Resources

UPCEA is your one-stop shop for all things online and professional education. Find qualified candidates for open positions via our Career Center, stay ahead of the pressing issues in our field with timely and topical publications, and more.

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Online Education Leadership

The resources, tools, and network you need to run a successful online enterprise

UPCEA is dedicated to advancing quality online learning at the institutional level. UPCEA is uniquely focused on excellence at the highest levels – leadership, administration, strategy – applying a macro lens to the online teaching and learning enterprise. Its engaged members include the stewards of online learning at most of the leading universities in the nation.

UPCEA advances online learning by providing:

  • professional development and events
  • industry-leading networking
  • quality standards and best practices
  • research and benchmarking
  • advocacy; and
  • consulting

UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence

UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Digital Learning Enterprises logo
Developed through a collaborative effort involving more than 80 Chief Online Learning Officers and reviewed by leaders from across higher education, the Hallmarks offer practical guidance for building resilient, learner-centered digital learning enterprises.
Digital learning is no longer a specialized initiative or alternative modality—it is essential institutional infrastructure. The UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Digital Learning Enterprises provides a research-informed framework to help colleges and universities strengthen leadership, governance, operations, innovation, and learner success.
UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Professional and Continuing Education
The Hallmarks of Excellence in Professional and Continuing Education are an opportunity to define a set of standards that reflect the ambitions, potential, and importance of the PCE unit’s work standards few achieve often enough to be complacent. Commitment to mission, enrollments, innovation, and academic excellence are the inseparable aspirations of professional and continuing educators.
These Hallmarks of Excellence presume that professional and continuing education is central, pervasive, and critical within institutions of higher learning—crossing internal boundaries and extending external ones, promoting change, and responding to current dynamics that convert challenges into opportunities.
UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Credential Innovation
The Hallmarks of Excellence in Credential Innovation are intended to be both aspirational and a practical toolkit to assist those in Online and Professional Continuing Education to think systematically and concretely about the nature of credentials at their institution as well as the strategy and logistical components of supporting learners throughout their lifetimes
These Hallmarks focus on alternative credentials, which includes certificates, micro-credentials, digital badges, or micro-certificates, signaling specific competencies, certification, and sometimes licensure.

Benchmarking Research & Consulting

Data you can use, and the experts to help you get it

 

UPCEA offers the gold standard of research and benchmarking information in the industry. UPCEA Research and Consulting conducts several free studies per year for the benefit of all UPCEA members.

Whether you need benchmarking studies, market research for a new program, or specific information to evaluate and develop strategies to take your online programs and instructional design to the next level, UPCEA Research and Consulting is the right choice. UPCEA also offers Peer Review Teams for on-site visits.

Career Center

Job Board - Connect the right person with the right role for your team

UPCEA offers online job recruitment advertisement on its website. Ads are posted immediately for members and within 2-3 business days for non-members. Ads are posted for 60 days. UPCEA also provides social media and publication promotion of job listings.

Rates Per Individual Job Posting:

Member Rate: $500   Non-member Rate: $675

Why Advertise with UPCEA?

  • Get your job ad in front of thousands of higher ed professionals through our UPCEA Briefing Email.
  • Boost visibility by featuring your posting across UPCEA's active social media channels.

 

To submit an ad:

  • UPCEA Members
    Post your job ad by logging into your account
    Post Ad
  • Non-members
    Post your job ad by visiting our online job form ad
    Submit Ad Form

If you have any questions or problems with posting a position on our Job Board, or are a third party posting on behalf of an organization and need to receive the member rate, please contact Mel Edwards at [email protected] or 202-400-2569.

For UPCEA internal positions, please follow the instructions for applying. We do not accept calls from recruiters.

There are no refunds given for job ads. Credit card payment due prior to posting of ads.

Publications

The timely and topical information you need

The UPCEA Weekly Briefing gives UPCEA members and others in the field a quick look at professional, continuing, and online education news, along with upcoming events and association updates. Delivered most weeks, this newsletter features content by and for our higher ed community.

Membership Matters is a monthly newsletter exclusively for UPCEA members. Members have access to a wide array of benefits, including discussion groups, resources, and networking. Look forward to each issue of Membership Matters for membership news and updates on maximizing your benefits.

Unbound: Reinventing Higher Education served as UPCEA's online journal dedicated to exploring innovations and addressing the challenges shaping higher education, particularly for adult learners. The name "Unbound" symbolized the limitless possibilities of education, transcending the boundaries of geography, technology, and tradition.

While Unbound is no longer publishing new content, its rich archive of articles and videos remains accessible, continuing to inspire educators and leaders committed to advancing the future of higher education.

Maintained by our partners at the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, this comprehensive glossary provides real-time access to terms and definitions from the learn-and-work ecosystem.

