The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Dual Credit Initiative
Learn more about the Illinois pilot, our faculty partners, and courses here!
The Illinois Dual Credit Learning Accelerator, jointly hosted by the Office of Online Learning and Undergraduate Admissions, is an initiative that aims to provide high-quality academic opportunities for prospective Illinois public high school students interested in pursuing four-year degrees.
The initiative will bring some of our most popular 100-level courses from across campus to high school students in the state of Illinois. Our offerings will expose students to fields beyond the standard curriculum core, and help prepare under-served student populations to navigate a variety of college courses from their flagship University. By offering hybrid dual credit courses, the pilot will bring general education specialties often unavailable in high-need districts directly to the students who need them.
The online portion of the courses offered via the Learning Accelerator are designed by Illinois faculty and taught by certified high school teachers. The pilot will be completely free for interested students thanks to the American Talent Initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Plans to increase the reach of this initiative are already in the works, so don’t wait to get involved! Submit an interest form or request a consultation today!
University of Illinois Faculty & Staff: If you are interested in offering Dual Credit courses with your Unit, please read through our course proposal guide and reach out to our Dual Credit Program Coordinator at onlinelearning@illinois.edu for a consultation or submit an interest form above.
Secondary Education Faculty & Staff: If you are interested in the University of Illinois’ continuing education, credentialing, and certification options, consult our catalogue of relevant offerings, and don’t forget to subscribe to updates about the College of Education’s new Micro-Credential for Dual Credit (MC4DC).
Learning Accelerator News:
UI offers popular courses to Rantoul, LeRoy high-schoolers
Come February, both Rantoul Township and LeRoy high school students will be able to take select college courses at the University of Illinois — with neither the students nor their school districts having to spend a dime. The UI’s online learning and undergraduate admissions offices created the Dual-Credit Learning Accelerator with a goal to bring popular college-level courses to high school and spark interest in certain career fields.
Illinois announces first dual-credit initiative, bringing courses directly to high school students
Colliding galaxies, rogue black holes, wandering meteors — the most dangerous phenomena in the universe make up the lessons in one of the most popular 100-level courses at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Starting in the 2026-2027 academic year, “ASTR 150: Killer Skies: Astro Disasters” will be one of four U. of I. courses also taught in the classrooms of select Illinois high schools as part of the new Dual Credit Learning Accelerator initiative…
College of ACES pioneers dual-credit opportunity for high school students
The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is redefining educational access with the launch of ACES 102: Introduction to Sustainable Food Systems. Approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education and debuting this fall, the course marks the first dual-credit class offered by the Urbana campus…
Office of Online Learning-led accelerator project selected for funding
A new Learning Accelerator program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been selected for funding through the American Talent Initiative IDEAS Fund, in support of the university’s first campuswide, dual-credit program for prospective students leading to first-time entry into four-year degree programs…