A Few Recent Developments That Shine a Light on the Path of AI in Higher Ed
As I write this at the dawn of 2025, I believe a scan of a few of the most recent developments in generative AI in higher education helps to illuminate the path this technology will take in the coming year.
I publish a number of daily news update blogs for UPCEA, the Online and Professional Education Association:
- Professional, Continuing, and Online Update by UPCEA—three timely items a day
- Ray’s Curation—one item daily of particular interest to administrators
- Alternative Credentials in Higher Ed by UPCEA—one item daily in this developing field
- Artificial Intelligence in Higher Ed by UPCEA—two items daily in this critical development area
I scan primary news sources, other publications, research reports and press releases in related fields daily to post major developments, trends and visions of technological, pedagogical, political and related aspects of our field to the blogs. The pace of change has accelerated over the past couple of years. Yet, from these daily readings come indications as to what is likely to gain a foothold in higher education in the coming year or two. I invite you to peruse a handful of developments shared in the blogs in recent weeks, and ponder their implications in our field, so you may see what I see ahead.
“The AI-Generated Textbook That’s Making Academics Nervous,” Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 13
“The University of California, Los Angeles, is offering a medieval literature course next year that will use an AI-generated textbook. The textbook, developed in partnership with the learning tool company Kudu, was produced from course materials provided by Zrinka Stahuljak, the comparative literature professor at UCLA teaching the class. Students can interact with the textbook and ask it for clarifications and summaries, though it’s programmed to prevent students from using it to write their papers and other assignments. And as opposed to the nearly $200 students were required to spend on traditional texts—including anthologies and primary-source documents—for previous versions of the course, the AI-generated textbook costs $25.”
“OpenAI launches real-time vision for ChatGPT,” Martin Crowley, AI Tool Report, Dec. 13
“First announced in May, OpenAI has finally released real-time vision capabilities for ChatGPT, to celebrate the 6th day of the ‘12 Days of OpenAI.’ Users can now point their phone camera at any object, and ChatGPT will ‘see’ what it is, understand it, and answer questions about it, in real-time. For example, if someone was drawing an anatomical representation of the human body, it can offer feedback like ‘the location of the brain is spot on, but the shape is more oval.’ It can also ‘see’ what’s on a device screen and offer advice, such as explaining what a menu setting is or providing the answer to a math problem.”
“Predictions 2025: Insights for Online & Professional Education,” UPCEA, December 2024
“As we look toward 2025, the landscape of higher education is poised for significant transformation driven by technological advancements, shifting demographics, and evolving economic realities. This series of predictions from UPCEA’s team of experts highlights key trends that will shape institutions and student experiences alike. From the rise of outsourcing in C-suite roles to the increasing demand for microcredentials and the integration of AI in academic programs, these trends reflect a broader movement towards flexibility, efficiency, and a focus on outcomes. Explore what 2025 has in store for online and professional education, and use these 23 expert predictions to gain an understanding of what it means for you and your organization.”
“These AI systems offer new opportunities for educators to create sophisticated curricula tailored to individual student abilities and interests. At the same time, the powerful capabilities of LLM models challenge traditional teaching methods by allowing students to quickly complete assignments from research papers to computer code with little or no original effort. Orienting toward ‘authentic assessment’ allows educators to use the sophisticated potential of AI systems while addressing these concerns. Authentic assessment focuses on designing tasks that simulate real-world challenges and involve critical thinking and collaboration.”
“In the two years since generative AI was first introduced to the world, they have significantly improved after delivering significant problems that made them untrustworthy to many users. However, that is not yet over as there are still tendencies that chatbots may hallucinate. Despite this, the likes of OpenAI and other learning institutions are now looking towards creating custom models that would deliver online learning for many students worldwide. Now, OpenAI is making its massive and aggressive move towards entering the education industry with its plans to create custom GPTs that are meant to teach thousands of online students, and the company thinks it can do it.”
