During the fall of 2024, the Office of Online Learning reviewed and redeveloped the existing Certificate of Online Teaching Excellence (COTE). The new version has split COTE into two separate online courses, each lasting 6 weeks.
COTE 1 - offered in January 2025
Participants focus on online course design and development. The course has a combination of theory and practice related to systematic course design, quality metrics for course materials and learning environments and addressing specific design challenges related to assessment and feedback, accessibility, inclusion and learner engagement. If interested in participating in COTE 1, please send an email to online@uncp.edu.
COTE 2 - offered in Fall 2025
Participants will focus on online facilitation and implementing high-impact teaching practices. The course is highly practice-intensive and intended to develop strong online facilitation skills.
Renewing and maintaining this certification upon expiration is a very easy process. Once you complete the certificate, you do not have to retake the course again to maintain certification. All you have to do is:
- Complete 18 hours of professional development related to online teaching and learning before the expiration date.
- Submit the Creditable Activity Form to document your hours. You can submit one form with all 18 hours before your expiration date, once a year, or once after each activity. Please use the frequency that best works for you.
- From these 18 hours, at least 12 must be earned through webinars and sessions offered by the Office of Online Learning. Sessions offered by our partners such as the Teaching and Learning Center and the Accessibility Resource Center can count towards this requirement if the topic of the session is related to online teaching and learning.
- You also have the option of completing six (6) out of these 18 hours by attending external events or conferences related to online teaching and learning.
- If you attend a conference, only those sessions related to -online- teaching and learning count toward your COTE recertification
- One (1) hour of professional development represents 60 minutes of online or face-to-face attendance. You can submit in the form fractions of time (e.g. 0.5 hours, 1 hour and 15 minutes) and we will calculate the total for you.
- If you have any questions about this process, the types of activities that you can attend to maintain certification, hours to complete or records, please contact us at online@uncp.edu.