Collaboration empowers online education leaders with confidential benchmarking, data-driven insights, and strategic decision-making tools

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 2025 — UPCEA, the online and professional education association, has announced an exclusive partnership with the International Distance Education Benchmark Project (IDEBP), a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to help higher education institutions strengthen their digital learning strategies through confidential, data-informed benchmarking and analytics.

Through this partnership, UPCEA and IDEBP will collaborate to bring advanced benchmarking tools, institutional data insights, and strategic intelligence to UPCEA member institutions, particularly Chief Online Learning Officers (COLOs), deans, and other leaders guiding online education strategy.

“COLOs and other online leaders are under increasing pressure to make data-driven decisions,” said Bob Hansen, Chief Executive Officer of UPCEA. “Our partnership with IDEBP helps to socialize the necessity for comparative data and contextual insights, which will help UPCEA members advance quality, effectiveness, and innovation in their online programs.”

A New Era of Benchmarking for Online Education

Founded and led by Kevin Shriner, Ed.D., IDEBP provides institutions with an unprecedented opportunity to benchmark key distance education performance indicators in a secure, confidential environment.

By utilizing de-identified, institution-submitted information, IDEBP allows colleges and universities to access interactive dashboards, longitudinal trends, and confidential peer comparisons that inform strategic planning, accreditation, and continuous improvement for distance education programs. Through this collaboration, all UPCEA members are encouraged to leverage complimentary access to IDEBP’s national dashboards, which visualize publicly available IPEDS data and reveal trends across the higher education landscape.

“National reporting data is helpful but lacks the context that drives meaningful decision-making,” said Kevin Shriner, Founder and Executive Director of IDEBP. “IDEBP gives institutions the ability to benchmark their performance against carefully selected peers while ensuring data confidentiality. Our partnership with UPCEA expands this capability to the leaders who are defining the future of online learning.”

Advancing Research and Data Strategy for UPCEA Members

The partnership strengthens UPCEA’s role as the go-to source for data-informed strategy and research in online and professional continuing education. The collaboration responds directly to growing demand among COLOs and institutional leaders for actionable benchmarks, ROI analysis, and strategic intelligence to guide decisions about programs, enrollment, and student success.

“Our members consistently ask for better, more actionable data to inform their strategies,” said Julie Uranis, UPCEA’s Senior Vice President for Online and Strategic Initiatives. “Through this exclusive partnership with IDEBP, UPCEA is providing the field with something truly distinctive, a secure, collaborative way to use data to tell our story, measure our impact, and shape the future of online learning.”

UPCEA Members participating in IDEBP receive:

• Confidential Peer Benchmarking: Participants can compare key performance indicators (e.g., enrollment, retention, completion) against anonymized peer groups.
• Enhanced Data Collection: IDEBP gathers de-identified, institution-specific metrics not available through national reporting systems.
• Interactive Dashboards: Participants gain access to data visualizations, longitudinal trends, and confidential analyses to support strategic decisions.
• Member Discount: UPCEA members who join IDEBP’s initial phase (2025–2028) receive a 20% discount on IDEBP membership fees.

ABOUT IDEBP

The International Distance Education Benchmark Project (IDEBP) provides higher education institutions with data-driven tools for online education benchmarking—enabling them to better understand, evaluate, and improve their distance education strategies. By combining publicly available IPEDS data with confidential, institution-submitted benchmarks, IDEBP empowers institutions to make informed decisions that strengthen student success and institutional strategy. Learn more at www.idebp.org.

 

ABOUT UPCEA

UPCEA is the online and professional education association. Our members continuously reinvent higher education, positively impacting millions of lives. We proudly lead and support them through cutting-edge research, professional development, networking and mentorship, conferences and seminars, and stakeholder advocacy. Our collaborative, entrepreneurial community brings together decision makers and influencers in education, industry, research, and policy to improve educational access and outcomes. Learn more at https://UPCEA.edu and follow @UPCEA on social media.

 

CONTACT: 

Molly Nelson, UPCEA VP of Communications, [email protected]