Students will no longer have to search through dozens of different websites to find a personal enrichment or licensure program they are interested in at Temple.

This week, Temple began the first phase of a three-year project to provide a centralized “one-stop-shopping” registration and payment system, called DestinyOne, for all of Temple’s continuing education and noncredit programs.

Each year, thousands of participants sign up for hundreds of noncredit and continuing education opportunities offered by Temple through more than 100 different programs. Continuing education students can study advertising online with the School of Media and Communication, master a language through Access Temple’s Intensive English Language Program or become licensed real estate agents at Temple University Center City’s Real Estate Institute.

“Temple’s noncredit offerings have increased between 25 and 30 percent in just the last few years,” said Nicole Westrick, senior manager of noncredit operations and technical support. “With continued growth anticipated, this new centralized system can help us streamline some of our processes and grow our offerings.”

Through DestinyOne, noncredit students will be able to search for all of Temple’s noncredit offerings, register and pay online, view their past and current courses, order transcripts, and more. Instructors will use DestinyOne to track student enrollment and provide online course content, including videos and demonstrations.

Program administrators will also benefit from the new system.

“We chose DestinyOne because it will allow departments the maximum amount of control in running their own programs on their own schedules and timelines,” said Vicki Lewis McGarvey, vice provost for University College. “Programs will be able to spend less time on administration and more time on running their programs and developing new ones—that’s especially important in Temple’s new decentralized budget environment.”

The School of Media and Communication’s SMC Plus program, for example, will use DestinyOne to launch an entirely new set of online noncredit courses, according to Dana Saewitz, associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Advertising and co-director of SMC Plus. First up is a six-course, skills-based certificate in digital advertising, beginning in January 2015.

“When we began developing these programs, there was no centralized registration or payment system. We were thrilled to learn about the launch of DestinyOne,” Saewitz said. “SMC Plus is an umbrella for various kinds of noncredit offerings. Digital advertising is really just the beginning.”

DestinyOne will initially roll out with full registration and payment implementation for all noncredit/continuing education programs in eight departments: the Office of Non-Credit and Continuing Education; the School of Media and Communication; the Real Estate Institute at Temple University Center City; the Pan-African Studies Community Enrichment Program; the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute; Access Temple; Temple’s Intensive English Language Program; and the LifeLong Learning Society offered at Temple Fort Washington.

Eventually, there will be about 50 Temple departments using DestinyOne. “For phase two, we’re looking at adding several more Temple programs and youth and summer camp offerings at all of Temple’s campuses in particular,” Westrick said. “We anticipate we will have the camp registration system in place for summer 2015.”

-Jim Duffy