Academic Program Development and Accreditation Course


Course Links and Description

This is a project-based course where the finished project will be develop an academic program. In this course you will learn to:

  • Design courses in Udemy (or in an unaccredited organization) for academic credit
  • Design an effective higher education academic degree or certificate program
  • Collect stakeholder feedback and conduct online research of similar programs to determine effective program design
  • Develop program outcomes and an outcome map to courses
  • Develop values integration for those in Christian higher education, ministry, missions agency or churches providing high-quality unaccredited, semi-accredited and non-formal education
  • Apply lean startup principles and agile methods to academic program design to adapt to resource-constrained environments
  • Complete the documentation needed to submit an academic program for review to an accreditor (or design program documentation to support alternative methods to accreditation in contexts where that is needed)

This course builds on our first course Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education in Udemy and iTunes U, which now has had over 5,000 students. That course looked at the disruptive innovation challenge where higher education globally is expanding from 100 million students in 2000 to 263 million by 2025. While that course was focused on vision and strategy, this course is a very practical follow-up. 


Course Materials

YouTube Course Video Playlist

Lesson 1. Introduction to Academic Program Development and Accreditation

Lesson 2. Innovative Models in Program Design

Lesson 3. Introduction to Program Design and Assessment

Lesson 4. Academic Program Needs Analysis and Research

Lesson 5. Writing Effective Program Outcomes & Faith Integration

Lesson 6. Developing Curriculum Maps & Assessment Plans

Lesson 7. Developing Program and Course Improvement Processes

Lesson 8. Preparing Your Program for Accreditation