Asynchronous Online Courses
Focused Learning, Designed for Academic Leaders
Registration is Open for Fall 2025
Participants should expect to spend about four hours per week completing coursework. Each course is focused on a single topic, and draws on curated research in the field as well as academic expertise.
As always, the design of each course includes opportunities for reflection and interaction, empowering you to boost your skills with a group of peers interested in the same issues.
September
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AI for YOU, Academic Leader
Discover how Generative AI can help school leaders navigate their workday more efficiently and enhance thought leadership.
September 29 - October 3
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Preparing for Your First Year in Department Leadership
Gain strategies and confidence to successfully navigate your first year in department leadership.
September 29 - October 3
October
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Curriculum Mapping: What You Need to Know Before You Start
Plan effective curriculum mapping that honors your school's values and culture. Leave with a personalized plan and timeline, developed from our templates. We'll suggest how AI tools can support and streamline the process.
October 6 - October 10
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Leading Your Team/Department in Understanding Generative AI in 2025
Learn to guide your team in exploring Generative AI and considering the implications for teaching and learning in alignment with school mission and values.
October 6 - October 10
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The Emotional Lives of Teenagers with Dr. Lisa Damour
Join NY Times best-selling author Dr. Lisa Damour to learn how to apply new insights on teens’ cognitive and emotional development in schools.
October 6 - October 17
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Building the GPT Your School Needs (No Programming)
Learn to create custom GPTs or agents for academic leadership. This course covers effective prompts, use cases, and practical applications in school administration. Build your own GPT or agent.
October 13 - October 17
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Tough Talks: Challenging Conversations with Parents and Guardians
Gain confidence and skill in navigating emotionally charged conversations with parents and guardians. This course equips independent school leaders to engage in difficult discussions with empathy, candor, and a clear sense of authority.
October 13 - October 17
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Aligning Mission and Curriculum with Your Custom Bot
Learn to use custom GPTs for mission-driven curriculum design and adaptation. This course covers creating custom GPTs, evaluating GenAI-generated content, and tailoring it to your school’s unique program.
October 20 - October 24
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Instructional Rounds: Fostering Reflective Teacher Practice
Explore instructional rounds as a tool for improving student learning by fostering teacher reflection. Learn to implement a pilot program and develop observation frameworks.
October 20 - October 24
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Preparing for Schedule Changes
Develop a process to design and implement new school schedules that meet your school's unique needs.
October 27 - October 31
November
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Assessing Your Assessments in the Age of AI
Examine current assessment practices and consider strategies better aligning your school's assessment practices with your mission and values.
November 3 - November 7
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Personalized Learning: A Primer for Academic Leaders
Understand personalized learning and explore how Generative AI can enhance learner-driven pedagogy in your school.
November 3 - November 7
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Tough Talks: Challenging Conversations with Direct Reports
This course helps independent school leaders strengthen their supervisory skills by engaging in the kinds of conversations that are tempting to avoid, yet essential for professional growth, accountability, and team cohesion.
November 3 - November 7
December
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Curriculum Leadership: Storyboarding for Impact
Learn to guide and communicate curriculum work more effectively using curriculum storyboards—practical tools that support planning, collaboration, and clarity across your school community.
December 8 - December 12
Explore the Rest of Our Online Courses
More about online courses at the
Association for Academic Leaders
At the Association for Academic Leaders, we know these two things about our members: their time is short and their interests and needs encompass a wide array of issues. As a competency-based professional association, we have intentionally designed our courses to meet these seemingly divergent needs.
Almost all of our courses are short, lasting one week; they open on a Friday afternoon and close on Sunday evening 10 days later. Every course is designed to be completed in what we call an “asynchronous but paced” manner in about 4-5 hours total over the course of those 10 days. This time frame includes both weekend and weekday time to ensure that participants can complete the assignments at the times their schedule permits.
In practice, this means that each course targets a specific aspect of one of the competencies Academic Leaders need to grow to help their schools thrive. While the overall topic may seem quite large, once inside, participants will find a highly-curated selection of resources that target the objectives of the course.
Just because the courses are short does not mean they are completed in isolation. We ask that participants plan to pace themselves by including time to interact, not just consume the course material. Each offering is led by one of our highly knowledgeable facilitators, who provides feedback to participants’ submissions and questions. In addition, participants are encouraged (expected) to engage with one another in making meaning from the course material though our discussion assignments.
The conversations don’t end when the course is completed and the badges awarded. We provide opportunities to continue the connections made in our courses in our members-only discussion areas in our online portal.