Online Degrees, Certificates, and Courses

News

Earn your Instructional Design MasterTrack® Certificate in an accelerated program this summer! | 3.15.2023
Would you like to learn to create and deliver educational and instructional materials to all types of learners across multiple platforms in virtually any setting?

You can do that in just three months – and earn a highly sought after credential from a top-ranked online Master’s in Education program at a world class university – with the highly sought-after Instructional Design MasterTrack^® online certificate program.

The College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is offering this fully online two-course graduate certificate program in an accelerated summer format.

Applications open on April 17, and the program runs May 15 through August 4.

Instructional Design MasterTrack^® Certificate program

The program is designed for professionals who are engaged in instructional design and those aspiring to enter the field of instructional design.

Students will learn to:
- Solve real-world learning and performance challenges in various work settings.
- Master key concepts in instructional and training system design and learning technologies.
- Learn to integrate technology in today’s learning environments.
Another great feature: Students who complete the Instructional Design MasterTrack^® program can apply the course credits earned towards a Master of Education (EdM) or Doctor of Education (EdD) program in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership (EPOL) in the College of Education, upon admission to one of those programs.

The courses

Students will take the following two courses in an accelerated format that allows them to earn a graduate certificate in just three (3) months:
- EPOL 472: Instructional and Training System Design (May 15-July 7; live session: Thursdays)
- EPOL 483: Learning Technologies (June 12-Aug. 4; live session: Tuesdays)
Each course runs for eight (8) weeks, with four (4) weeks of overlap between the two courses. You can view course details and the course schedule on our program page.

Important dates

Applications open on April 17!

APPLY HERE by:
- May 1 for EPOL 472
- May 30 for the EPOL 483
Sign up to receive more regular updates about course offerings.

Learn More

Join a network of peers from around the globe who are shaping the future of education! Read about the student experiences of our online students who are some of the most passionate, inventive, and committed graduates the College of Education has nurtured.

Learn more about the College of Education's Online Programs, which, in 2023, was ranked the #3 Best Online Master’s in Education Programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, for the third year in a row.

For questions or to speak to a member of the Education at Illinois Online Programs Team email us at onlineprograms@education.illinois.edu.
Launch your instructional design career with an Instructional Design MasterTrack^® Certificate and be the difference in education!
Read More.
Story features School of Social Work’s innovative iBSW and iMSW programs | 2.9.2023

The School of Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is helping to increase access to social work careers—and in turn, meet the demand for these highly-sought after professionals—with two innovative programs.

The iBSW and iMSW programs were recently featured in an Illinois News Bureau article. “U of I online social work degree programs address diversity needs.”

The article highlights a study, “Reimagining social work education: A systems-thinking approach to a BSW/MSW program for community college students” (Journal of Social Work Education), which examined the need for removing barriers to transfer students’ experience, particularly students from underrepresented populations, and how the school developed the Bachelor of Social Work degree-completion program to remove some of those barriers.

“We’ve seen an increase in need for social workers, and we’ve seen in Illinois that there’s been a call for an increase in behavioral health workers,” said Carol Wilson-Smith, the director of the BSW program and a clinical professor in the School of Social Work.

“There just aren’t enough to meet the need. This is another way to reach some of the communities and prospective students that we might not be able to reach otherwise, and in turn, increase access to social work services. The other opportunity it presents is diversifying our profession and the number of social work professionals in the community to serve the diverse needs of the state.” (News Bureau)

The undergraduate iBSW degree-completion program was designed to give community college graduates and transfer students with junior standing a comprehensive educational experience that prepares them for a career in social work, advanced standing in a graduate program in social work, or career opportunities in health care, business, education, government, public service, among other areas.

The coursework is 100 percent online. And while students are required to do in-person field work, their placement is based on their location.

The school had already created the iMSW Program. Unlike traditional on-campus programs, this fully online master’s program allows students – many of whom are working professionals or non-traditional students – to earn a Master of Social Work wherever they are and without leaving their job.