“Journal abstracts written with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) are perceived as more authentic, clear and compelling than those created solely by academics, a study suggests. While many academics may scorn the idea of outsourcing article summaries to generative AI, a new investigation by researchers at Ontario’s University of Waterloo found peer reviewers rated abstracts written by humans—but paraphrased using generative AI—far more highly than those authored without algorithmic assistance.”
“Google’s NotebookLM AI podcast hosts can now talk to you, too,” Jay Peters, The Verge, Dec. 13
“Google’s NotebookLM and its podcast-like Audio Overviews have been a surprise hit this year, and today Google company is starting to roll out a big new feature: the ability to actually talk with the AI ‘hosts’ of the overviews. When the feature is available to you, you can try it out with new Audio Overviews. (It won’t work with old ones.)”
[Ray notes: Imagine using this for a lecture where you give content documents to NotebookLM. In moments, it creates a professional “lecture” podcast, which students can interrupt at any time to ask questions and instantly get answers from the “hosts” before returning to the podcast/lecture.]
“OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline,” Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, Dec. 18
“ChatGPT is coming to phones. No, not smartphones—landlines. Call 1-800-242-8478 (1-800-CHATGPT), and OpenAI’s AI-powered assistant will respond as of Wednesday afternoon. ‘[Our mission at] OpenAI is to make artificial general intelligence beneficial to all of humanity, and part of that is making it as accessible as possible to as many people as we can,’ OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil said during a livestream. ‘Today, we’re taking the next step and bringing ChatGPT to your telephone.’ The experience is more or less identical to Advanced Voice Mode, OpenAI’s real-time conversational feature for ChatGPT—minus the multimodality. ChatGPT responds to the questions users ask over the phone and can handle tasks such as translating a sentence into a different language.”
“How Employees Are Using AI in the Workplace,” Molly Bookner, Hubspot Blog, Dec. 17
“Trust in AI-generated content is increasing, with 33% expressing confidence in the technology (up 27% from May 2023). Furthermore, 39% of full-time employees in the U.S. report having already used an AI chatbot to assist them, with 74% acknowledging the tools’ effectiveness. ‘The implementation of AI in the workplace helps augment staff performance, streamline human resources operations, improve employee experience, and promote cross-team collaboration,” said Aleksandr Ahramovich, Head of the AI/ML Center of Excellence. In a survey released May 13 by TalentLMS in collaboration with Workable, conducted among 1,000 employees working across U.S. industries, 50% of U.S. employees agreed their current job would benefit from integrating AI technologies.”
“AI Will Evolve into an Organizational Strategy for All,” Ethan Mollick, Wired, Dec. 15
“While the integration of AI into our daily lives has happened very quickly (AI assistants are one of the fastest product adoptions in history), so far, organizations have seen limited benefits. But the coming year will mark a tipping point where AI moves from being a tool for individual productivity to a core component of organizational design and strategy. In 2025, forward-thinking companies will begin to reimagine their entire organizational structure, processes, and culture around the symbiotic relationship between human and artificial intelligence. This isn’t just about automating tasks or augmenting human capabilities; it’s about creating entirely new ways of working that leverage the unique strengths of both humans and AI. The key to unlocking the true power of LLMs lies in moving beyond individual use cases to organizational-level integration.”
I hope this sampling of mid- to late December updates from the blogs will help to illustrate the broad, rapid and highly impactful changes that are poised to affect higher education. As Wharton professor Ethan Mollick suggests above, “In 2025, forward-thinking companies [universities?] will begin to reimagine their entire organizational structure, processes, and culture around the symbiotic relationship between human and artificial intelligence.” Are you and your institution prepared?
This post was originally published on Inside Higher Ed.
Ray Schroeder is Professor Emeritus, Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) and Senior Fellow at UPCEA. Each year, Ray publishes and presents nationally on emerging topics in online and technology-enhanced learning. Ray’s social media publications daily reach more than 12,000 professionals. He is the inaugural recipient of the A. Frank Mayadas Online Leadership Award, recipient of the University of Illinois Distinguished Service Award, the United States Distance Learning Association Hall of Fame Award, and the American Journal of Distance Education/University of Wisconsin Wedemeyer Excellence in Distance Education Award 2016.
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