eDesign Collaborative Blog

The eDesign Collaborative (eDC) Blog is a dedicated resource to announcements, updates, upcoming events, surveys, and other items for the eDC community. 

Thought Piece: The Heat Map

In my early days as a director, I found that, even when doing my best to scope a course development cycle, there would inevitably come one-off request for “urgent course fixes or builds” that hovered around the beginning of the semester. Despite doing what we could to assist, I could never seem to explain to folks why asking at that time of the year was the most problematic. At the time, I created a heat map graphic that I have used several times sense… in hopes that the colors (similar to a stop light) would help them see when would better be able to reach out for help, and why help was hard to come by when they were asking. I share this with you as well.

Also, a great solution is to also organize your team up to accommodate two needs: production shop and faculty assistance. In my experience, even if you are just a production shop, faculty assistance comes back to haunt you, because you established a relationship with the faculty, so it’s something to field for in your shop design.

I’m sure you each have your own version of this map (with your unique development schedules), but I share this with you as a tool that has helped me.

-Camille Funk, Director, UPCEA eDesign Collaborative

  The eDesign Collaborative serves higher education instructional design teams (instructional designers, multimedia developers and team administrators) in higher education seeking networking and professional development.


Learn more about the UPCEA eDesign Collaborative here.


UPCEA Blogs and Updates:  

Microcredentials, Modularity, and Mission: Insights from UPCEA’s Coffee Chat on Innovation in Healthcare Education

In partnership with the HELIX Summit on Continuing Medical Education  How are institutions navigating the dynamic intersection of workforce demands, digital learning, and credentialing innovation—especially in healthcare? That’s exactly what we explored in a recent Coffee Chat, where UPCEA leaders from across the higher education landscape gathered for an unrecorded but powerfully candid conversation on…

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Leading with Values-Based Influence in Higher Education

Why Values-Based Influence Matters Now  Higher education is undergoing seismic shifts—demographic changes, budget constraints, AI disruption, and questions of relevance. In this environment, how we lead and why we lead matters as much as what we do as leaders. Leaders who operate from a strong internal compass—those grounded in values—offer clarity, stability, and hope.  Values-based…

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Accreditation + Skill-Based Learning Addressed in New Executive Orders | Policy Matters (April 2025)

Major Updates Accreditation, Foreign Support, Skill-Based Learning Addressed in New Trump Executive Orders The Trump administration has continued issuing an unprecedented number of executive orders with recent directives directly impacting colleges and universities, addressing topics like accreditation reform, foreign influence, skills-based learning (including alternative credentials), and support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Two…

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Online education booms in an era of lifelong learning (WorkingNation)

‘Strictly online institutions tend to serve working-age or older adults requiring flexible schedules constructed around family obligations and work. “Folks arrive at higher ed for a multitude of reasons,” says Julie Uranis, senior vice president of online and strategic initiatives for UPCEA (the Online and Professional Education Association), a resource for online university programs. “Online learning gives them…

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Your Lifelong Learning Journey’s “Breadcrumbs” – How to Tell Your Story

As avid backcountry hikers, years ago my family decided it would be prudent to buy a GPS, even though we had a rescue dog with an incredible sense of direction. While many out-and-back or even loop hikes didn’t require high-powered digital GPS coordinates to find our way back to our vehicle, we did appreciate launching…

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Key Findings from 2024 UPCEA Marketing Survey

As more and more institutions face internal and external pressures to identify and cultivate new revenue streams, many are turning to online and professional continuing education to attract new learners and address fiscal shortfalls. While this continued increase in supply undoubtedly benefits the student, it makes an already saturated market even more competitive. UPCEA’s 2024…

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