University College Cork (UCC), a historic institution founded in 1845, is redefining education accessibility and flexibility. As a research-intensive university with a strong commitment to lifelong learning, UCC offers a wide array of non-accredited and accredited courses. With the help of Catalog, UCC has expanded its educational reach far beyond traditional classrooms.
The Challenge
UCC has long supported non-traditional learning through continuing professional development (CPD), executive education, and outreach programs. However, many of these learners weren’t officially enrolled at the university and lacked access to student credentials, IT support, and tracking systems. With no streamlined platform for registration, course delivery, or engagement tracking, the university faced operational and strategic challenges in supporting these learners effectively.
The Solution
Catalog, which integrates within UCC’s Canvas VLE, provides a seamless learner experience, from course discovery to automated certificate generation. It aligned with UCC’s mission to:
- Facilitate self-directed learning
- Deliver clarity and transparency in course offerings
- Minimise administrative overhead for instructors
- Extend learning opportunities to the broader community
Beyond ease of use, Catalog offered powerful capabilities for customisation, analytics, and payment integration—essential for UCC’s expanding educational offerings.
Catalog would enable people to find courses that interested them, sign up online, and within just a few minutes they’d be right in there within the Canvas department. It’s a very simple and straightforward platform from the perspective of the learner.
Tim O’Donovan
Head of Digital Services, University College Cork, Ireland
The Results
By August 2020, UCC began implementing Catalog as a self-service portal, enabling learners to independently discover, register for, and complete courses. Within ten days, the university launched phase one of the rollout. Instructors built and published 25 courses, which saw over 400 enrollments during the initial digital semester.
Within two years of implementation:
- Over 200 courses were delivered
- 4,500+ students enrolled, many of whom had no prior affiliation with UCC
- Twelve academic units adopted Catalog for course delivery
- Custom payment solutions via PayPal and Stripe were integrated
- Tailored certificate designs were developed using HTML and CSS
Catalog enabled instructors to focus on teaching by simplifying enrollment and automating processes. It also facilitated creative use cases including:
- Pre-university prep programs
- Instructor onboarding and professional development
- Consent training and public-interest education
Lastly, UCC now uses Catalog for strategic outreach:
- A pilot program targeting 12,000 secondary students (aged 15–17) is introducing pre-university learners to the university experience.
- Community engagement efforts are being expanded through public courses in areas like consent education.
- Plans are in place to enable bulk registrations and gift course purchases, broadening access for organisations and individuals alike.
With a firm foundation established, UCC is eager to explore Catalog’s analytics capabilities to gain deeper insights into learner behaviors, course demand, and educational outcomes. By continuing to refine and expand its use of Catalog, UCC aims to further enhance its role as a leader in accessible, lifelong education.
Canvas Catalog has definitely been the right solution for our university, and two years after going live, we’ve delivered over 200 courses to over 4,500 students.
Tim O’Donovan
Head of Digital Services, University College Cork, Ireland
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