Resources

UPCEA is your one-stop shop for all things professional, continuing, and online 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.

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

Standards, aspirations, and principles essential to a successful enterprise

UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership

Online education is now critical for the future of America’s universities. Institutions can no longer establish a presence in this arena without a concerted institutional strategy and structure to accomplish this now major undertaking.

The UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership are an attempt to articulate those 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.

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 logo

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 through UPCEA Research and Consulting. Under the experienced leadership of Jim Fong, the 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.

To submit an ad:

  • If you want to post a job ad and have a UPCEA login, click here.
  • If you are a non-UPCEA member: Please complete our online job ad form.

Benefits of a UPCEA Job Ad:

  • Prominent mention in one of our UPCEA Briefing email communications sent to all UPCEA Members
  • Posted to our social media pages 

Rates Per Individual Job Posting:

Member Rate: $500

Non-member Rate: $675

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 Brandan Kaiser at [email protected] or 202-844-4242.

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.

Executive Search with AGB Search

UPCEA has partnered with AGB Search to bring full executive search capabilities to professional, continuing, and online education. AGB Search is focused exclusively on all aspects of executive search for higher education institutions.

AGB Search Higher Education Executive Search

Publications

The timely and topical information you need

UPCEA Weekly Briefing

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

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

Unbound: Reinventing Higher Education is an online journal intended for all those who are interested in higher education issues, especially those that affect adult students. The name 'Unbound' calls to mind the many innovations that are taking place in education across our country and our world, where technology is helping us break the bonds of space and time to make education accessible to a broad audience. As educators, we no longer have to think in terms of limits, whether those are drawn by campus boundaries, geographic location, or even conventional definitions of school and community.

The possibilities for the future are boundless, and we hope to hear from those who are helping to lead the way. 

UPCEA Blogs

Catch up on the latest news from the UPCEA blog suite

UPCEA Seeks Full-Time Controller 

March 15, 2024

UPCEA is currently seeking a full-time Controller for a fully remote position with the association.   The Controller will oversee and manage all aspects of the organization’s accounting functions. This includes ensuring financial accuracy, compliance with relevant regulations, and providing timely financial reports for internal and external stakeholders. The Controller also plays a key role in…

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…

The Risk of Being Too Good at Something: Bananas and the Degree

March 13, 2024

A friend once told me that the everyday banana in the U.S. has such strong qualities, such as taste, appearance, nutritional value, cost, manageable perishability, growth predictability, disease resistance and relative ease of growing, that few other genetic variations are sold worldwide.  This banana strain, the Cavendish, is so popular that few other variations are…

State Authorization and Distance Education Negotiated Rulemaking Continues | Policy Matters (February 2024)

February 29, 2024

Major Updates Negotiated Rulemaking on State Authorization, Distance Education, Accreditation and Other Topics Continues In early February a session was held in continuation of the US Department of Education’s crucial Negotiated Rulemaking on Program Integrity and Institutional Quality, with the second of three sessions running from February 5-8, and the third and final session scheduled…

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…

Higher Ed Marketing: A Corporate Approach for Institutional Success

February 28, 2024

By Kevin Phang, VP, Partnership Development, Marketing & Enrollment, Noodle Marketing plays a key role in shaping a company’s success, and in higher education it’s no different. Colleges, universities, and other institutions face more competition every year, and with market demands and trends in constant flux, the need for strategic, impactful marketing that delivers has…

UPCEA Congratulates Members Recognized in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Ranking of Best Online Bachelor’s Programs

February 20, 2024

21 of Top 25 Ranked Institutions are UPCEA Members WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 20, 2024) — UPCEA, the online and professional education association, is pleased to congratulate the many UPCEA members recognized in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Online Programs rankings. U.S. News rankings include more than 1,750 online programs, covering bachelor’s and…

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…

A Look in the Mirror – Using Inquirers Perspectives to Understand Enrollment Funnels

February 12, 2024

Eleven months ago, my wife and I were on vacation in Tucson, Arizona. In a past life, I’d briefly worked in Saguaro National Park removing invasive species, so I was eager to get back and bask in the unique qualities of the Sonoran Desert and the Old Pueblo of Tucson. On a Sunday afternoon, we…

Three common challenges adult learners face — and how holistic coaching can help

February 9, 2024

As innovators and changemakers in the adult learner space, you’re always looking for the best ways to support the students you serve and help them overcome obstacles on their educational journey. Through coaching, you can provide adult learners with a personalized approach tailored to each individual, ultimately giving them the tools and techniques they need…

Professional, Continuing, and Online Education Update by UPCEA

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

Books

Featuring thought leadership from UPCEA members and others in the field

Using ROI for Strategic Planning of Online Education (2022)

Edited by Kathleen S. Ives and Deborah M. Seymour

Foreword by Paul LeBlanc

Published by Routledge in association with UPCEA

The Great Skills Gap (2021)

Edited by Jason Wingard and Christine Farrugia

Stanford University Press

Centennial Conversations: Essential Essays In Professional, Continuing, and Online Education (2015)

Edited by Daniel W. Shannon and Robert Wiltenburg

Foreword by Robert J. Hansen