Magna Publications

Magna Publications is a professional development publisher for higher education. Its site header says "Founded in 1972, Magna Publications serves the higher education community supporting professional development", and the footer claims it serves "more than 4,000 campuses nationally and internationally" from an address on Dryden Drive in Madison, Wisconsin. The tagline is "Practical Professional Development for Higher Education", organized into teaching, leadership and student success resources.

The reader is a college or university faculty member, an academic leader such as a dean or department chair, or a faculty development team buying training for a whole campus. Magna sells short online courses, longer online seminars, a subscription video library, newsletters, books and conferences. The entry sits in teacher professional development, continuing education and training libraries, because the Teaching Professor Digital Library is a ready-made catalog an institution licenses for its staff.

Online courses and programs

The home page promises "expert-led courses, seminars, and professional development programs covering teaching, technology, leadership, faculty development, student success, and more". The course menu splits into Online Courses, 20 Minute Mentors and Online Seminars, plus two named programs, Monday Morning Mentor and Fall Enrichment. The store's product categories show how wide the catalog runs: classroom management, course design and preparation, online course delivery, assessment, grading and feedback, blended and flipped learning, artificial intelligence (AI), student affairs and student wellbeing, legal concerns, compliance, strategic planning, online program strategy and supporting online faculty, among others.

The 20-Minute Mentor is Magna's signature short format. The personal development category page shows how these are described: "In this 20-Minute Mentor, Alym Amlani shows how to use OBS to create polished, studio-style online classes that reduce interruptions and keep students visually engaged." Other titles in that category include:

• From Boring to Broadcast-Ready: Using OBS to Create Online Class that Keep Students Coming Back, with Alym Amlani.
• Mind-Body Practices to Help Faculty Manage Stress and Build Resilience, with Steve Haberlin.
• How to Develop and Maintain a Scholarly Agenda, with Russell Carpenter, Assistant Provost and Professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University.
• Recharging Your Personal and Professional Batteries, in which Dr. Seena Haines and Dr. Stuart Haines, both PharmD, address burnout.
• A session on using AI tools to manage time, with Michael Strawser, PhD, pitched as "practical AI solutions in just 20 minutes" to combat faculty burnout.

Other 20-Minute Mentors in the same category share 14 strategies from successful faculty for taking a teaching career from good to great, show 3 calendar hacks that turn stress and burnout into better time management, deliver strategies for culturally responsive teaching linked to student success, and tell how one educator used a resilient mindset to get through tough pandemic teaching conditions.

One program, From Research to Practice: Facilitating Career Development through Promotion Accountability Groups, describes PAGs as "a 100% successful, peer-supported approach to the complex promotion and tenure process"; that is Magna's description, not a measured outcome we can check. The home page lists two of the latest courses: Teaching Time Management Through Peer Dialogue and Strategies for Building Trust in the Age of AI.

Prices

The personal development category prints prices. Most 20-Minute Mentors show a range of $39.00 through $499.00, and two (the Promotion Accountability Groups program and How You Can Use AI to Maximize Time Management) show $39.00 through $799.00. Each is a product with several variants chosen on the product page, which is where a buyer picks between the lower and higher price points. The site's top menu carries a Group Access login, and the store categories include Group Subscription and Magna All Access, which points to institutional purchasing alongside individual sales.

The Leadership Microcredential is a single product at $299.00. The page says it teaches "proven strategies and insights from experienced higher education leaders" and comes with a digital badge; the About menu links to a Magna Digital Badging page.

The footer links to a Return and Refund Policy and an FAQ.

Teaching Professor Digital Library

The Teaching Professor Digital Library (TPDL) is the institutional product. The home page says it "gives your faculty and staff quality e-learning resources to support excellence in higher education" with access to "hundreds of seminars and professional development videos from top experts", aimed at "professors and administrators alike". The menu lists two tiers, Premium and Basic. A faculty development center that wants a standing library of on-demand training, rather than buying courses one at a time, would look here. Prices for the tiers are not on the home page.

Publications

Magna publishes three periodicals:

• The Teaching Professor, which the home page calls "a lively, highly informative newsletter with a singular purpose: to provide ideas and insight to educators who are passionate about teaching." Recent articles include "Building Your Own Moot Court for Undergraduates", "Metacognitive Laziness and Student Use of Generative AI: A Classroom Example" and "Getting and Sustaining Students' Attention Online".
• Academic Leader, which helps "presidents, deans, provosts, and department chairs stay ahead of change, make informed decisions, and lead with clarity". Recent pieces include "Servant Leadership on the Ground: Three Actions for Department Chairs" and "Navigating the Stages of a Leadership Career: A Guide for Faculty and Staff".
• Journal of Faculty Development, with its own submission guidelines.

Magna also sells books, offers free resources and a newsletter signup, and lists The Teaching Professor, Academic Leader and Faculty Focus among its websites.

Conferences

Conferences are the live side of the business. The home page features the Leadership in Higher Education Conference, October 8-10, 2026, in Providence, Rhode Island, and two virtual conferences: The Teaching Professor Online Conference, live online October 20-22, and the Workforce Readiness Conference, live online November 10. The menu lists further events, including the National Conference on Student Life, the AI in Education Virtual Conference, the Research Administration & Grant Strategy Conference, The Teaching Professor Conference, the Faculty Development Professionals Conference and the Instructional Design Professionals Virtual Conference.

Support

Support is by phone at 1 800 433 0499 and email at support@magnapubs.com. Buyers log in to My Account; groups use Group Access.

Who it suits

Magna suits faculty members who want short, practical sessions on teaching, burnout, time management, AI or career development, and who can expense a $39 entry price. It suits department chairs and deans who read Academic Leader and attend leadership conferences, and faculty development and teaching center staff who want a licensed video library (TPDL) or a group subscription for their campus.

It suits less well school teachers, since everything is written for higher education, and anyone who needs credit-bearing courses: the pages describe courses, mentors and a badge-bearing microcredential, not academic credit. Course creators looking for a platform to sell their own courses are not the audience.