Nori Jacoby, assistant professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded an NSF fellowship for a project to develop algorithms to more effectively harness the intelligence of crowds by improving the quality of collective evaluations. The project promises to lead to more effective crowd-sourced feedback systems, which can empower communities to govern themselves and manage public spaces and services through bottom-up initiatives rather than top-down direction. “Designing Smart Environments to Augment Collective Learning & Creativity,” is Jacoby’s collaboration with co-principal investigators at Princeton University, City University of New York, and the University of California, Davis. Many communities are already utilizing "smart" technological environments that adapt to meet specific goals, such as a learning platform that delivers different content to different students, Jacoby said.
Monday, September 30, 2024
Shaping the Future Strategies for the Development of Key Skills in Generative Artificial Intelligence - "Generative ArtificiaI InteIIigence Learning and Innovation Hub" Observatory, Unimarconi
The fieId of university education is ready to undergo a significant evoIutionary journey aimed at preparing students for the chaIIenges and opportunities presented by AI. In this transition, it is essentiaI to outIine minimum entry-level competencies, methods and tooIs for training, and to structure a IogicaI temporaI pathway supported by adequate university infrastructure and impact assessments that refIect market needs. Upon entering university training programs, students must be equipped with a set of fundamentaIskiIIs. For STEM pathways, this incIudes a deep understanding of advanced mathematics and statistics, essentiaI for deciphering aIgorithms and machine Iearning techniques. Programming, knowIedge ofaIgorithms, and data mining techniques are equaIIy cruciaI, as is a soIid foundation in the fundamentaI principIes of AI, incIuding neuraI networks, deep Iearning, and generative aIgorithms.
https://lnkd.in/gYybBhrS
Artificial intelligence and the Futures of Learning - UNESCO
The Artificial Intelligence and the Futures of Learning project builds on the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence adopted at the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference in 2019 and follows up on the recommendations of the UNESCO global report Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education, launched in November 2021. It is implemented within the framework of the Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence and Education and against the backdrop of the UNESCO Strategy on technological innovation in education (2021-2025). The project will address both the human and technological dimensions related to AI and the futures of learning.
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Humanoids Set to Add $24 Trillion to Economy: Will This Bring UBI? - Julia McCoy, YouTube
Julia McCoy cites Ark Invest claims that humanoid robots will generate $24 trillion to the economy. The report says that if humanoid robots are able to operate at scale, they will create new jobs in both household and manufacturing sectors. The video discusses the potential impact of these robots on the workforce and the economy. Julia McCoy believes this will lead to a post-labor economy. She argues that robots will take over most of the jobs and humans will receive universal basic income (UBI) from the profits generated by these robots. The video also mentions that there are challenges to overcome before we get to this utopian future. One challenge is developing generalized robots that can automate multiple tasks. Another challenge is figuring out how to transition to a post-labor economy without causing an economic collapse. (this summary assisted by Gen AI)
6 major academic publishers face antitrust lawsuit - Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive
A professor at the University of California, Los Angeles filed a class-action complaint against six major publishers, alleging that several of their policies violate antitrust law and impede academic research. The class-action lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal district court in New York, names Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, Wiley, Sage Publications, Taylor & Francis, and Springer Nature as defendants. The publishers allegedly agreed to make peer reviewing an unpaid job, prevent academics from submitting manuscripts to more than one journal at a time, and bar them from freely sharing their findings during the lengthy peer review process.
Leading from the inside out: Why CEOs must make time for self-reflection - McKinsey
You and your coauthors just released a new book, The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Can Learn to Lead from the Inside Out. Put simply, what is inside-out leadership? Ramesh Srinivasan: The world is changing rapidly. The geopolitics have become quite complex, technology is having a huge impact, and climate change is here to stay. In this context, we felt the world needed a new paradigm of leadership. We call it human-centric leadership. Our belief is that leaders need to reflect on their purpose, who they are, how they show up in the world, and how they can inspire their teams and the institutions they’re leading.
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Building Relationships and Student Engagement: What Students Really Want and Need From Professors - Terrance Hinton, Faculty Focus
Upon learning that they had dropped the class, I went back through their assignments that they did complete. I came upon their first discussion board post, in which I typically ask each student to introduce themselves to their classmates with their name, location and future goals. I was embarrassed to learn that in reading back on their first discussion post, this particular student had just returned back to school after an 8 year layoff, and was a single parent managing employment and raising young kids. How could I have missed this? In realizing my mistake, I knew I had to make a change in how I engaged with my students. Since that time, I believe that being intentional on building relationships are important traits that instructors and leaders must have in order to increase engagement with their students.
Enhance Your Life Certification Program - Professional Development Online Certifications and Credentials at a Discounted Rate, US Army
Through partnerships with AUSA’s National Partners and accredited universities, we offer a pathway to personal and professional development. Participants gain access to a range of online courses aimed at obtaining certifications and credentials that not only enhance their skills within the Army but also prepare them for advancement opportunities and smooth transitions into civilian careers.
Technology for online learning providers: An ultimate guide - Telstra, AU
Many people want to keep learning new things throughout their lives. So, they’re using online courses and training providers to help them learn new skills. Our recent research supports this. In Telstra’s Ideas for unlocking goliath productivity report [PDF, 473KB] report, it found training is just as important as flexible work. It’s especially valued among younger people.
55% of employees said employers should provide training to develop new skills.
80% said they want to learn more digital skills to further their career.
Supporting this, 40% of SMBs are offering training to develop new skills.
Friday, September 27, 2024
How Rising Higher Ed Costs Change Student Attitudes About College - Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge
“We have a few people that are going to trade school, we have a few people that are going to the military, a few people who wrote ‘still deciding,’” said Lisa Beckham, a staffer for the counseling center, as she helped hand out markers in May as the school year was winding down. Others, she said, are heading straight to a job. “I’m thinking about going to college in California, and my grandparents all went there for a hundred dollars a semester and went into pretty low-paying jobs, but didn't spend years in debt because it was easy to go to college,” said Maya Shapiro, a junior who was there watching the seniors write up their plans. “So now I think it is only worth going to college if you're going to get a job that's going to pay for your college tuition eventually, so if you’re going to a job in English or history you might not find a job that’s going to pay that off.”
The Intelligence Age - Sam Altman
It won’t happen all at once, but we’ll soon be able to work with AI that helps us accomplish much more than we ever could without AI; eventually we can each have a personal AI team, full of virtual experts in different areas, working together to create almost anything we can imagine. Our children will have virtual tutors who can provide personalized instruction in any subject, in any language, and at whatever pace they need. We can imagine similar ideas for better healthcare, the ability to create any kind of software someone can imagine, and much more. With these new abilities, we can have shared prosperity to a degree that seems unimaginable today; in the future, everyone’s lives can be better than anyone’s life is now. Prosperity alone doesn’t necessarily make people happy – there are plenty of miserable rich people – but it would meaningfully improve the lives of people around the world.
