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
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.
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.
The Hallmarks of Excellence in Credential Innovation are intended to be both aspirational and a practical toolkit to assist those in Professional, Continuing, and Online Education (PCO) 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 its Center for Research and Strategy. Under the experienced leadership of Jim Fong, the Center 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 Consulting is the right choice. Consulting is offered via the Center for Research and Strategy and the National Council for Online Education. 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
- Tweeted from our UPCEA Twitter Account (@UPCEA)
- Posted to our Facebook and LinkedIn 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 accepting calls from recruiters.
There are no refunds given for job ads. Credit card payment due prior to posting of ads. Ads will not be posted until credit card payment has been received
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.
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
Apply today for the 2022 cohort of the Bethaida “Bea” González Diversity in Leadership Scholars program
UPCEA is proud to once again be offering UPCEA members the Bethaida “Bea” González Diversity in Leadership Scholars Program. Representative and diverse leadership is a cornerstone of UPCEA’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusive Excellence. The goal of the Diversity Scholars program is to equip diverse professionals at any stage of their career with the skills…
Credential Train Is Leaving the Station—Get on Board
In 1997, Sylvia Manning, then VPAA of the University of Illinois system, later president of the Higher Learning Commission, declared, “The online learning train is leaving the station—get on board or be left behind!” That prescient message by one of higher education’s most astute leaders of the past quarter century certainly proved to be true.…
Problem Solved. Flexible, Future-Facing, Non-Degree Education Supporting Degreed Education
Beyond the health and social implications of the pandemic, the economic dominos that fell for higher education included The Great Resignation followed by The Great Interruption. The economy in the U.S. and other parts of the world continues to be impacted by the former, as many jobs remain unfilled or where a constant churn of…
Program Development During and After the Pandemic
Prior to the pandemic, for the UPCEA Center for Research and Strategy it was business as usual – conducting feasibility studies, environmental scans and an occasional review of a professional, continuing and online education unit’s portfolio. During the pandemic, this flip-flopped as our unit did more portfolio reviews, market needs studies and marketing and enrollment…
Communicating the Realities of Higher Ed in 2022
This is a challenging time to lead, as a provost, dean, director or department chair at a college or university. That is not to say that there are not successes and rewards to be achieved, but they come harder than in decades past. One can say that every era in our field has brought challenges.…
Four practices to advance equity in online student support
Taking a holistic approach to updating DEI practices When you provide a coaching program to online learners across the country, the populations you support are extremely diverse. Different backgrounds. Different cultures. Different ages, socio-economic situations, and life experiences. That’s why, as student supporters in online communities, it’s critical to implement equitable support techniques that serve…
Biden Administration Extends Student Loan Pause Through August 31; Signals Debt Cancellation | Policy Matters (April 2022)
Major Updates Biden Administration Extends Student Loan Pause Through August 31; Signals Debt Cancellation Citing the ongoing COVID pandemic and the economic consequences of it, Federal Student Aid (FSA) has extended the federal student loan relief to borrowers which began in March 2020 through August 31, 2022. All student loans that are federally held will…
A Tale of 2 Communities (of Learners)
This is a rather dark Dickensian time in higher education, caught in the storm of societal and economic sea change. Yet, there is hope for those institutions who recognize and respond to the changes that are upon us. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of…
Report: Limited Resources Hinder Continuing Education (Government Technology)
[…] Jim Fong, founding director of UPCEA’s Center for Research and Strategy, said the study found neither adequate staffing nor resources focused on continuing education at these institutions. He said that the systems for the typical two- and four-year enrollment process and the continuing-ed systems aren’t necessarily tied together, adding that many institutions are using…
UPCEA Welcomes 13 New Board Members
WASHINGTON, April 14, 2022 – UPCEA, the Washington, D.C.-based association for college and university leaders in professional, continuing, and online education, is pleased to announce the election of four new officers and nine new directors to serve on the UPCEA Board of Directors. Elected in November 2021, these individuals assumed their roles at the conclusion…
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!