CEFPI Advanced Academy for Learning Spaces: A Certificate Program in Educational Facility Planning

This intense, high quality course of study consists of six 6-week online courses created by industry experts and delivered through San Diego State University's Interwork Institute Center for Distance Learning (IL-CDL). CEFPI has assumed responsibility of the program, formerly known as The Advanced Certificate in Educational Facility Planning and managed by San Diego State University. The comprehensive program, grounded in the key knowledge and skills central to the sound planning, building and maintaining of learner-centered school facilities, has been updated and revised.

Six internationally recognized experts have been recruited to lead this rigorous and engaging course of study. All course content is intentionally designed and delivered by practitioners and key stakeholders in the educational facility industry, including facility planners, practicing architects, a U.S. state education department official and two experts in learning styles theory, ensuring its relevancy to day to day work. The online program focuses squarely on the student, beginning with a course on learner needs and styles and culminating in a course on life cycle facility assessment.

While maintaining the rigor and relevance established in the Advanced Certificate Program, CEFPI is able to significantly reduce the cost and efficiently deliver the courses in 10-months. Faculty members have streamlined the course work, while offering the same high-quality program so that students will continue to benefit!

Dr. Cynthia Uline, Director of The National Center for the 21st Century Schoolhouse, emphasizes that the program will continue to introduce students to a learner-centered approach to school facility planning, provoking thought and prompting educational leaders, planners, designers and construction managers to give careful consideration to the educational, developmental, psychological and social needs of learners.

Registration and further information on the Advanced Academy for Learning Spaces.

Featured

  • Photo credit: Elkus Manfredi Architects

    University of Virginia Selects Design-Build Team for New Residential Complex

    The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., recently announced that it has selected a design-build team for a new upper-class residential development on campus, according to a news release. Capstone Development Partners—in partnership with Elkus Manfredi Architects and the Hoar Construction/Hourigan construction team—will move forward with the three-building, 310,000-square-foot housing facility.

  • Illinois State University Breaks Ground on College of Fine Arts Transformation

    Illinois State University in Normal, Ill., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts transformation project, according to university news. The series of new constructions and renovations will upgrade spaces in Centennial East, the Center for the Visual Arts, and the Center for the Performing Arts, as well as replace the existing Centennial West facility with a new Commons Building.

  • classroom with crystal ball on top of a desk

    Call for Opinions: Spaces4Learning 2026 Predictions for Educational Facilities

    As 2025 winds to a close, the Spaces4Learning staff is asking its readers—school administrators, architects, engineers, facilities managers, builders, superintendents, designers, vendors, and more—to send us their predictions for educational facilities in 2026.

  • Spaces4Learning Trends & Predictions for Educational Facilities in 2026: Part II

    As education leaders look toward 2026, the design of K–12 and higher education facilities is being reshaped by powerful, converging forces. Survey respondents point to the rapid growth of Career and Technical Education, deeper alignment with workforce and industry needs, and the accelerating influence of AI and emerging technologies.

Digital Edition