College Teaching and Career Preparation

Overview

In today’s highly competitive academic job search, pedagogical training and demonstrated teaching skills will help your application stand out. Gain the knowledge and skills that you need for teaching in higher education and receive guidance and practice with elements of the academic job search with this 100% online 12-credit hour graduate certificate in college teaching and career preparation. This certificate program is open to students from any discipline with a bachelor’s degree who teach or who want to teach as an adjunct, instructor, or full-time or tenure-track faculty member at a college or university.

Set yourself up for success with the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s School of Graduate Studies. Enhance your teaching skills for online or in-person classes as you enter the job market. Discover new ways to further your pedagogy while balancing your time among scholarly tasks like research and writing for publication. If you’re already teaching, you will strengthen your curriculum and teaching skills to better support today’s learners.

Topics include active learning, creating effective syllabi, developing lesson plans and assignments, attending to student motivation, maximizing use of classroom technology and engaging in the academic environment. Experienced faculty will guide you across the program, and a mentor of your choice will review your teaching practices. Take steps now to prepare for the future you see for yourself.

Program Structure

Delivery of this program is 100% online: no campus visits are required.

Courses are semester-based. Students typically take one to two classes each semester and finish in two years.

Course work includes:

• Preparing future faculty
• Educational psychology: focus on teaching in higher education
• The college student
• Curriculum and teaching for the college classroom

Available Courses

Classes are mostly asynchronous, meaning that courses do not have scheduled meeting times. There are two seminars in the fall and spring semesters that are one-time occasions each offered synchronously, meaning class lectures occur at certain times of the day/week and require the student to attend via online collaborative tools (options to review recorded material or alternate activity).

This program has assignments that may be completed in tandem with teaching opportunities. However, this program does not arrange those practica, and they are not required for program completion.

Special project

Students complete a professional website portfolio to assist in career exploration. No additional requirements are needed.

Course planner

The chart below shows the courses offered in the program. Courses are 3 credit hours each, unless stated otherwise. The university reserves the right to change or cancel courses as needed.

Course planner

The chart below shows the courses offered in this program. Courses are 3 credit hours each, unless stated otherwise. The university reserves the right to change or cancel courses as needed. Please refer to the Academic Catalog for the most up-to-date list of courses.

Nondegree-Seeking Enrollment

Prior to acceptance into the program, you may enroll in up to 12 credit hours as a nondegree-seeking (in some cases, post-baccalaureate) student. Enrollment does not guarantee acceptance. Learn more about nondegree-seeking university student admissions.

State Authorization

States require that the University of Missouri-Kansas City be authorized to deliver university-level distance/online education to their residents. Each state handles this process differently.

Please see our state authorization page for more information.

Authorized

Students residing in all states are eligible to enroll in this program.

How to Apply

Fulfill the admission requirements

• Students must maintain a cumulative 3.0 graduate GPA while enrolled and receive a grade not lower than B- in courses applied to the program.
• All applicants must have already completed a bachelor’s degree.
• All applicants must complete the online UMKC application form College Teaching and Career Preparation CT.
• Applicants must have a Faculty Mentor who is willing to allow the PFF candidate to observe during teaching, willing to allow the PFF candidate to conduct an interview related to faculty roles and responsibilities, and willing to observe the PFF candidate during classroom instruction in order to share specific feedback related to teaching performance. Faculty Mentors can be a faculty member at any institution of higher education. The Faculty Mentor’s signature will be required on the application form.
  
  

Required documents

• Résumé
• TOEFL, IELTS, PTE or C1 Advanced score reports for applicants whose native language is not English. For information on sending test scores, visit the Grad School website
• Name and contact information of a faculty member at any institution who has agreed to serve as your faculty mentor to support your participation in this program.

Complete the online application

• Domestic application fee: $45.00
• International application fee: $75.00

Note: If you were ever enrolled at UMKC as a degree-seeking student, you do not need to resubmit the general UMKC application fee.

Application fee waiver questions: Contact UMKC Office of Admissions with questions via 816-235-8652 or 1-800-775-8652 or admissions@umkc.edu. 

Apply to UMKC

Program Contact

Candace Schlein Professor and Director of the Preparing Future Faculty Program Phone: 816-235-5754 Email: schleinc@umkc.edu

Tuition and Fees

These estimates are for illustrative purposes only and are based on academic year 2025-2026 information. They include:

• Graduate resident tuition rate of $538.00 per credit hour for 12 hours
• Online course fee of $58.50 per credit hour for 12 hours