Read the full News Bureau article.

Learn more about the iBSW Program.

Learn more about the iMSW program options, including the Advanced Clinical Concentration and the Leadership and Social Change Concentration.

Read More.
Build a firm foundation for veterinary school with Veterinary Medicine’s Graduate Academic Program | 1.5.2023
Register now for intensive 12-week summer program that starts May 15

By Illinois Online

Thinking about applying to veterinary school?

Prepare for the rigorous requirements of veterinary school and earn a credential from a top-ranked public research university with the online Graduate Academic Program (GAP), offered through the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois.

The GAP Summer Session is an intensive, full-time program that runs over a 12-week period, from May 15 to Aug. 6. (A 9-month, part-time program will also be offered, starting in August.)

The program is fully online, meaning students can complete it from anywhere in the world. Courses last three weeks each and are taught both synchronously and asynchronously, and students should plan to spend 48 hours per week on coursework.

Students who complete the program will receive a transcript and Certificate of Veterinary Science from the College of Veterinary Medicine to show future employers or admission committees. Completion of the certificate can also count toward the hours needed for the 32-credit-hour Master of Veterinary Science (MVS) degree offered through the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The summer program is also timed to allow you to meet veterinary school application deadlines.

Who should enroll in the GAP Summer Session?

The intensive 12-week summer program is for students who:
- Have completed their undergraduate degree with a GPA of 3.0 or higher and are looking to enhance their veterinary school application
- Are looking to build a strong foundation for success in veterinary school
- Are seeking to fill the gap between their undergraduate degree and veterinary school
- Are ready to deepen their confidence and competence in critical thinking and problem-solving abilities
Why earn a Certificate in Veterinary Science?

The GAP program was developed and taught by world-class veterinary professors at Illinois. It’s designed around the concepts of student success, active learning in community, career and professional development, leadership, and teamwork.

The specific courses focus on developing critical thinking skills, communication, and problem solving of animal health challenges. The required credit coursework involves classes in bioveterinary structure and function, clinical microbiology, infectious disease, host homeostasis, and responses to health challenges.

In addition to learning how to apply basic principles of health science to solve animal health problems, students will also strengthen their veterinary school applications and build a strong foundation for their success in veterinary school.

Only 32 highly-qualified applicants will be selected for the intensive summer program, so apply now or before the April 1 application deadline. (NOTE: You can also apply to the 9-month part-time program if that schedule is a better fit for you.)

Still wondering whether GAP is right for you?

Contact the iLearning Team at the College of Veterinary Medicine or email them at ilearningvetmed@illinois.edu to learn more about the program. They are eager to hear about you and your goals and help you find the resources to meet those goals.
Read More.
Digication CEO touts 'top-notch' IADP online certificate program | 10.10.2022
Registration has been extended to Wednesday, Oct. 26.

As the CEO and co-founder of Digication, Jeffrey Yan knew the importance of making his company’s award-winning e-Portfolio and Assessment Management system accessible to everyone.

At left, Jeffrey Yan, CEO and Co-founder of Digication. At right, Ratna Yelgoe, Senior Accessibility and Quality Assurance Engineer at Digication

Digication is the leading provider of e-Portfolio and assessment systems for educational institutions. The company currently supports millions of users at more than 7,000 K-12 and higher education institutions throughout the US.

"It is simply not enough to implement a user interface component in a way that is compliant to accessibility standards,” Yan said. “For example, googling an accessible drop-down menu will yield many results that include sample code and reusable components. However, it is very difficult for the developer to understand why they should use one component over another, and how to structure an entire user experience consistently so that it makes sense for users of all abilities.”

Through Digication’s information accessibility work with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Yan learned about the Information Accessibility Design & Policy (IADP) online certificate program, offered through the College of Applied Health Sciences (AHS) at Illinois. AHS is a pioneer and leader in accessibility education and research.

