San Diego is home to California’s first mission, founded in 1769 — built by hand from adobe and timber, then enlarged, enhanced, restored, and transformed again and again over the centuries that followed. It’s a fitting backdrop for this year’s theme: a strong foundation isn’t something you build once and leave alone. It’s something you keep building on.
In accreditation, standards are that foundation. Wherever your institution stands today — early in the application process, approaching a first renewal, or well established — the standards are there to help you build your next level from your current one.
That’s this year’s focus: practical next steps for real progress, whatever stage you’re starting from. A program strengthens. An outcome sharpens. A practice that was once a stretch goal becomes routine — and makes room for the next one. The Fall Workshop is built to help you identify that next level and give you tools to climb higher.
Sunday, October 18 | Opening Reception 6 to 8pm
Monday, October 19 | 8am to 5pm
Tuesday, October 20 | 8am to 4pm
Rancho Bernardo Inn | 17550 Bernardo Oaks Drive, San Diego, CA 92128
Set in the rolling hills of San Diego’s North County approximately 30 minutes from downtown San Diego and San Diego International Airport.
Registration includes reception Sunday, breakfast and lunch Monday and Tuesday, and all workshop sessions (hotel accommodations not included).
The workshop is designed for institutions at every stage of the accreditation life cycle — new to accreditation, entering renewal, or maintaining continuous compliance — to learn best practices from industry experts and DEAC peers alike.
Institutions planning to apply for initial accreditation or renewal should have at least one key representative attend a Fall Workshop within the year prior to applying.
This year’s agenda reflects the experience institutions have since gained across three full cycles of initial and renewal accreditation under the standards in effect since January 2025, drawing on a review of chair reports and past attendees’ feedback to identify topics that will offer the most benefit and impact for attendees.
Plenary sessions: Guest experts and seasoned DEAC evaluators provide broad context, industry best practices, and practical insight into demonstrating compliance with DEAC Standards.
Targeted tracks for applicants and renewals: Some standards are addressed in full-group plenary sessions; others are addressed in separate tracks for applicant institutions and already-accredited institutions, based on where each group’s needs differ.
Building Blocks Sessions: Shorter, focused sessions targeting specific topics within the standards — common issues, common misunderstandings, or practical approaches to elevating institutional practice — repeated twice within the time slot so you can pick two.
DEAC Processes & Procedures: Sessions covering process mechanics for both applicant and accredited institutions, including initial application, readiness, preparing for renewal, and navigating specific substantive changes.
New-to-DEAC Mentoring Program: Representatives of applicant institutions, and others attending for the first time, can opt in to be paired with an experienced participant. The goal is to give first-timers a home base and a peer voice — someone who has personally navigated DEAC’s processes and standards — for context and orientation throughout the workshop. This is a peer relationship, not an evaluator or consultant relationship.
Affinity Groups & Closer Conversations: Informal space for conversation among like institutions or shared interests — for example, those with faith-based missions, those operating primarily in Spanish, or those with specialized interests, such as the interplay between emerging technologies and specific DEAC standards. Institutions interested in convening a group can email kate.sudarsan@deac.org.
Validating student learning at a distance is vulnerable in the era of AI. How do institutions move forward while maintaining commitments to access and equity? This session draws upon World Economic Forum data that emphasizes the critical need for human-centric skills alongside AI literacy. We will explore “connective labor” (Pugh, 2024) as a in-demand, future-ready skill for humans. By building the conditions that foster human-centric skills and integrating connection into the curriculum, distance education will guide students to understand who they are, as opposed to what they want to do. Aligning systems of efficiency with the needs of connection will be our grand challenge.
The mission is clear, the strategy is set, and everyone knows what it means. Right? Welcome to Whose Mission Is It Anyway?, an interactive general session about how a single mission statement can resonate in different ways across the same institution. We’ll put mission-driven decision-making to the test and look at what happens when the mission as written, mission as intended, and mission as implemented don’t align or leave too must room for interpretation. Come ready to play, debate, and make some tough calls. The scenarios are real(ish), and the points don’t matter (unless you want to win prizes, and there will be prizes).
Expectations for higher education’s return-on-investment are changing rapidly, and keeping in touch with graduates isn’t getting any easier. By the time grads have solid career outcomes to share with their institutions, they’ve long since filled out their final survey. The Burning Glass Institute’s method provides a new way to understand, measure, and tell the story of student success and educational value over the years.
From GPAs to seat time to AI, every generation of higher education has faced a moment where the thing it was measuring stopped being evidence of learning. As assessment practices evolve alongside technology, this plenary shares innovative approaches to authentic assessment based in research and practice of AI adoption.
Drawn from experience on both sides of the accreditation table (college president and agency commissioner), this session helps leaders know the difference between feeling good and functioning well, the science behind it, and the practices that help teams do their best work in challenging times without sacrificing trust, transparency, or personal resilience.
Rancho Bernardo Inn is sold out the night of Monday 10/19. Nearest alternatives include:
Click here for the full program schedule.