Professional and Continuing Education
Ohio State strives to serve learners across their lifetimes. Ohio State Online's Professional and Continuing Education (PCE) team supports Ohio State’s land-grant mission by providing administrative and learner support for a variety of non-traditional offerings.
New Noncredit Enrollment Management System to Create a Central Gateway for Noncredit Offerings
In a significant advancement for noncredit workforce development and professional and lifelong learning, the PCE team soft-launched a new noncredit enrollment management system in July 2024.
This critical infrastructure advancement is a key component of Ohio State's transformative commitment to supporting and advancing Professional and Continuing Education while addressing the urgent need for noncredit workforce development opportunities throughout the state and beyond.
This initiative, stemming from recommendations by a multi-year collaborative across Ohio State, creates a central gateway to Ohio State’s noncredit programming. By adopting a unifying noncredit enrollment management system, we aim to deliver a seamless, learner-centered and business-partner-enabled experience that aligns with our commitment to excellence and innovation while offering interdisciplinary learning pathways in one searchable space.
Learn more about the university-wide transition timeline and how the PCE team can support colleges and units during and after the transition at the Noncredit Enrollment Management System webpage.
Support of College Continuing Education Strategy and Advancement
The PCE team will be a strategic partner for colleges in advancing their noncredit efforts. Through ongoing engagement with college leadership, PCE is actively working to uncover the opportunities and barriers for Ohio State’s advancement in noncredit, workforce development. Depending upon college goals and identified support needs PCE will craft a tailored plan to help the college elevate their efforts.
Services in support of college noncredit advancement:
- Market research
- Financial proformas
- Noncredit program performance, reporting, and data analysis
- Business or organization partnership support
- Instructional design
- Instructor and Subject Matter Expert (SME) contracting
- Program management
- Enrollment management
- Enrollment support for learners via Help Center
- Platform support
- Facilitated design and discovery sessions to accelerate strategic steps forward
- Advancement of university policy, processes, and frameworks to enable interdisciplinary collaboration, alignment, and discovery for workforce development innovation.
Support of External Business and Organization Partnerships for Workforce Development
The PCE team through the technical infrastructure of a Corporate Engagement Portal and through key support services will coordinate partnerships with businesses and organizations interested in Ohio State as a provider of their internal workforce development efforts. Through identifying or creating content, PCE will establish a custom experience for various partnerships that presents curated, interdisciplinary learning opportunities.
Services in support of external partnerships:
- Partner coordination
- Project management
- Program management
- Financial proformas
- Corporate Engagement Portal Management
Additional PCE Offerings
- Extended Education
Extended Education serves adult, non-degree-seeking and visiting students who want to take undergraduate courses online or in person at Ohio State. The Extended Education team supports learners through the application process and beyond, providing individualized advising support focused on the needs of the adult, part-time learner.
Extended Education also supports current Ohio State employees and their eligible dependents looking to leverage the Employee Tuition Assistance Benefit to take one or more undergraduate courses outside of a full degree program. Learn more about the Ohio State Employee Tuition Assistance Benefit Plan.
To learn more about Extended Education, visit extendeded.osu.edu or email extendeded@osu.edu.
- Program 60
Ohio residents ages 60 or older can experience Ohio State’s academic excellence by enrolling in online or in-person courses at any of Ohio State’s campuses for no cost. Thousands of Ohioans take advantage of this tuition-free, noncredit/non-degree program to connect to the university community each year. Program 60 participants attend courses on an instructor-permission, space-available, audit basis at the undergraduate and/or graduate level.
To learn more about Program 60, visit program60.osu.edu or email program60@osu.edu.
- Third-Party Contract Courses
The Ohio State Online team assists academic units in providing services in contract with businesses, industry, civic organizations, government agencies, associations, health care providers, and other external parties to the university.
Our services for academic departments include:
- Coordination of fee suppression
- Registration services (for campus-based and online courses/programs)
- Student guidance for the admissions application process
- Personal involvement with the students throughout the entire enrollment process
- Coordination of the program through a point of contact within the academic department
- Providing a fee waiver option for the student’s admission application fees on behalf of the academic department
Learn more about how to enroll students in third-party contract courses.
- CEU Award Program
The Ohio State Online team offers Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for non-credit professional education and training programs provided by The Ohio State University’s departments and faculty members.
CEUs are based upon industry standards of one CEU per 10 hours of class time, excluding meals and breaks. When offering CEUs via distance learning, methods for determining hours of class time include referencing the average number of hours spent completing a pilot program offering, the hours for a similar face-to-face training, or similar for-credit course activity hours.For help determining contact hours for new CEU programs, see credit hour estimation.
Learn more about the CEU Award Program here.