States Where Student Loan Delinquency Is Increasing the Most - Adam McCann, WalletHub
Over the past year, student loan payments have come due with a vengeance (or at least with interest), as students have no longer been able to benefit from the multi-year payment moratorium started during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people have struggled to keep up, and being delinquent on student loans has damaged their credit scores and led to other negative consequences like the garnishment of their wages. To determine where student loan delinquency is increasing the most, and thus where people have the greatest risk of credit score damage and other financial difficulties, WalletHub analyzed proprietary user data from Q1 2024 to Q2 2024.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-where-student-loan-delinquency-is-increasing-most/140720
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Addressing evolving challenges to research security in the age of AI - Times Higher Education
As technology continues to shape research practices, safeguarding research has become increasingly complex. Universities face many emerging challenges, including data security, regulatory changes and concerns around the use of AI. However, technological solutions are also evolving, empowering institutions to address these issues proactively. Times Higher Education hosted a webinar on the topic – in partnership with Digital Science – to explore how institutions can confront the growing challenges in research security in an AI-driven era.
OpenAI Hires Former Coursera Executive to Expand AI Use in Schools - Shirin Ghaffary, Bloomberg
OpenAI has hired former Coursera Inc. executive Leah Belsky to be its first general manager of education, leading the artificial intelligence startup’s efforts to bring its products to more schools and classrooms. Belsky, previously the chief revenue officer at the online learning platform, will be tasked with boosting OpenAI’s engagement with instructors and students across K-12, higher education and continuing education, the company said Wednesday. Belsky will also work internally with the startup’s product, policy, marketing and other teams on partnerships and sharing feedback from the academic world.
Is AI Really a Threat to Higher Education? - Daniel Graham, Psychology Today
But it is not just future AI programmers who stand to benefit from honing their cognitive skills in higher ed. It is the whole spectrum of knowledge workers from lawyers and doctors to teachers, managers, marketers, artists, and architects that will still need to use their brains to be creative and think critically. Yes, some circumscribed tasks in these jobs will devolve to AI, just as financial accounting has been largely outsourced to the proto-AI of Excel spreadsheets. But all of these jobs will still require and increasingly rely on the thinking skills taught in college. If someone is inclined to cheat with AI in college, it doesn't bode well for their future success in these kinds of careers.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
A Near-Future Vision of AI in Higher Ed - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
The state of the art of generative artificial intelligence is changing at lightning speed. Advances come by the hour, not just by the day. How might this play out in higher ed? To effectively envision the near future of generative AI in higher ed, we need to at least briefly consider the context of the broader economy, the general fiscal condition of higher education, the state of development/deployment of new and emerging AI technologies, and the emerging demand for graduates, upskilled and reskilled workers with certificates from colleges and universities.
Everything You Need to Know about AI Agents - Peter H. Diamandis interviews Emad Mostaque
The video talks about AI agents and the concept of AI Atlantis. AI Atlantis is a metaphor for the vast number of AI agents that are being created. These AI agents are like interns or grads who are still under development. They can be trained to do specific tasks such as translation, painting or SEO. The cost of training these AI agents has dropped significantly. The speaker believes that these AI agents will eventually have physical bodies and will become even more intelligent and capable. The video also discusses how AI agents are being integrated with other technologies and how they are learning from how people use them. (Summary assisted by Gen AI)
Walmart Says 75% Of Its U.S. Roles Now Don’t Require Degrees—And Plans New Skills Project - Jena McGregor, Forbes
One thing that was clear from this year’s summit: The two issues chief human resources officers are most focused on right now are the impact of AI on individual jobs, workforces and even humans at large—and how to become more of a skills-based organization. On the latter issue, we spoke exclusively with Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris, about a new project they’re working on with other large companies about creating a common skills “taxonomy”—see more details below. Hope it’s a great week.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
How You Become Irreplaceable In The Age Of AI - Forbes
"The more different our capabilities are from the capabilities of AI, the more we can create value with AI, the more we can create synergies," Bornet explained. By developing these uniquely human traits, we create a complementarity with AI that allows us to generate more value than either humans or AI could alone. Being Change-Ready is about developing the resilience and adaptability to thrive in a world evolving at an exponential pace. As Bornet pointed out, "We will see as many innovations in the coming ten years as we have seen in the last century." This requires a new level of mental agility and openness to continuous learning.
How AI and XR hold the key to inclusive STEM learning - Monica Arés, Open Access Government
Despite its vast potential, higher education has yet to fully harness the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), and spatial computing. These technologies are poised to revolutionise our approach to knowledge, addressing challenges around student disengagement and rigid learning models – both of which pose as barriers to inclusion – by merging human intellect with advanced tech solutions. This integration enables learning that is not only interactive but also deeply personalised, adapting to individual voices, languages, gestures, and gazes. We are redefining what it means to learn and teach in an age where the convergence of our physical and digital worlds is offering us an entirely new set of tools from which to build solutions.
Survey: When Should College Students Use AI? They’re Not Sure - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed
A May 2024 Student Voice survey from Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found that, when asked if they know when or how to use generative AI to help with coursework, a large number of undergraduates don’t know or are unsure (31 percent). Among students who did know when to use AI appropriately, that direction came from faculty (31 percent). The sample includes over 3,500 four-year students and 1,400 two-year students. More than one-third of respondents were post-traditional (attending a two-year institution or 25 or older in age), 16 percent are exclusively online learners and 40 percent are first-generation students. Experts say providing clear and transparent communication about when AI can or should be used in the classroom is critical and requires faculty buy-in and understanding of related tools.
Monday, September 23, 2024
Online classrooms where students run the show: we tested how this unconventional model can work - Matthew Wingfield, Bettina von Lieres, Laurence Piper; the Conversation
This is a Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation meeting. The initiative was launched in 2020 as the COVID pandemic brought face-to-face learning to a grinding halt all over the world. We were teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on democratic participation and global development at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), the University of Toronto, Scarborough (Canada) and University West (Sweden). Our students told us that they felt isolated. They missed daily interactions with their peers and the other formative interactions that make for a rich, fulfilling university life. We tried to nimbly adapt to recorded or real time lectures, while trying to facilitate and encourage student participation. But we and the students felt that something more was needed. So we created the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation. The idea was to bring students together to learn and interact around a shared set of issues.
Online learning’s future must balance innovation and values - Mary Hawkins, Nebraska Examiner
While demand for online education spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, research done through the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) project indicates the market has not yet peaked in the post-secondary space. Considering that only 24% of public and 8% of private four-year schools say they “widely use” online learning, there’s plenty of room for growth. The most recent CHLOE report noted that online program enrollment is growing faster than on-campus, with even campus-based students asking for more online options. The technology elephant in the room is AI, which is hastening colleges’ shift to online learning. Artificial intelligence, especially generative AI tools like Chat GPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft CoPilot, is already in use in living rooms, conference rooms and classrooms with students of all ages.
