Program Quickview
These programs focus on preparing instructors, instructional leaders, and support staff to leverage online learning and digital devices to improve student learning in a variety of contexts.
- A bachelor’s degree.
- Content knowledge in the subject areas you would like to teach.
- Combining Theory and Practice: Includes both coursework and practicum experiences focusing on how to teach online and how to capitalize on digital technologies in any instructional setting.
- Rich Experiences as Online Learners: Students engage as a learner in innovative digitally-rich learning activities – both online, and face-to-face (when possible!) – to personally experience their power and limitations.
- Fully Online Option: If desired, all required and elective courses in these programs can be taken fully online (meeting weekly in synchronous online sessions).
- Flexible: Program can be customized to be most relevant to your instructional setting and role, and to leverage courses taken in prior or concurrent programs.
- Combined Program Option: Students adding at least one advanced certificate may enroll in a “combined program” that will help secure the appropriate visa for international students and extend loan eligibility for domestic students.
Warner Programs in Online Teaching
Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching (OT1): 15 credits or less; for anyone interested in learning how to better design and facilitate online courses, as well as use online and digitally-enhanced learning to increase students’ learning opportunities, in a variety of instructional contexts; some choices available to customize the program; can be taken as a stand-alone or in addition to other University of Rochester programs.
This advanced certificate program does not lead to licensure or prepare students for the practice of any profession in NYS. It is designed to give professionals additional insight and tools to promote Online Teaching.
MS in Online Teaching and Learning (OT2): 33 credits; for people seeking a master's-level credential to teach online and/or support institutional efforts to provide high-quality online offerings; includes 15 credits of electives that can be customized to meet specific interests and career goals.
MS in Online Teaching and Learning (combined option) (OT4): This combined program will allow you to pursue the master’s program described above concurrently with at least one advanced certificate (see listbelow)– thus leading to multiple credentials for only a few additional credits. The length of the combined program and its total number of credits will depend on the chosen advanced certificate(s) and other optional enhancements. This option may be especially desirable for international students interested in additional specializations and willing to devote 4-5 semesters to their master’s program.
Opportunities for Additional Specializations(for only a few additional credits):
Advanced Certificate in Digitally-Rich Teaching in K-12 Schools: Prepares you to support the most recent advances in instructional technology and their implications for transforming K-12 schools
Advanced Certificate in Program Evaluation: Strengthens your research and skills in planning and conducting evaluations of existing programs.
Especially for UR Faculty:
Advanced 6-credit Series in Online Teaching

Opportunities to Complement/Combine the Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching with Another Program
While an Advanced Certificate in Online Learning is great on its own, it is also a helpful and marketable complement to an existing Warner program. Learn what it will take to add the Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching to each of the following programs, especially if you are already enrolled in or you are considering one of the programs below.
To learn more, visit Master's in Teaching (Without Certification).
To learn more, visit Programs Leading to New York State Professional Certification.
To learn more, visit Programs Preparing K-12 School Leaders.
Warner offers a flexible master’s degree to prepare educational leaders who are not interested in New York State school certification (only required for administrative positions in K-12 public schools). This master’s program requires only one year of full-time study or two years of part-time study. By choosing your electives strategically, you may only need three additional credit hours to earn an Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching.
To learn more, visit Master’s in Educational Leadership.
By choosing your electives strategically, you may only need three additional credit hours to earn an Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching.
To learn more, visit the doctoral program of most interest to you among the following options at Warner:
Our Approach
Preparing K-12 Educators to Leverage Online Learning in the Digital Age.
At Warner, we see the use of technology in instruction not as a goal in itself, but rather as a tool to be leveraged to improve student learning. To be effective, technology adoptions need to be accompanied by significant changes in curriculum, teaching practices, and expectations. We aim to prepare educators who understand the potential of online and digitally-rich learning and its implications, and are able to leverage this potential as a catalyst for better student achievement.