He was so impressed by the program and staff that he made it one of Digication’s professional development benefits—paid for in full by the company.

****

The IADP online certificate program consists of three, 2-credit 8-week online courses that can be completed in one academic year. It’s available to undergraduate, graduate, degree, or degree-seeking students.

Through the program, website/web application developers and designers, content creators in education and industry, eLearning specialists, instructional designers, information technology specialists, and disability service providers will learn the principles of accessible information architecture and universal design used in education, healthcare, and employment settings.

Students will also learn the federal and state legal mandates governing information accessibility and their relationship to the civil rights of people with disabilities, as well as technology accessibility standards, design techniques that adhere to those standards, and tools that support validation and evidence of compliance to those standards.

The goal: to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to digital, video, audio, and print information.

****

With Yan’s encouragement, Ratna Yelgoe enrolled in the program. She is a Senior Accessibility and Quality Assurance Engineer, and her job involves testing the products developed in Digication.

“As part of my work, I used aXe tools to write automated test scripts to identify accessibility issues,” said Yelgoe, who had no prior formal accessibility training.

She earned her IADP certificate in May 2022.

Yelgoe said the program deepened her understanding of the issues faced by users with disabilities.

“I have gained experience in not just identifying accessibility issues but also providing solutions,” she said, adding she “enjoyed this course thoroughly. It was well-designed and organized, providing us lots of information and lots of pointers to explore different topics.”

While Yelgoe has taken online courses on other topics before, she said the IADP program provided her with a much different experience “as it's a cohort based online program.”

“Every week, select topics are discussed with our course mates/instructors who come from different backgrounds/experience, which provides a lot more insight on the topics,” she explained. “I stay in India, and I thought it would be difficult to manage the course work with the different time zones and work schedule. But this is a self-paced course and although there are deadlines, the instructors provide us flexibility for assignment submissions.”

****

Yan said the knowledge and skills Yelgoe acquired from the program have improved the entire front-end development team’s ability to create more accessible software.

“The IADP program covers much more than technical solutions to making a user interface element accessible. It includes a wide range of examples of why and how we can make our software more usable for scenarios far beyond being compliant to the industry standard,” he said.

Yan added it’s critical for companies to have web developers and designers who understand the fundamental principles behind accessibility. And, according to Yan, the IADP curriculum and faculty are “pedagogically top notch.

“This is incredibly important because we want our developers enrolled in this program to experience a coherent and enjoyable learning experience,” he said. Program Coordinator and Instructor “Marc Thompson and his team are experts in instructional design in addition to their expertise in accessibility. This is an incredibly rare combination that is unique to this program.”

Yelgoe definitely recommends the IADP certificate program to “anyone who is involved in website or app development, design, testing, product managers” in a broad spectrum of careers and discipline areas.

“Anyone with a non-technical background can take up this course,” she added. “I do not have any web development experience and thought I wouldn’t be able to complete some of the assignments. However, the instructors covered these topics by providing us with lots of resources and starting with simple assignments and gradually increasing the level of complexity.”

Register now! The registration deadline for the Information Accessibility Design and Policy (IADP) online certificate program has been extended to Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022.

For more information about enrollment, course content, and learning outcomes, contact Dr. Marc Thompson at thompso1@illinois.edu.

For information about registration, tuition, technology, and other logistics, contact Erika Albin at ealbin@illinois.edu.

Learn more about the IADP online certificate program

The Information Accessibility Design and Policy (IADP) online certificate program is offered by the College of Applied Health Sciences (AHS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Through this award-winning program, website developers, programmers, designers, information technology specialists, compliance officers, educators, and disability service providers will learn about the following skills and knowledge areas:

Principles of accessible information architecture and universal design methods used in educational, healthcare, corporate, and employment settings
- Federal and state legal mandates governing information technology accessibility and their relationship to the civil rights of people with disabilities
- Information technology accessibility standards, design practices that enable adherence to those standards, and tools that support validation and evidence of compliance to those standards
Why apply?