New certificate program helps students unlock and understand artificial intelligence - Jen Schneider, Boise State News
A new campus-wide certificate program, Artificial Intelligence for All, managed by the College of Innovation and Design, will equip students with the skills they need to navigate evolving AI technologies, to use them correctly and contend with the ethical dilemmas that arise through this powerful tool. The program, which launched this fall with an AI literacy course developed by librarians at Albertsons Library, is available in person and online. The program is part of a larger initiative to make Boise State a leader in the use of AI in higher education.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Three Artificial Intelligence Bills Endorsed by Federation of American Scientists Advance from the House Committee - Federation of American Scientists
Three proposed artificial intelligence bills endorsed by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a nonpartisan science think tank, advance forward from a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee markup held on September 11th, 2024. These bills received bipartisan support and will now be reported to the full chamber. The three bills are: H.R. 9403, the Expanding AI Voices Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Vince Fong (CA-20) and Rep. Andrea Salinas (OR-06); H.R. 9197, the Small Business AI Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Collins (GA-10) and Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11), and H.R. 9403, the Expand AI Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Valerie Foushee (NC-04) and Rep. Frank Lucas (OK-03).
2025 AI : 10 Things Coming In 2025 (A.I In 2025 Major Predictions) - the AIGrid
The two most important points are that agents and voice assistants will see significant improvements. Agents are AI systems that can be instructed to do a variety of tasks. In the future, agents will be able to complete more complex tasks, and they will be able to take over user devices to perform actions like transferring data or filling out spreadsheets. Google and OpenAI are both working on agent technology. Voice assistants are also going to get a major upgrade. New voice assistants will be much more capable than current ones. They will be able to understand complex requests and respond with more emotion and nuance. (GenAI assisted with this summary)
Hungry for more learning? Bite sized PD can whet the appetite - Freya Lucas, the Sector
While the desire to learn more is strong, time can be poor, particularly in sectors such as early childhood education and care, where the need for hands-on and hyper focused attention is high. Enter microcredentials. Employees want to learn more, employers want highly skilled people, however there is no way to manufacture more time. More than half of the overall workforce in the UK, for example, recently said their jobs have gotten more intense and demanding with the passing of time, and feedback in the US is similar, with 40 per cent of Americans saying their roles leave them with little time for training and education.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
What is digital-twin technology? - McKinsey & Company
A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical object, person, system, or process, contextualized in a digital version of its environment. Digital twins can help many kinds of organizations simulate real situations and their outcomes, ultimately allowing them to make better decisions. What would you do if you had a copy of yourself? A digital doppelgänger, identical to you in every way, in an accurate digital rendering of your home, workplace, neighborhood, or city? Even better: What if the digital version of you—your digital twin—was impervious to injury, pain, or embarrassment? The mind boggles at the possibilities. Suffice it to say, you’d probably be able to make decisions for yourself with a lot more certainty of the outcome.
What College Leaders Want From Harris and Trump - Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed
The American Council on Education, the chief lobbying group for the higher education industry, wants the next president to repeal the tax on wealthy universities’ endowments and work to increase the Pell Grant to $13,000 from $7,395 as a way of making college more affordable, among other policies. Former president Donald Trump has released few details about his plans for higher education. He’s said that he wants to fire accreditors to reclaim colleges from “the radical left,” create a free national online college and abolish the Education Department. Experts expect Vice President Kamala Harris to build on the Biden administration’s efforts to make college more affordable, forgive student loans and protect students from bad actors. Harris’s campaign website touts investments made under President Biden in historically Black colleges and universities as well as recent increases to the Pell Grant.
UNC System colleges eliminate 59 DEI-related positions - Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive
All 17 of the network’s colleges had until the beginning of this month to comply with the system ban on diversity, equity and inclusion jobs and offices. The cuts to DEI resulted in a savings of just over $17 million across its 17 institutions, according to the UNC System. The policy directed the system’s universities to reallocate the funds toward broader student success initiatives.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the system’s flagship campus, made the most dramatic staffing changes, eliminating 20 positions and reassigning 27 more. The DEI cuts at the university totaled nearly $5.4 million.
Friday, September 20, 2024
Survey: ‘Everything’ Stresses Students Out. How Can Colleges Help? - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed
Recent Student Voice data from Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab finds two in five college students say stress or mental health is impacting their academics a great deal, and they want help from their institutions to take the pressure off. “We’re living in an age of anxiety,” says Melissa Saunders, assistant director of clinical services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). “There are major life stressors going on all across the world—climate change, terrible wars, toxic political discourse—that students have no control over and are completely bombarded with all the time. That is an awful lot to handle at age 18, 19, 20.”
How AI intersects with social good: Business luminaries share how AI can intersect with social mission -Yasmin Gagne, Fast Company
Over the past two years, AI has had a transformational effect on the business landscape. The technology’s potential to increase creative output, enhance worker productivity, and eliminate jobs has been debated ad nauseam. But one aspect of AI’s proliferation has flown under the radar, or at least not gotten the attention it deserves: how it will affect social impact.
California college students want more online courses, but can they catch up to in-class peers? - BRIANA MENDEZ-PADILLA AND ADAM ECHELMAN, Cal Matters
In July, the U.S. Education Department proposed new rules that would call on colleges and universities to collect more data about online courses, including students’ attendance. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office responded to the regulations by submitting a public comment document, saying they hope the department will consider the “new costs” to develop the infrastructure to collect the data. The UC also answered publicly, saying data collection might create “confusion and stymie the development of future online education programs.” In an email to CalMatters, the Cal State system stated they were “generally in support” of the regulations and trust that the federal department will consider the potential impact on diverse student populations juggling different responsibilities.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Massive College Closings Is The Idea That Just Won’t Die - Derek Newton, Forbes
Today, the idea is that thousands of colleges will suffocate due to demographic trends and a loss of faith in “the return on investment.” Whatever the proffered cause, the zombie is the same – colleges cannot compete, and they are dropping like flies. Oh, the horror. I used “waves” above because that’s how the industry outlet Inside Higher Education described the situation in a recent article about a supposed decline in the higher education ecosystem. Their headline said the “Higher Ed Sector Shrank by 2 Percent” and their first five words of the story are, “amid waves of college closures.” As I have chronicled several times, there is very little evidence to support the idea that colleges are closing at any scale whatsoever. What data does exist to support this kind of institutional retraction is heavily concentrated in the dubious and atypical for-profit sector, which is neither surprising nor a fitting proxy for the “higher ed sector” overall.
AI as tutor and critic: using tech to personalise education - Michael Butler, Times Higher Education
Much of the focus in higher education on generative AI has been the existential threat it raises with respect to assessment. However, large language models (LLMs) also have constructive applications. At the law school at King’s College London, we wanted to focus on the learning potential, specifically using AI “as tutor” and for feedback. We used as our starting point a 2023 paper by Ethan R. Mollick and Lilach Mollick of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania that sets out seven approaches for using LLM tools for learning. The experience highlighted benefits (such as time management) and limitations (hallucinations) of artificial intelligence in education, and it left us with a list of suggestions for instructors using AI to personalise learning.
