About University Learning Institute and TheCourse

University Learning Institute is a family-owned and operated company. We are a PMI Registered Education Provider. Our product - TheCourse™ - dominates the Washington, DC marketplace for preparing project managers to pass the PMP certification exam, and is growing rapidly in higher education throughout the United States. The reason for our success is value. Others have quality courses, but we do not mail high-priced glossy brochures throughout the country, a la ESI, nor buy expensive advertisements in PM Network month after month, a la Rita Mulcahy, Cheetah and others. Therefore, we do not have to charge an arm and a leg to cover these expenses.

The author of TheCourse, a project manager since 1965, traveled 2,400 miles over several weekends to take a quality course to prepare for PMP® certification. Following that experience, we developed TheCourse in 2002 to meet the needs of the underserved Washington, DC market. The first class was conducted at University of Maryland College Park that fall.

TheCourse in College Classrooms

Early in 2003, we told Virginia Tech that TheCourse could make them the dominant source of open enrollment project management certification preparation in the Washington, D.C. marketplace. They gave us the opportunity, and within three months our promise was fulfilled. TheCourse at Virginia Tech's National Capital Region facility continues to dominate this market. A number of other universities, including Columbia University in New York, have recently entered into agreements to bring TheCourse to their markets.

TheCourse On-Site

As US Government agencies came under pressure to get their project managers certified, they began to ask for TheCourse to be conducted in their facilities. Many were 'sole-source', and we also won both of the two Government competitive procurements that came to our attention. The agencies in turn required that the project managers of their contractors must be certified, and some of them also asked for TheCourse at their site. See our on-site client list. These clients are often repeat customers. We have conducted TheCourse eight times (236 students) for the FBI. We have conducted TheCourse seven times (225 students) for Nortel and their predecessor, PEC Solutions. We have conducted TheCourse two or more times for Department of Commerce, Small Business Administration and Logistics Management Institute.

TheCourse Online

The online edition of TheCourse was developed during 2004, and initially was licensed to all classroom students as a value-added feature for make-up and review. It continues to be our practice to make it available to all classroom students, and in 2005 we also began to license it as a stand-alone product. Approximately 100 students had enrolled through the end of 2006. Initially, registration was directly through University Learning Institute, and recently colleges across the United States have been accepting registrations. See our online associates page.

TheTest

Our test engine was developed in 2005. It is licensed as a value-added feature to all classroom and online students, enabling them to browse hundreds of exam-like questions and answers, or to take timed simulated PMP exams. It is described elsewhere on this web site, and a free demonstration is available as a download.

The Hybrid Course

TheCourse is registered with PMI as a 56-hour course, conducted over eight weeks - one day per week. The challenge of this course is not its depth, but its breadth. It takes that long to cover the material and expect students to retain it. By way of illustration, see the Students Materials section of our web site, keeping in mind that this is auxiliary material to our workbooks and PMBOK Guide.

Late in 2004, Capital One asked us to offer TheCourse to their staff in an accelerated class in four consecutive days. Following extensive discussions and negotiations, we designed a program that issues a license to the online course to the students, along with workbooks, at least 30 days in advance of the class. In effect, the class is a review of material learned in the online course. Their first class of 20 students was conducted in February 2005, and 19 of 20 students passed their certification exam within three weeks - in fact, most of them the day following the class.

The hybrid has been repeated a dozen or so additional times at Capital One, with a 93% pass rate for all who took the exam.

In 2006, the US Department of Education choose the accelerated version of TheCourse in a competitive procurement.