There has been a rapid increase in the use of multimedia sources for information dissemination in education, healthcare, business, government, and other settings. Concurrently, there has been an increase in the prevalence and participation of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society including students, employees, and consumers of commercial goods and public services.

In response to the escalating accessibility needs of this population, many states are passing legislation—for example, the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act—to establish policy parameters for digital accessibility. There are also several national mandates that address information technology accessibility, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

A barrier of achieving the goal of functional information accessibility is that many software developers, programmers, and information designers lack the necessary accessibility knowledge, skills, and tools they need to effectively perform their jobs. In addition, service providers and administrators often lack an understanding of how the various legislative acts and polices of information accessibility apply to their setting.

The College of Applied Health Sciences continues its pioneering efforts on behalf of the full inclusion of people with disabilities by developing one of the very first university-based professional certificates in information accessibility design and policy. At the completion of this certificate program, graduates will have relevant knowledge of policies governing information technology accessibility, along with the skills and tools to meet Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and create and/or convert digital information into accessible formats.

The program is approved by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) for CAEC Professional Development Credits.
Read More.

Events

Date	Event
5.3.2023	Last day of Spring instruction (?)
5.4.2023	Reading Day (?)
5.5.2023	Final examination period (5/5 - 5/12) (?)
5.13.2023	May degree conferral (?)
5.15.2023	Summer session begins (?)

Online Illinois Calendar

Blogs

Diving Into Summer Session | 3.28.2023

By Will Kanter, Marketing Associate

Spring has just sprung, but the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is already gearing up for the summer term. Summer Session 2023 runs from May 15, 2023, through Aug. 5, 2023, with 4-, 8-, and 12-week courses available. Priority registration begins in conjunction with Fall 2023 registration on April 3, and open registration for all students begins on April 20. Whether you plan on traveling, working, or both in the months to come, there’s a class to go with your schedule. View the Summer 2023 Academic Calendar for information on deadlines, holidays, finals, and more.

Summer Session allows students to take one course in an online format from anywhere in the world. The term is also open to students who are enrolled at other educational institutions. This year, there are nearly 600 course sections to choose from, all taught by our world-class Illinois faculty. If you have any questions about the material, your professor or a TA are just an email away. The courses are rigorous yet manageable in the condensed time frame, so you don’t need to give up your break to get ahead in school.

Summer is a great time to take a high-demand course that’s hard to get into in the fall or spring. It’s also the perfect opportunity to catch up on credits, increase your overall GPA, work towards a minor, or just take an interesting class that’s not in your field of study. Between courses like American Sign Language, Viking Mythology, and African American Music, you are bound to advance your academic career and learn something new in the process. Visit the Summer Session 2023 Course List, and be sure check back often for updates.

Students who have taken Summer Session courses have responded extremely positively to the experience. “I could do the work whenever it was convenient for my schedule. I could also work at my own pace instead of wherever the class is,” one student wrote in a course evaluation.

“I liked how the professor gave a suggested schedule for completing the material asynchronously on a weekly basis,” another student agreed.

The asynchronous setting allows you to work at your own pace while still providing an environment for collaboration. “The discussion boards helped a lot in making connections with other students. It made me feel that other students were taking the class with me, which is hard to experience when handling an online course,” one student observed.

Whether you learn best independently or with more guidance, Summer Session has options for you.

One course can make all the difference! To learn more about Summer Session, visit the Illinois Online Summer Session page.

Read More.
How to Pay for Grad School | 3.15.2023

Involvement: Summer Session

Innovation: Instructional Design MasterTrack® Certificate Program

Impact: College of Veterinary Medicine Launches New Certificate

Integration: AI in Medicine Certificate Program

Inclusion

News

Register now for intensive 12-week summer program that starts May 15

Registration has been extended to Wednesday, Oct. 26.

Events

Blogs