Online Learning & Continuing Education
Online Learning & Continuing Education (OCE) is a central U of A service unit that partners with colleges, faculties, and external partners to develop and deliver online courses, programs, and non-credit micro-credentials.
OCE leverages its deep expertise, skills, and experience to build high-quality and scalable online offerings to enable the U of A to expand its enrolment capacity, reach new student populations, and provide accessible pathways into U of A offerings.
From the creation of new online courses, programs, and micro-credentials, to the expansion of existing courses online, OCE supports our college and faculty partners from ideation to launch.
OCE serves its College and Faculty partners by providing:
- Research and reporting on trends and shifts in online learning and continuing education
- Strategic consultation for online learning ideation, modality selection, pricing, and potential demand
- Access to market research tools through Hanover Research and Vicinity
- Research-informed best practices and processes for the design, development, and delivery of high-quality multi-modal online credit and non-credit courses and programs
- Online course quality reviews aligned to industry-recognized quality standards
- Team of dedicated experts in course and program administration, business development, project management, instructional design, and learning experience development in the credit and non-credit space.
- Turnkey digital infrastructure to enable non-credit course/program discovery, registration and payment, management of non-credit learner records, and direct integration with the U of A’s non-credit Canvas LMS instance
Online Learning Team
The Online Learning (OL) team’s primary areas of focus include:
1. Building online courses and programs for impact.
The OL team is focused on high-demand online programming to enable growth, flexibility, and access. OL is committed to mobilizing online graduate programming, particularly stackable graduate certificates and course-based master's degrees, to serve working professionals and post-traditional learners. OL is also investing in the development of high-enrolment online undergraduate courses to alleviate unmet demand and provide students with more agency and choice in their schedules. OL seeks to repackage foundational digital content to create efficiencies between credit and non-credit learning.
2. Leading quality initiatives for online learning.
The OL team leverages its extensive expertise in online learning to create research-informed guidelines, best practices, and processes to elevate the quality and accessibility of online programming at the U of A. OL shares its expertise and resources through various channels, including consultation and course quality reviews, the Community of Practice for Online Learning co-led with the Centre for Teaching and Learning, engagement on Canvas initiatives and digital tooling, and participation on various committees and working groups at the university.
3. Raising awareness for U of A online courses and programs.
The OL team is committed to elevating the profile of online learning at the U of A. This includes raising awareness for new online courses and programs, advocating for searchability on the U of A website and registration system, highlighting OL services and resources available to faculties, and sharing student success and achievement in online programming. The OL team actively represents the U of A at external conferences and events, presenting on projects and practices that showcase the U of A’s innovative expertise in this space.
Continuing Education Team
The Continuing Education (CE) team supports lifelong learning and enables access to U of A university-level study through flexible, online and on-campus short courses and programs. The CE team administers a portfolio of in-demand, skill-building, non-credit programming that serves individuals and organizations seeking to boost competencies and reach specific goals. Annually, the CE team supports approximately 8,000 enrolments in 230+ active non-credit courses in 22 certificate and diploma programs.
The CE team leads a one-university approach to Continuing Education at the U of A. This approach aims to provide greater clarity and support to our faculty and unit partners through the following mechanisms:
1. Clear guidance on non-credit governance.
The Non-credit Programming Framework was approved by the General Faculties Council in February 2024. The framework provides clear approval pathways required for the development of new, changes to, or suspension of non-credit programming. The framework is supported by a Non-credit Micro-credential Development Guide offering a comprehensive resource for faculties and units when developing non-credit programming, including identifying CE team supports and services available.
2. Digital infrastructure to streamline non-credit continuing education.
A university-wide continuing education website has launched, enabling prospective students and organizations to discover and register for U of A non-credit offerings from faculties and units—all in one, easy-to-find place.
The CE team and the Office of the Registrar have implemented CERegister, powered by Modern Campus, which is the approved U of A student information system and online registration system for non-credit continuing education courses and programs.
CERegister integrates with CE Canvas, the approved learning management system (LMS) configured for non-credit continuing education courses, programs, and continuing education learner needs.
3. Strategic support services for faculties to generate revenue.
The CE team leverages its expertise, experience, processes, marketing solutions, and systems to support faculties and units in developing new non-credit offerings. The team provides strategies to repackage and repurpose credit programming into non-credit micro-credentials to reach new learner segments via its channels or through Coursera to generate new revenue streams.