Online or digital learning – as it occurs in a digital space rather than face-to-face, with interactions taking place asynchronously (i.e., students can engage with the course materials at different times) or synchronously (i.e., students and instructors meet “online” at a specified time) – has some important differences from learning in traditional courses that meet regularly face-to-face, as well as many commonalities. Our position is that one modality is not necessarily better than the other, but rather that online and face-to-face learning each have different strengths and limitations. Therefore, online learning experiences may be more or less effective than face-to-face learning experiences depending on the type of content and instructional goals, on one hand, and the learning preferences and constraints of individual learners, on the other hand.
In practice, this means that to be a good online instructor, or to include valuable online learning experiences in traditional courses, one needs first of all to understand and apply many of the same principles and best practices required to design any good learning experience. Yet, it is also important to be aware of the unique strengths and limitations of online learning, as well as the many powerful tools that can be used in an online space, in order to design the best possible online experiences for one’s students. Figuring out which kind of instructional goals or learning activities are most suited to an online, versus traditional, format is an important skill for all teachers to develop.
In particular, it is important for online teachers to realize the unique potential of specific Web 2.0 tools to encourage and support co-construction of knowledge – as pointed out by scholars in New Media Literacies, among others. Becoming aware of the unique affordances of a few of these powerful tools, and learning how to best capitalize on that potential to support learning in a formal context, is also something our programs aim to offer.
We also realize that, while everyone has had extensive experience of traditional teaching as a student him/herself, not everyone has experienced learning online in a formal educational setting – although more and more people probably engage in some form of online learning in the course of their everyday practice. Therefore, we believe it is especially important for future online instructors as well as instructional leaders to experience as learners themselves the power and limitations of online learning, so they can fully appreciate its potential for their own teaching.
Consistent with this approach, our programs prepare graduates to:
- Gain a nuanced appreciation of the potential and limitations of online learning.
- Develop foundational knowledge in the areas of motivation, learning, teaching, and instructional design, as needed to inform the design of high-quality online learning experiences for diverse learners.
- Gain awareness of and proficiency in using a rich set of online tools, technologies, resources, and best practices for online teaching.
- Achieve proficiency in designing and implementing high-quality online learning and courses.
- Learn how to evaluate online learning experiences and courses to improve future practice.
The Warner Advantage
Preparing Graduates to Innovate, Advocate, and Elevate.
- Learn to best utilize online learning and technologies to better serve your students, while also expanding your career opportunities.
- Learn from experts in online teaching and learning and become an innovator and a thought leader in this emerging field.
- Increase access to quality learning opportunities for underserved populations through attention to equity issues related to online learning.
- Leverage the reputation of a leading research university to give your degree even more recognition.
- Shorten the pathway toward your doctoral degree by earning transferable credits.
- Use your electives to specialize in your area of interest.
- Take advantage of online learning options to significantly reduce trips to campus - even after this pandemic.
- Start the program in any semester and go at your own pace.
- Are you a University of Rochester employee? Make sure you make full use of your tuition benefits.
All About Experience

Center for Learning in the Digital Age
Benefit from faculty who have been involved in transformative uses of digital technology to enhance teaching and learning well before COVID-19. LiDA collaborates with various educational partners to leverage the potential of digital technologies for education for the long term.

Nationally Recognized Expert in Online Education
Program Director Eric Fredericksen’s leadership in the area of online teaching in higher education has been recognized with his appointment to President of the Online Learning Consortium, the most prominent professional organization in the field.

Connecting with Edtech Companies
Warner is committed to staying on the cutting edge of teaching and learning in the digital age. Program advisor Dave Miller has taken students to visit edtech companies who are developing innovative solutions for teachers at all levels.
Career Opportunities
Advancing Education and Your Career to the Next Level.
- Designing and/or teaching online courses.
- Engaging in digitally-rich teaching as part of their everyday practice.
- Supporting colleagues in designing and implementing online and digitally-rich instruction.
- Providing professional development that utilizes online components.
- Designing and implementing fully-online and hybrid-online programs.
- Leading curriculum innovations that leverage online learning.

Faculty
An Accessible, Supportive Faculty of Researchers and Accomplished Practitioners.

Program Director
LeChase Hall 314
(585) 273-1714
eric.fredericksen@rochester.edu
Other Core Program Faculty
Raffaella Borasi, PhDMike Daley, PhD
Jayne Lammers, PhD
All Warner School Faculty
Scholarships
Making Warner Affordable.
The Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester is pleased to offer a number of merit-based scholarships to eligible students who enroll in these programs. Contact admissions for more information about merit-based scholarships.
Are you a full-time PhD student at the University of Rochester? If so, your current tuition waiver will carry over to courses taken in these programs.
Are you a UR employee? Inquire about your tuition benefits. If eligible, up to 95% of your tuition costs can be covered depending on your position. Contact the UR benefits office at benefitoffice@rochester.edu.

Try Us Out
Get a Taste of What Warner Has to Offer.
We recommend you consider taking EDE484: Online Teaching & Learning, the first course in our sequence preparing online instructors. Even if you do not continue to pursue the full certificate or master’s program, this course will enable you to design and facilitate high-quality online modules. This course is offered every semester; a fully online version is offered each summer – and the forthcoming Spring 2021 course will also be offered fully online.
Contact admissions to learn more about opportunities for non-matriculated students.