AI in Education Is Here - Avrel Seale, UT Austin
Julie Schell, Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Technology, thinks of AI as having two kinds of use: transactional and transformative, and whether its use is good or bad in either case depends on the situation. “There are times it’s okay to use it as a transactional tool: ‘I need a list of ideas for planning dinner for the week,’ or ‘I need a list of ideas for a meeting coming up,’ or ‘Help me brainstorm research ideas.’ Those are low-stakes transactions, and we need to help students understand when transactional use is OK.” But in this transactional category, she once experimented with using AI to write letters of recommendation, something that can be a time-consuming task for those in academia. “When I read what it said, it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t me. It didn’t have the flavor of how I really thought about the student, and I didn’t think it was fair to my student for me to use that output,” she says.
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
A look at the technology trends that matter most - McKinsey Podcast
A look at the technology trends that matter most - McKinsey Podcast
Gen AI as an Influencer: Lareina Yee: What is interesting is how gen AI is a catalyst. We think of it as sunshine that lights up many of the trends. Some of it is good, old-fashioned analytical AI, machine learning. We see increases in interest and investment in those arenas, and we certainly see very interesting deployments. I’ve heard more about digital twins anecdotally recently than I have in the past couple of years. But also, there are impacts into other trends. The capabilities in gen AI are very relevant for robotics, which is one of the trends that we highlight this year.
CENTRAL VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE students can earn micro credentials with new membership - Rodney Robinson, News Advance
Current and future students at Central Virginia Community College will now have the opportunity to earn micro, embedded industry-recognized credentials to go along with their program studies. This opportunity comes after the college’s recent membership with the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3) making CVCC a “Leadership School.” NC3 is a network of education providers and corporations with a mission to help build a workforce prepared to meet the needs of industries. The network connects employers and educational institutions to foster training and employment opportunities, according to its website.
Effective Leadership Is Actually Quite Simple, Unless You Ignore These 2 Things - Larry Robertson, Inc.
Perhaps nowhere has this lesson been as striking as with senior leaders at U.S. universities. No doubt, running an institute of higher education is challenging these days, in ways both familiar and new. Among the familiar challenges, traditional brick-and-mortar universities competing in the knowledge-share landscape face very real competition from now countless alternative sources of remote and digital learning. Today, degrees and certifications can be had in hours, not years. And while one can argue over the value, it's hard to argue over the growth in customers and revenue among these alternatives, and the radically lower investment costs for both the content producers and the customers.
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
9 in 10 online learners experience positive ROI from degree program - Jessica Bryant Stacker, The Olympian
In 2024, 93% of surveyed students told BestColleges their online degree has or will have a positive return on investment (ROI). The percentage of online learners who say this has increased by five percentage points since 2019. More than 8 in 10 online students (81%) also say that online education is better than or equal to on-campus learning. Further, 97% say they would recommend online education to others.Despite online education being perceived as more affordable than in-person instruction, 48% of online learners say tuition costs and program fees were one of the biggest challenges to enrolling.
Success Program Launch: AI-Supported Clinical Training - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed
Touro University in New York utilizes digital learning tools to provide simulation experiences for social work students taking classes online, helping build their soft skills for working with people. The practicum is a critical piece of experiential learning for students entering health-care fields as they learn to navigate interacting with patients and providing professional care. At Touro University in New York, online learners in the master of social work program can practice before working with real patients thanks to a new generative artificial intelligence pilot. The AI program is embedded in students’ courses, allowing them personalized and immediate feedback on their performance without the pressure of impacting patient care. The software also provides instructors with data on class performance and skills.
Budget cuts begin to surface at California State University - Amy Dipierro, EdSource
Faculty, staff and students at four campuses in the Cal State system said they’re starting to feel the impact of belt-tightening in the early weeks of the 2024-25 school year, saying this fall has brought heavier workloads, larger class sizes and fewer course options. University officials at select campuses acknowledged plans to reduce costs this school year. They said they’ve opened additional course sections where there’s demand and remain committed to supporting students so that they’re on track to graduate, even as they reel in budgets to match shrinking student enrollment on some campuses.
Cal State system officials said in July that the system could experience a $1 billion budget gap in the 2025-26 school year, a forecast driven by uncertain state funding, enrollment declines and rising costs.
Monday, September 16, 2024
Yale's $150 million, five-year AI investment is about 'shaping the future' - Brian Zahn, New Haven Register
Yale University's announcement last week that it would invest $150 million in the development of artificial intelligence programs over five years was met with praise from higher education officials within and outside of the Yale community. In an Aug. 28 letter to the Yale community, Yale Provost Scott Strobel said the investment follows a report from the Yale Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and will be allocated to fulfill four main goals: building 450 graphics processing units on a staggered basis to allow researchers to process large data sets and conduct advanced simulations; launching a proprietary generative AI platform called Clarity; recruiting "more than twenty" faculty members with an academic focus on AI technology and piloting curriculum review grants; and promoting collaboration and innovation between departments.
Here are the top college majors for earning a six-figure salary with a two-year associate degree - Sara Bregel, Fast Company
A new report from salary data provider Payscale looked at the education and employment history of 3.1 million college graduates. From the data, it ranked schools and majors based on the potential future salaries for graduates. According to the 2024 report, it aims to help students research schools, majors, and potential salaries before enrolling. “You can use this information to help you discover which fields of study offer the most income potential, as well as which are more transferable to different career paths,” the report reads.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91185526/5-highest-paying-school-college-majors-associates-degree
Wittenberg cuts employee jobs; will end music, language programs, some sports - Eileen McClory and Jessica Orozco, Springfield News Sun
Wittenberg University’s campus saw turmoil Friday, as several faculty members found out late in the afternoon that their contracts would not be renewed after this year, and some students learned their academic programs would be folded.
* The school’s academic major programs in music, music education, German, Spanish, East Asian studies are being eliminated after this school year, along with the minor in Chinese.
* No further declarations of major will be allowed in international business and international studies until further notice “as the Provost and faculty work to see if and how they can be reimagined.”
* This school year will be the final seasons for the men’s and women’s tennis teams and women’s bowling team.
Sunday, September 15, 2024
5 Unusual Habits That Indicate a High Level of Intelligence - Holly Burns, New Trader U
We often equate intelligence with academic prowess, impressive degrees, or mastery of complex subjects. However, intelligence is a multifaceted quality that shows up in unexpected ways. Recent studies have uncovered fascinating links between quirky habits and high cognitive ability. Let’s explore five of these surprising habits and what they might reveal about the workings of a brilliant mind.