UPCEA Blogs

Catch up on the latest news from the UPCEA blog suite

  • AI Across Generations: What Leaders Should Know and What They Shouldn’t Assume

    October 7, 2026

    There are many assumptions about AI use across generations. Gen Z readily embraces artificial intelligence. Millennials are integrating it into their work. Gen X is more cautious and pragmatic. Baby Boomers are reluctant adopters.  Is it really that simple?  Perhaps not.  Generational differences in AI use appear to be real. What those differences mean is…

  • The Workforce Is Going Back to School—For Good

    October 2, 2026

    Cut the Roles, or Support the People? When generative AI began fielding most of IKEA’s customer service questions, the company faced a choice familiar to any employer navigating fast-moving technology: cut the affected roles, or retrain the people in them. IKEA retrained them. The retailer built a program that moved 8,500 customer service employees into…

  • UPCEA’s Corporate Member Blog Series #5 | Partnership Blueprint: 8 Takeaways for Corporate Members from the 2026 UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Digital Learning Enterprises

    October 1, 2026

    When UPCEA released the original Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership in 2016, online education was widely viewed as an emerging modality. A decade later, the landscape has shifted. The newly released 2026 Hallmarks of Excellence in Digital Learning Enterprises (2026 Hallmarks) reflects a higher education ecosystem where digital capability is no longer an add-on,…

  • AI Recursive Self-Improvement without Comprehensive Review and Alignment

    October 1, 2026

    I am an advocate for AI and the vast possibilities for advancement it can bring across the world. Yet, these advancements must not be rushed lest we risk unintended consequences. In this high-tech, high-competition environment in the AI field, we are seeing new versions of models rolled out by the frontier companies (OpenAI, Google and…

  • Workforce Pell Moves from Rules to Reality: State Pipelines, New Federal Training, and $65 Million from Labor | Policy Matters (September 2026)

    September 29, 2026

    Major Updates Workforce Pell Moves from Rules to Reality: State Approval Pipelines Mature, ED Launches Training, and Labor Awards $65 Million Nearly three months after Workforce Pell Grants (Pell awards for programs of 150–599 clock hours, or 8 to fewer than 15 weeks) became available on July 1, the rollout is moving at very different…

  • Leading Digital Learning Enterprises | Part 4: Beyond the Technology: Building a Digital Ecosystem with Purpose

    September 21, 2026

    Technology may be the most visible element of a digital learning enterprise. It is also one of the easiest to misunderstand. Institutions invest considerable resources in learning management systems, student information systems, customer relationship management platforms, analytics, communication tools, instructional technologies, cybersecurity, and an expanding array of emerging technologies. Each promises opportunities to improve some…

  • We may be underestimating our students

    September 18, 2026

    As a student affairs professional, I’ve spent much of my career helping students connect what they’re learning to where it might take them. Along the way, students have taught me something: they are more open to unexpected career possibilities than we sometimes give them credit for. When I introduced students to professions or credentials they had…

  • Trust, but Click: What Prospective Students Are Teaching Us About AI Search in 2026

    September 18, 2026

    During arms-control talks in the 1980s Ronald Reagan made “trust, but verify” one of the most quoted phrases of the era. Four decades later, prospective online and continuing education students appear to have quietly borrowed it back and pointed it directly at their search bar. Trust, but click. That is the story of AI Search…

  • Big School Districts Pause AI Access at School

    September 17, 2026

    After nearly four long years of evolving and often conflicting policies since ChatGPT officially emerged, high profile public school districts have decided they now need a moratorium on use of AI to provide even more time to consider policies and practices. Readers of this column know that I generally constrain topics to higher education, however,…

  • 2026 UPCEA MEMS Award Recipients Announced

    September 16, 2026

    26 recipients chosen across three award categories WASHINGTON, D.C., September 16, 2026 — UPCEA, the online and professional education association, has announced the recipients of the 2026 Excellence in Enrollment Management Award, the Excellence in Advancing Student Success Award, and the Excellence in Marketing Award. All three awards are sponsored by UPCEA’s Marketing, Enrollment Management,…

Professional, Continuing, and Online Education Update by UPCEA

A curated, daily update of news, research, and trends brought to you by our Senior Fellow, Ray Schroeder. See what's the latest in Professional, Continuing, and Online news!

Credential Innovation Curated Reading

Curated by rotating authors, this weekly update features essential curated reading on credential innovation from UPCEA.

 

Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education by UPCEA

Stay on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence news with this curated, daily update from UPCEA Senior Fellow Ray Schroeder. 

Podcast

The Intentional Teaching podcast is hosted by Derek Bruff, and sponsored by UPCEA.

The Intentional Teaching podcast is aimed at college and university educators to help them develop foundational teaching skills and explore new ideas in teaching.

The name Intentional Teaching is a spin on Derek Bruff's 2019 book, Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching. The name Intentional Teaching is being used to indicate that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also how we develop as teachers over time.

Catch new episodes every other Tuesday in most of the usual places you get your podcasts. Just search for “Intentional Teaching” wherever you listen to podcasts.

Intentional Teaching logo 2026