UNE Online announces two new graduate certificates in Education

The University of New England College of Graduate and Professional Studies (UNE Online) has announced it will offer two new graduate certificates in Education that will train students to successfully teach, design, and create meaningful online learning experiences for their own students.

UNE Online is pleased to announce the new Graduate Certificates in Designing Learning Experiences and in Teaching Online:

• The Graduate Certificate in Designing Learning Experiences is designed to provide students with the instructional design methodologies and skills, informed by learning science, needed to design effective online learning experiences.
• Similarly, the Graduate Certificate in Teaching Online is designed to provide educators with a rigorous and practical introduction to the skills and knowledge needed to design, develop, deliver, and evaluate courses in engaging online formats and understand the necessary components of the entire online learning ecosystem.

Both 12-credit hour graduate certificates can be completed in as few as eight months and can be started at any of the college’s six start times per year. All courses are 100% online and taught by a dynamic faculty of practitioners, researchers, and educators.

Administrators at UNE Online say the college’s new graduate certificates will prepare educators to become experts at incorporating online learning design principles into their instruction.

“As an educator, I have seen the challenges with the shift to emergency online learning. However, working at UNE Online has given me a ‘behind the scenes’ look into how quality online courses are developed,” remarks Jayne Pelletier, Ph.D., director of Graduate Programs in Education at UNE Online. “Our new certificates are designed to teach the essential online course development skills to anyone with an interest in online learning. With those skills, they can develop great online courses for learners of all ages.”

Both certificates are ideal for a variety of audiences, from K-12 educators and higher education professionals to corporate trainers and more. Additionally, completion of each new certificate allows students to roll their earned credits over into UNE’s 30-credit hour Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.) program at a later date.

As has been evidenced by the novel coronavirus pandemic, modern education needs agile instruction, including the ability to quickly pivot to online learning when other modalities become unavailable. COVID-19 has forced students to adapt to new modes of virtual learning, and it has caused teachers across the globe to reimagine how they teach their course materials.

“Because of what is happening in the world, many teachers are teaching online or in a hybrid format for the first time – and many teachers are struggling,” says Martha Wilson, Ph.D., CGPS dean. “At UNE Online, we have a rich history of successful online education. We are excited to be able to pass along our knowledge so our students can apply their new skills right away in their classrooms.”