Why agents are the next frontier of generative AI - McKinsey Quarterly
We are beginning an evolution from knowledge-based, gen-AI-powered tools—say, chatbots that answer questions and generate content—to gen AI–enabled “agents” that use foundation models to execute complex, multistep workflows across a digital world. In short, the technology is moving from thought to action. Broadly speaking, “agentic” systems refer to digital systems that can independently interact in a dynamic world. While versions of these software systems have existed for years, the natural-language capabilities of gen AI unveil new possibilities, enabling systems that can plan their actions, use online tools to complete those tasks, collaborate with other agents and people, and learn to improve their performance. Gen AI agents eventually could act as skilled virtual coworkers, working with humans in a seamless and natural manner.
KU English professors awarded NEH grant for 2025 AI, digital literacy institute - Kathryn Conrad, University of Kansas
Two University of Kansas researchers have been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to teach critical artificial intelligence literacy to secondary and higher education humanities instructors. Kathryn Conrad and Sean Kamperman received an NEH Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities grant for $218,732 to fund their project, AI & Digital Literacy: Toward an Inclusive and Empowering Teaching Practice, an in-person institute administered in partnership with the National Humanities Center, in June 2025. KU is one of only four institutions to receive this highly competitive grant in 2024.
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Western Governors University, Aera Bring AI to Student Support Services - Abby Sourwine, GovTeech
Western Governor’s University (WGU) announced last week that it will use the Aera Decision Cloud to assist with student support. The platform will sort through academic activity data at the entirely online institution and use it to recommend courses of action to assist students in need. “With nearly 1.1 million online students in the U.S. and retention rates 20 percent lower for online and adult learners across the higher-ed landscape, there’s a clear opportunity to improve outcomes,” Joe Dery, vice president and dean of WGU’s School of Technology, wrote in an email to Government Technology. “We know that timely outreach can significantly enhance student persistence, and by evolving our approach, we can better deliver this support at scale within our flexible education model.”
Is AI Making Degrees Useless? The White-Collar Apocalypse - Julie McCoy, Youtube
White-collar jobs are susceptible to AI automation because of the routine cognitive tasks, data analysis, and language-based tasks. Among the jobs that are at risk of automation, include financial analysts, accountants, paralegals, legal researchers, journalists, and content creators. Even middle management jobs involving routine decision-making and data analysis are susceptible to automation. AI is advancing in its ability to replicate human reasoning and behavior. McCoy mentions a CEO predicting a future with 10 billion robots in people's homes.The best way to prepare for the future is to develop skills that complement AI, such as emotional intelligence, creativity, and problem-solving skills. The future belongs to those who can collaborate with AI and use it to their advantage. (GenAI assisted with summary)
Microsoft is turning to AI to make its workplace more inclusive - Samantha Kelly, BBC
Microsoft says AI can be a tool to promote equity and representation – with the right safeguards. One solution it's putting forward to help address the issue of bias in AI is increasing diversity and inclusion of the teams building the technology itself. "It's never been more important as we think about building inclusive AI and inclusive tech for the future," says Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Microsoft's chief diversity officer, who joined the firm in 2018. A former teacher for the deaf, McIntyre has spent over 20 years in human resources in the tech industry, including at IBM, and has lived and worked throughout the US as well as in Singapore and Dubai. Now, she says her team at Microsoft is increasingly focused on embedding inclusion practices into the firm's AI research and development to make sure there is better representation "at all levels of the company".
Friday, September 13, 2024
OpenAI o1 CRUSHES PHD Level Experts! [HIDDEN THOUGHTS] - Wes Roth, YouTube
- O1 can produce a long internal chain of thought before responding to the user.
- O1 ranks in the 89th percentile on competitive programming questions.
- O1 places among the top 500 students in the US and qualifies for the US Math Olympiad.
- O1 exceeds human PhD level accuracy on a benchmark of physics, biology and chemistry problems.
- O1 is still under development, and the creators are not currently releasing the chain of thought to users.
The video concludes by discussing the ethical implications of AI models that can reason and solve problems at such a high level. The fact that O1 hides its chain of thought is a concern, as it makes it difficult to understand how the model arrives at its answers. (this posting completed with GenAI assistance)
Adult online learners are money-motivated. Are your programs supporting their career goals? - Alcino Donadel, University Business
Online programs are gaining as much—if not more—clout than colleges’ and universities’ on-campus offerings, and a new report from Risepoint shows this can’t be more true for adult learners and first-generation students. Of the 3,460 people surveyed who are seeking to enroll, currently enrolled or have graduated from an online program within the last 12 months, 90% believe the quality of an online degree is comparable to or better than an on-campus diploma. The mean age of survey respondents was 38, and Risepoint found a “significant portion” were also first-generation, which, in last year’s report, made up one-third of all respondents.
U of A slashes more than $100 million of budget shortfall - Eric Fink, News 4 Tucson
University of Arizona leadership revealed, Thursday, the university currently has a budget deficit of $63 million. That's down from the $177 million shortfall that was projected in January of this year. The university maintains it slashed $114 million of deficit without academics seeing drastic cuts. "The highest percentage of reductions came on the administrative side," UA spokesman Mitch Zak said. "Really, the priority from day one was to protect our workforce, our tremendous faculty, staff and student leaders who are working on campus because that is the backbone of the university."
Thursday, September 12, 2024
AI Is Already Advancing Higher Education - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
Generative AI (GenAI) has enormous potential to advance, enhance and expand higher education in the future. Few realize how AI already is improving what we do today in myriad ways. Let me begin by noting that I have used GenAI tools to assist in ideation and the search for the best examples in writing this edition of “Online: Trending Now.” As always, I strive to embed sources in all cases where readers may want to dig deeper into my assertions. GenAI has assisted me in identifying such resources. In nearly all aspects of the operation of colleges and universities GenAI is playing an increasing role. From student learning to faculty efficiency to administrative insights, we see that role has become part of the standard operating practices. We are using the tools to advance our work in the most enlightened and efficient way. Here are some examples.
Altman Infrastructure Plan Aims to Spend Tens of Billions in US - Shirin Ghaffary and Mackenzie Hawkins, Bloomberg
OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman’s plans for a massive buildout of the machinery and systems needed for artificial intelligence are coming into clearer focus, beginning with an effort in US states slated to costs tens of billions of dollars, according to a person familiar with the matter. Altman had spent the early part of the year seeking the US government’s blessing for the project, which aims to form a coalition of global investors to fund the costly physical infrastructure needed to support rapid AI development, Bloomberg reported in February. Now, Altman and his team are working on several details that haven’t previously been reported, including the plan to first target US states.
