You can register for individual courses on our course catalog or you can enroll in a certificate program. If you plan on earning a professional certificate (i.e. Master Online Teacher), you can receive a discount by enrolling in the complete certificate program. 

Please visit these how-to guides for registration help:

• Register for an ION Course (PDF)

For additional payment options or registration assistance, reach out to ION staff at ion@uis.edu.

You can register people at your organization for courses in two ways. 

1. Set up a pre-paid account with ION. This allows institutions to put available funds in an account and spend it throughout the year on ION professional development courses. Contact us at ion@uis.edu to set up your account.
2. Send a list of participants to ION for enrollment. We can invoice an institutional contact.

This professional certificate prepares participants with knowledge related to online course design, online instruction, and other issues related to online teaching and learning. These competencies make a master online teacher.

To earn the Master Online Teaching professional certificate, you must successfully complete:

• Three core courses
• Two electives
• The Master Online Teacher Practicum

Students should take all courses before the Practicum, although the elective course may be taken concurrently. All courses in the Master Online Teacher professional certificate program are 8 weeks.

Through the Master Online Teacher coursework, you will create an electronic portfolio that demonstrates knowledge in the areas identified as most important to quality online teaching.

Required Courses

You must complete the following courses to earn the Master Online Teacher professional certificate:

• Overview of Online Instruction
• Instructional Design for Online Course Development
• Student Assessment in Online Courses
• Practicum

In addition, you must successfully complete two of the following electives:

• Hybrid, Blended, and HyFlex Course Design
• Technology Tools for Online Learning
• Universal Design Principles for Online Learning
• Encouraging Communication in Online Courses

The OER professional certificate prepares participants to harness the power of high-quality, free educational resources to support student learning. This professional development certificate is offered completely online and is comprised of three 4-week courses and one 8-week course.   

Required Courses

You must complete the following courses to be eligible for the OER professional certificate:

• Foundations of Open Education Resources
• Using Open Education Resources to Support Instruction
• Creating and Sharing OERs for Online Learning

In addition, you must successfully complete one of the following electives:

• Universal Design Principles for Online Learning
• Instructional Design for Online Course Development

Enroll in the OER Certificate Program

• Enroll in the OER Certificate Program 

This professional certificate program focuses on foundational information and specific skills for educators, instructional designers, and other staff who develop digital resources for courses.

The courses provide skills that satisfy the current WCAG standards upon which U.S., Canadian, and European Union accessibility guidelines, policies, and laws are based.

Upon completing this certificate program, you will:

• Understand the legal and historical background of accessibility, universal design for learning, and applying these to course design.
• Develop accessible Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files
• Create accessible videos

The courses were developed with educators in mind. The courses explain why and how to make common course materials accessible with free or inexpensive software that is commonly available at many institutions. Technical IT jargon is not used.

Required Courses

4-Week Courses

• Foundations of Accessibility for Educators
• Creating Accessible Documents in Education
• Creating Accessible Videos in Education

8-Week Course

• Universal Design Principles for Online Learning

Enroll in the DAE Certificate Program

• Enroll in the DAE Certificate Program

For U.S. Institutions

An important question to ask is why do our digital materials need to be accessible? The answer is two-fold.

First, federal laws require digital resources to be accessible to the public. Some states, including Illinois, also have laws mandating the accessibility of digital resources for institutions of higher education.

Second, courses that are made accessible to students with disabilities also prove useful students without any documented disabilities. For instance, video captioning helps students who are English language learners or consume content in noisy (or quiet) locations. Making courses accessible means you are providing a better learning experience for everyone. 

Yes! Faculty and staff at Illinois community colleges and founding ION institutions can receive a discount on courses. Contact ION staff to receive the discount code before registering. Your account will be verified through your college email address. 

If you are an individual who does not qualify for institutional discounts, you can still receive a discount by enrolling in a certificate program rather than individual courses. 

Both badges and certificates recognize achievements in professional development. Badges are typically awarded for smaller, "stackable" achievements, such as a course or workshop where learners master a specific skill. In ION, badges are awarded per course. Certificates are awarded when learners complete an entire program, or a series of courses that lead to certification of expertise in a certain subject area. ION certificates and badges are issued through Credly. 

Earning CEUs (Continuing Education Units)

When you complete one of the ION eight-week courses you will receive 8 CEUs and 4 CEUs for a four-week course.

Earning an ION Professional eLearning badge

When you complete one of the ION eight-week or four-week courses, you will be awarded a digital badge. You will be notified via e-mail of your achievement and provided a link to follow to claim your badge. If you want to, you may copy your badge (and its link) into your e-mail signature, your personal homepage, or faculty webpage. The link information will allow others to authenticate your badge.

In other words:

1. Complete any badge sequence
2. Follow the link to claim your badge
3. Copy the badge icon in a suitable size then paste it to where you wish to show it (i.e. your email signature)
4. Apply the hyperlink to the icon you pasted

Now, when someone sees your badges, they can verify the authenticity by clicking the link.

Earning an ION Professional eLearning program certificate

When you complete a sequence of courses in the ION eLearning Program (e.g. all courses in the Master Online Teacher program), you will be awarded a certificate of completion. It will contain the number of CEUs awarded, along with your name, date issued, and signature of certifying staff. You will be notified via e-mail of your achievement and provided a link to follow to claim your certificate. You can download your certificate and share it to LinkedIn, if desired.