come in the…

Integrating GenAI into Daily Work and Personal Life

January 18, 2024

Using Generative AI (GenAI) should become as much of a part of your daily routine as checking the weather or taking a coffee/tea break. We have now reached the point that GenAI is refined enough to assist with a high percentage of our daily work and life chores. From creating the grocery list to creating…

How Will AI in Higher Education Disrupt in 2024?

January 4, 2024

2023 was the year that Generative AI (GenAI) infused higher education. What can we expect in this new year? From student use in assignments (both formally cited and unattributed), to faculty use (grading, syllabi creation and research), to administrative use (budget balancing, staffing assignments, and marketing guidance); it was GenAI that made headlines and seeded…

The Secret to Success with Rapidly-Advancing Generative AI

December 21, 2023

It’s a head-spinning race to create the best in Generative AI (GenAI) with the Google Gemini release and OpenAI GPT 5 expected to come out soon. Over the past year and a half, the advances in GenAI have been astounding. The impact on the way we conduct research, teach classes and develop new learning materials…

Anxiety, Anticipation, and Preparation for AI in Higher Ed

December 6, 2023

In the whirlwind of developments regarding AI, we must move from anxiety to anticipation and preparation for what the future portends. OpenAI was much in the news this past Thanksgiving week. Centered on the firing and re-hiring of the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, the world watched and considered the future of artificial intelligence in our…

Preparing for the Unanticipated: AI Applications in Higher Education

November 28, 2023

Generative AI (GenAI) has emerged and is developing far more rapidly than expected. How should universities prepare for the impact and changes that may not even be anticipated? ChatGPT launched just one year ago on November 30, 2022. Since that date, with the infusion of tens of billions of dollars, tech companies around the world…

Generative AI: Your Assistant as an Administrator or Faculty Member

November 9, 2023

GenAI is quickly becoming a daily fixture in the lives of administrators and faculty. It enhances productivity, creativity and perspectives. In writing this article, I sought the advice of Google Bard, Perplexity and Claude 2. In all of my research using GenAI, I use at least three of the established apps.  This enables me to…

UNBOUND

UNBOUND is UPCEA’s e-publication in magazine format, designed to showcase thought leadership, case studies, research and other valuable contributions to the field. UNBOUND welcomes articles from all those who are involved in higher education, especially those who work with adult students.

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UPCEA has the knowledge and resources colleges and universities need to serve adult learners, online learners and contemporary students.

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