Too Few Middle-Skills Credentials to Meet Future Job Demand - Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed
Anew report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found that colleges and other credential providers aren’t producing enough credentials that lead to well-paying, middle-skills jobs to satisfy employer demand in many metro areas across the country. The report, published today, defines high-paying middle-skills jobs as those that require an associate degree or credential, but not a bachelor’s degree, and in which more than half of early-career workers earn at least $53,000 per year. Such jobs span a wide range, from firefighters to software developers to radiologic technicians. The report found that out of 343 credential providers, 311 of them, or 91 percent, would need to more than double the number of credentials they award in such fields to avoid local shortages in the future.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Penn State launches generative AI program for faculty - EdScoop
The Pennsylvania State University on Tuesday announced a new program designed to help faculty members use generative artificial intelligence to support their teaching efforts. The program, called “AI-Enhanced Pedagogy: Exploring Generative AI as a Collaborative Partner,” includes seven “events,” each with a different activity or project. According to the program’s website, participants will use “at least” 3 generative AI tools, review and revise a course or teaching approach, and create a video that can be distributed to students that explains their instructional philosophy concerning generative AI. “The goal of this endorsement is to help create pathways to support student use of generative AI in learning activities,” reads a university announcement.
Purdue’s online programs become available through international corporate upskilling company SkillsWave - Ryan M. Olson, Purdue
Purdue University is partnering with SkillsWave, a Canada-based upskilling company that provides a network of high-quality education options to propel businesses and their employees forward. Purdue will make its industry-leading online degree programs available through the SkillsWave catalog, including a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence (AI), an AI microcredentials program, highly ranked engineering programs including industrial and nuclear, and business programs featuring economics, human resource management and global supply chain management. Online programs available from Purdue to working professionals through the partnership with SkillsWave feature Purdue’s world-renowned faculty and academic reputation, all within a convenient and flexible format. Online students benefit from the same rigorous curriculum as on Purdue’s flagship campus, with the added advantage of a more flexible class schedule, including anytime, anywhere self-paced learning options.
OpenAI **JUST** Announced GPT-5 [100X BIGGER] - Wes Roth, YouTube
(summary facilitated by GenAI)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7sFwtrnQIw&t=1s
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Change is coming, whether higher education likes it or not - Andrew Greenaway, Times Higher Ed
When it comes to the digital transformation of higher education, there is widespread agreement that universities must adapt, bringing in the skills and technologies needed to thrive in an era of mass online learning and artificial intelligence. With a handful of notable exceptions, however, the sector seems to find it hard to translate those words into tangible, radical change.Yet that isn’t always the case when it comes to the fabric of the organisation itself. There are good reasons for that. The substrates of old IT systems, ropey data and steering committees create friction, a problem far from unique to universities. A cultural gap between academics and professional services can mean a lack of trust on both sides. And higher education also faces a real and growing cybersecurity threat. Building a shining city on a hill when foundations are rocky is not straightforward.There are practical, tangible ways for universities to make headway and build momentum with their digital transformation.
What nonverbal cues reveal about online learning and robotics - Technische Universität Berlin, Science of Intelligence
The findings were striking: When instructors used more expressive behaviors, participants not only felt more engaged and motivated but also focused more intently on the instructor, even though the interaction was entirely virtual. Traditional cognitive approaches to instructional design often advocate for minimizing cues that do not directly convey information, such as smiling combined with gesturing, on the grounds that they might distract learners from the learning material. However, this perspective overlooks the social aspects of learning. This study demonstrates that the integration of these nonverbal behaviors, far from being a distraction, actually enhances motivation and enjoyment without compromising cognitive learning outcomes. For instance, when instructors smiled and gestured naturally while explaining complex mathematical concepts in the videos, participants remained more attentive throughout the lecture.
AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient - Paul Wiseman, AP
The arrival of generative AI has raised worries that chatbots will replace freelance writers, editors, coders, telemarketers, customer-service reps, paralegals and many more.“AI is going to eliminate a lot of current jobs, and this is going to change the way that a lot of current jobs function,’' Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said in a discussion at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May. Yet the widespread assumption that AI chatbots will inevitably replace service workers, the way physical robots took many factory and warehouse jobs, isn’t becoming reality in any widespread way — not yet, anyway. And maybe it never will. The White House Council of Economic Advisers said last month that it found “little evidence that AI will negatively impact overall employment.’’ The advisers noted that history shows technology typically makes companies more productive, speeding economic growth and creating new types of jobs in unexpected ways.
Monday, September 9, 2024
The Many Lives of Saint Joseph’s - Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed
Saint Joseph’s College, a Catholic institution in Indiana, suspended operations seven years ago and lost its accreditation, beset by financial troubles. Deferred maintenance issues piled up; the institution was $27 million in debt. As the region’s traditional college-age population dwindled, enrollment declined to about 900 students in 2017 from a peak of about 1,500 in the 1960s. Now the campus is bustling again, having gone through a bold but somewhat controversial transformation. The college has reinvented itself as a hub for short-term workforce training programs in Rensselaer, the small city in rural northwestern Indiana where it’s located. Using adjunct instructors, it offers a range of certificate programs, including in various health-care fields, veterinary sciences and a newly launched commercial driver’s license program. Tuition ranges from $500 to $2,100 per program this fall, and the longest certificate program, for veterinary assistants, spans just 16 weeks.
OpenAI unveils Orion: The next leap in AI with GPT-5 Strawberry technology - Sededin Devovic, Financial World
OpenAI, one of the leaders in artificial intelligence development, is on the brink of launching its latest groundbreaking AI model, codenamed Orion. Built using the innovative GPT-5 Strawberry technology, Orion aims to push the boundaries of complex reasoning capabilities while minimizing errors. The significance of this development was highlighted by a recent demonstration of GPT-5 Strawberry technology to U.S. federal officials, underscoring the increasing importance of AI in U.S. national security and OpenAI's commitment to transparency with decision-makers. At the heart of Orion is the GPT-5 Strawberry technology, an innovative approach designed to enhance AI's ability to reason, plan, and solve complex problems. By extending the "thinking" time of AI when tackling challenges, GPT-5 Strawberry enables Orion to deliver more accurate and reliable results.
iAsk Ai Outperforms ChatGPT and All Other AI Models on MMLU Pro Test - MarkTechPost
iAsk Ai has quickly become a leader in AI search. iAsk Ai’s search engine is powered by iAsk Pro, their latest model that has outperformed top competitors like OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Google’s Gemini Pro, as shown by its record-breaking results on the MMLU Pro benchmark test. In less than two years, iAsk Ai has processed 325 million searches and now handles 1.5 million searches daily, proving its efficiency in delivering fast and accurate answers. or students, iAsk Ai offers a smarter way to find answers to complex academic questions, providing detailed explanations that deepen understanding without the hassle of sifting through multiple sources. Professionals can rely on iAsk Ai to obtain data-driven insights that inform their decisions, eliminating the need to reconcile conflicting information from different sources. Educators use it as a resource to enhance their teaching materials, while casual users benefit from the platform’s ability to deliver accurate answers without the friction of opening multiple tabs or dealing with sponsored content.
