UPCEA Resources: Collaborations & Connections

NGA Skill-Driven States Learning Call Credentialing in Postsecondary Education - May 19, 2022 - The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), in partnership with Jobs for the Future (JFF), has launched a project to help Governors’ offices and other senior state officials better connect skills-based training to skills-based hiring practices and to consider promising design elements of Learning and Employment Record (LER) systems.

 Embedding Certifications Into Bachelor's Degrees - Certification-Degree Pathways Project 

 Emergency Remote Instruction is Not High Quality Online Learning - National Council for Online Education (NCOE)

In-House or Outsource? Chief online learning officers' decision-making factors when considering online program managers

Recognition of Prior Learning (pdf) - Lead by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, UPCEA was one of many organizations that participated in a “broad landscape analysis and original research related to the recognition of prior learning” funded by Lumina Foundation and Strada Education Network. UPCEA collaborated with the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) to produce this document.

Recent Developments in Prior Learning - Written by Julie Uranis, University Professional and Continuing Education Association and Van L. Davis, WCET – the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies

National Science Foundation (NSF) Skillsync Project / Competency Catalyst (Award number 2033578) - Begun in 2020, UPCEA participated in a National Science Foundation Project, exploring the use of machine-readable competencies in the identification and alignment of training seekers (employers) and training providers (professional, continuing, and online units at postsecondary institutions). The project resulted in the following assets: 

• Competency Catalyst Video (July 1-2, 2020)
• 2023 UPCEA Annual Conference Session:
  Leveraging AI to Build Workforce Relevant Programs
  Building relevant and responsive professional, continuing, and online programs requires understanding local industry needs and how course and program offerings align with them. This session discusses and demonstrates how AI can be leveraged to support this process. AI-based tools can help identify the skills required by local industry, analyze course offerings to determine which are most relevant, and make skills and competency based course and program design possible and productive. Attendees in this session will gain a deeper understanding of how AI can accelerate and provide insights into the development of new courses and programs. Myk Garn, Georgia Tech; Robby Robson, Eduworks; Julie Uranis, UPCEA.

Credential As You Go (CAYG) Advisory Board - Formed in 2021, CAYG is a multifaceted project working to compile information and build support for learners seeking credentials throughout their learning activities and those practitioners committed to building such credentials. UPCEA has represented the perspectives of online, professional, and continuing enterprises throughout the development of CAYG resources and is listed under CAYG’s Key Work Related to Incremental Credentials. CAYG’s work includes:

• Terminology in Incremental Credentialling
• Incremental Credentialing Tools and Resources

Learn & Work Ecosystem Library - Credential As You Go (CAYG) Learn & Work Ecosystem Library Advisory Board, formed in 2021, UPCEA supports the important work of cataloging and disseminating information on projects, research. The library launched in January 2023.

Non-Credit Research Network - Begun in 2019, the Non Credit Research Network (NCRN) “is a multi-disciplinary community of scholars, practitioners and policymakers that focuses on the”…”role of certificates, certifications and other non-degree credentials in the labor market.” UPCEA has been represented at NCRN meetings and received a research grant for the development of an Executive’s Guide to Research.

National Council for Online Education - Formed in 2019, the National Council is a collaboration with other online-focused associations and organizations in postsecondary learning. The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Quality Matters (QM), UPCEA, and WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) are all founding and active members. The leaders of the four orgs regularly communicate and issue joint and individual statements on online learning, representing the voice of postsecondary online leaders and institutions in the United States. Specifically, during the 2019 Negotiated Rulemaking by the U.S. Department of Education, UPCEA led the solicitation and data collection on institutional definitions for regular and substantive interaction. That information was included in the record of the meetings, Negotiated Rulemaking for Higher Education 2018-19, listed under the heading, ”Materials handed out during session 2 of the subcommittees” as “Distance Learning and Educational Innovation Regular and Substantive Interaction Institutional Survey”.

Moving From the Legacy Student Hour Toward a Comprehensive Measure of Student Learning Examining Benefits of a Competency-Based Taxonomy of Learning - May 2019

Instructional Design and Technology Teams: Work Experiences and Professional Development White Paper

Credentials Futures Coalition (CFC) Steering Committee - Formed in 2022, UPCEA is a founding member and collaborator with 1Edtech, AACRAO, and the Open Skills Network (OSN). Read press release.

Other groups and organizations with which UPCEA maintains relationships:

• • Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC)
  • Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)
  • Workcred
  • The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)
  • American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
  • American Council on Education (ACE)
  • American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
  • 1EdTech
  • Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN)
  • ASU’s Trusted Learner Network
  • US Chamber Foundation
  • EDUCAUSE
  • National Governor’s Association
  • Strada Foundation
  • NC-SARA
  • Jobs for the Future (JFF)