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Promoting Pedagogical Resilience: Unveiling the Efficacy of Synchronous Online Lectures Compared to Traditional Methods From the Students’ Vantage Point Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic - Smita R. Sorte et al; Cureus
The findings of this study reveal that students have a moderate level of satisfaction with synchronous online lectures, as indicated by a mean score of 64.04%. While these lectures provide flexibility and promote independence, they require students to exhibit higher levels of self-motivation, discipline, and self-directed learning. However, the online format poses challenges for effective communication and technical issues. Addressing the challenges of technology use, teacher training, and student engagement can enhance the effectiveness of online teaching and ensure that it complements traditional teaching methods, ultimately promoting pedagogical resilience in medical education.
OpenAI’s Project Strawberry will become ChatGPT-5, launch soon, and be better at math than any chatbot, insiders say - Graham Barlow, TechRadar
More details of OpenAI’s secretive Project Strawberry have dropped, including its expected release date and the areas it will specialize in. A recent report in The Information quotes “two people who have been involved in the effort”, and goes on to say that Project Strawberry could drop this fall [so September-November], and be better at math and programming than any chatbot we’ve seen so far.
The revolution in online learning has skipped over our prisons – and that helps nobody - Lisa Kerr, Globe and Mail
With the back-to-school season upon us, students and teachers are anticipating the exciting possibilities for growth and transformation that will come in the academic year ahead. For incarcerated people, however, September is just another month in which the educational opportunities they so desperately need are kept out of reach. Even though prison staff are expected to facilitate inmate access to education, that policy conflicts with another in Canada’s prisons: the near-total ban on access to the internet. Exceptions to this rule are rare and inadequate.
Saturday, September 7, 2024
What matters in advancing self-directed learning - Karen A. Stout, Community College Daily
Clearly, our institutions need to champion self-directed learning skill development and integrate comprehensive SDL supports into our teaching and learning efforts. That starts with building an awareness of this research and the implications for investments in supports for faculty, students and staff among our leadership and administrative teams. My organization, Achieving the Dream (ATD), has worked with our network colleges on different aspects of online learning and better integrating technology into more student-centered teaching and learning. Efforts, such as our work around open educational resources and adopting adaptive courseware in introductory courses through the Every Learner Everywhere initiative, offer important lessons to consider as we think about building SDL skills and knowledge into our courses and professional learning.
3 ways AI can smooth our inevitable move to a 4-day workweek - Marcus Mossberger, Fast Company
For executives, the impending four-day workweek will inevitably bring on new questions of productivity, output, and outcomes. How do I ensure my people are producing the same level, or better, outcomes while putting in less work? The good news is that as artificial intelligence takes on a bigger role at work, managers can lean into AI tools to redesign how we work, so that we can get more done in less time. For those on the cusp of embracing a four-day workweek, here are three ways you can lean into AI to ensure a successful transition.
7 new (and improved) things you can do with ChatGPT-4o - Emma Street, TechRadar
ChatGPT-4o can handle more complex instructions and follow them more accurately than its predecessors. It's more adept at understanding and executing multi-step instructions or those that require a higher level of reasoning. One of the most striking differences between version 4 and its predecessor is that you can now upload documents into the prompt window. ChatGPT-4 can analyze Word documents, spreadsheets, and images. ChatGPT-4 also enables you to use other users' customized GPTs and even allows you to create your own. We'll be looking at that in more detail below. (note: check out my custom GPT https://chatgpt.com/g/g-pLDOh2PHk-ray-s-eduai-advisor )
Friday, September 6, 2024
The Highest Paying Blue-Collar Jobs Offer Stability, While Nearly 300,000 Layoffs Are Blamed on AI - ResumeCoach
Blue-collar careers have often been thought of as the backbone of US industry. Many Americans are considering a return to stable blue-collar careers in a market facing layoffs due to several factors, such as AI growth, inflation, and overstaffing. Currently, tech companies have been cutting jobs while making significant investments in generative AI, with 34,000 positions being cut at the beginning of 2024 alone, following 263,000 cuts in 2023, according to the Financial Times.7 Our team has conducted thorough research based on internal and external data to put together this report on job security for skilled workers with or without AI skills. With this information and input from recruitment and tech sector experts, we were able to list the current best blue-collar jobs and those predicted to be most in demand in the future.
How MIT’s online resources provide a “highly motivating, even transformative experience” - Lauren Rebecca Thacker, MIT Open Learning
MITx and MIT Bootcamps are both hands-on and interactive experiences offered by MIT Open Learning, which is exactly what appealed to Sampalis. One of the best parts, he says, is that community and collaborations with those he met through MIT continued even after the boot camp concluded. Participants remain in touch not only with their cohort, but with a broader community of over 1,800 other participants from around the world, and have access to continued coaching and mentorship. Overall, the community of learners has been a highlight of Sampalis’ MIT Open Learning experience.
Teachers: Meet AI - Adam, Matt & Maria, Mindstream
Tech companies are being urged to develop AI tools to help reduce teachers’ workloads. The UK government is supporting this by giving AI developers special access to the Department for Education’s (DfE) resources. Education minister Stephen Morgan called this a major step forward for AI in education. The government is investing £3 million to create a “content bank” of official assessments, curriculum guides, and teaching materials. This will help developers train AI models to produce accurate, high-quality workbooks and lesson plans tailored for English classrooms.
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Your professor is also getting help from AI - Vanessa McCray, Atlanta Journal Constitution
It’s not just students who have turned to AI programs such as ChatGPT for help with assignments and essays. Their professors are also increasingly relying on the emerging technology to enhance and personalize learning. They’re exploring how to use AI to conduct oral assessments, brainstorm curricula, generate multiple choice questions for tests or train future teachers and nurses by replicating scenarios they’ll encounter in classrooms and hospitals.
Technology is burning out faculty, survey shows - Colin Wood, EdScoop
The report, published last week by the innovation arm of Western Governors University, polled 359 faculty members from colleges and universities, most of whom reported that they expect more edtech to be used in their classrooms. But less than a third of respondents reported belief that changes in the classroom were “heading in the right direction.” This broad concern included a belief held by 58% of respondents that technologies would lead to faculty having less autonomy in designing courses. Forty-one percent reported burnout and 79% reported they were constantly “on the job” because of technology.
Why there's no standard AI policy in higher education, and what professors are doing about it - Kana Ruhalter and Arun Rath, WGBH
There’s a new back-to-school ritual for students and professors: brushing up on policies regarding the use of artificial intelligence. Thanks to the rise of generative artificial intelligence, what one instructor considers a tool in another context could be considered a slippery slope into academic dishonesty. Some universities have implemented AI policies that faculty are required to enforce. Others have recommendations — but no school-wide standards. So, how should professors proceed update their class policies?
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
OpenAI says ChatGPT's weekly users have grown to 200 million - Reuters
ChatGPT, launched in 2022, can generate human-like responses based on user prompts and had 100 million weekly active users, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had said in November. OpenAI said 92% of Fortune 500 companies are using its products and the use of its automated Application Programming Interface, or API, which allows software programs to talk to each other, has doubled since the launch of ChatGPT-4o mini in July. Separately, AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic signed deals with the U.S. government for research, testing and evaluation of their artificial intelligence models, the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute said earlier in the day.
These 10 schools found their footing creating quality alternative credentials - Alcino Donadel, University Business
Senior leadership is beginning to view alternative credentials as a fundamental of their enrollment strategy—and accreditors are listening. But costs, opaque data and unfruitful corporate outreach efforts have prevented colleges and universities from implementing the programs at scale, to name a few barriers. Institutions looking to solidify their non-degree micro-credential and digital badge strategy can model solutions from these 10 schools where thousands of students are upskilling in fast-paced, dynamic environments. UPCEA, the professional development nonprofit, brought together institutions across various sizes, sectors and regions to highlight alternative credential models that complement each school’s mission.
Artificial intelligence? What happened to virtual reality? - Jim Chaffee, University Business
I’m an evangelist of sorts for virtual reality in higher ed, but I don’t think I’m overstating the case when I say that VR in its many forms holds the capacity to revolutionize a multitude of sectors, including education, healthcare, entertainment and engineering. True, its reach and level of interest has not yet matched that of artificial intelligence. Cost and accessibility are issues—headsets and other required equipment are beyond the means of many strapped budgets, while AI requires little new investment. VR also requires special training for people who support and use the technology, and to use it safely, requiring additional resources. Since VR has not yet been widely adopted, fewer high-quality educational content has been designed that can be integrated into the curriculum.
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
OpenAI’s First College Partnership Sheds Light on How GPT Is Used in Higher Education - Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly, Observer
At the beginning of this year, Arizona State University (ASU) became the first higher education institution to partner with OpenAI to integrate A.I. in coursework, tutoring and research. Now, eight months later, the university’s foray into A.I. has led to the creation of around 250 projects backed by ChatGPT, OpenAI revealed in an update today (Aug. 26). Universities, like ASU, have embraced the technology as a way to enhance student potential. “The goal here was to really drive what future uses of A.I. technologies can look like and to help guide the design of new technology,” Kyle Bowen, ASU’s deputy chief information officer, told Observer.
The AI-Powered Nonprofits Reimagining Education - Kevin Barenblat & Brooke James, SSIR
The team asked ChatGPT-4 to read Visser’s book and then translate 500 Kalamang sentences into English. A human expert outperformed the LLM in accuracy and natural flow—though it took that person 10 hours to review the grammar book and then several weeks for translation. However, on a recent retest with Google’s new Gemini 1.5, the researchers found the AI actually beat out the human translation. What does this mean? Well, if AI can almost instantly digest and then translate a completely new language, there are endless opportunities for how AI might translate the world’s knowledge into rare languages, reaching people who might never have otherwise had a formal education.
The versatile leader: How learning to adapt makes CEOs better - Ana Maor, Hans-Werner Kaas, Kurt Strovink, and Ramesh Srinivasan; McKinsey
Some of the most innovative and creative people in history succeeded because they were versatile. They were able to master more than one discipline and then combine them to forge new ideas and inventions. Benjamin Franklin, for instance, the quintessential Renaissance man, was a writer, printer, scientist, and politician. He played a key role in drafting the Declaration of Independence, helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris to end the American Revolution, and published Poor Richard’s Almanack, which helped shape American political thought. In this chapter excerpt from our new book, The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out (Portfolio, September 2024), we explore how today’s business leaders can similarly turn their diverse experiences into meaningful outcomes.
Monday, September 2, 2024
The future of the AI-enhanced classroom - Financial Times
The technology can, for example, help with the hours of grunt work, sometimes unpaid, that teachers do outside the classroom. Educational technology companies are already launching products using generative AI to help teachers prepare lesson plans and presentations, and tasks for students, though, like AI elsewhere, these must be policed for “hallucinations” and bias. Increasingly sophisticated systems are being launched, too, that can mark tests and homework, even providing feedback on written work. Ed techs are also developing AI-powered tutors that can open the way to giving students more individual attention by tracking their progress and understanding and providing tailored support.
https://www.ft.com/content/e9523570-5966-4d99-ac92-45d3966ae28e
UC Santa Cruz turns to layoffs to grapple with $107M deficit - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive
Layoffs are coming to the University of California, Santa Cruz as the institution tries to get a handle on its budget, Chancellor Cynthia Larive said in a message to campus Aug. 20. The public university’s fiscal 2024 year, which ended June 30, showed it had a whopping $107 million deficit in its core funds, which include state appropriations, tuition and fees. “This gap is concerning because it is both significant and higher than our initial Budget Office projection,” the chancellor said. Campus leaders are moving ahead with plans to reduce spending by $17 million for the fiscal 2025 year, which will require cutting back staff levels, Larive said. She noted that most reductions would be from eliminating unfilled rolls, but cuts would include some layoffs as well.
Development and implementation of digital pedagogical support systems in the context of educational equity - Shuo-fang Liu, Juan Li, Hang-qin Zhang, Zhe Li & Meng Cheng; Nature
In order to solve this problem, this study develops a digital teaching assistant system to facilitate the reform of educational equity in higher engineering disciplines. The results show that the academic performance of this system is significantly better than that of other similar systems. The statistical results of the teacher-student satisfaction survey of the two systems show that the teacher-student interaction and multi-dimensional learning evaluation analysis report function provided by the system are the most highly recognized, and the system also has better educational equity in resource recommendation, interaction and collaboration, learning achievement display and learning achievement evaluation, etc.
Sunday, September 1, 2024
How to Use ChatGPT at Work - HubSpot
Discover the key to unlocking unparalleled productivity with this ultimate guide to revolutionizing your workflow. Plus, 100 prompt ideas to help you unleash the power of generative AI. Meet your ultimate guide to tapping into the powerful capabilities of ChatGPT and amplifying your productivity. This eBook provides a comprehensive understanding of ChatGPT's functionalities, equipping you with the knowledge to streamline workflows, accelerate decision-making, foster collaboration, and implement best practices. Get ready to revolutionize your workday and unlock unparalleled efficiency with ChatGPT! (it is free)
UNM OER Initiative expected to save students over $400,000 this academic year - Sara Velasquez, University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico's Open Educational Resources (OER) Initiative has made significant strides since its inception in the spring of 2023. Collaborating with faculty, the initiative has championed the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER at UNM and two other New Mexico colleges. Projections based on historical enrollment and textbook costs estimate student savings from the OER initiative to be between $466,000 and $486,000 for the Academic Year 2024-2025.
Wisconsin Regents Vote to Lay Off Dozens of Tenured Faculty - Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed
The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents overwhelmingly approved a plan Thursday to lay off numerous tenured faculty members as part of the closure of UW-Milwaukee’s College of General Studies. UW-Milwaukee administrators have pointed to declining enrollment as the reason to shutter the college, which means as many as 35 tenured professors may lose their jobs. Earlier this month, a UW-Milwaukee faculty member told Inside Higher Ed that 60 nontenured employees in the College of General Studies had already been given layoff notices.
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