For many online and professional continuing education units, the primary barrier to adopting artificial intelligence is not access to tools, it is uncertainty about where to begin and how to proceed without disrupting daily operations. Leaders are often balancing innovation with stability, making it difficult to introduce new approaches without clear structure. A focused, time-bound strategy can reduce that ambiguity. A 90-day adoption…
The “traditional” student is quickly becoming a relic of a bygone era. The future of enrollment is concentrated in new, non-traditional markets: adult learners seeking rapid re-skilling, dual-enrolled high school students, and the millions of Americans with “some college, no credential” who represent a significant scalable opportunity for growth. Universities know they must pivot decisively…
The spring semester is coming to a close with the normal host of routines. Yet, beneath those routines, something is unfolding in the labor market that will greet your new graduates who will face an incrementally tighter job market. I asked Claude Sonnet 4.6 Extended Thinking to research the tasks relevant to preparing our new…
Technologists, economists, and visionaries are warning us that in the next three to 18 months, we are going to experience rapid and pervasive disruption of our professional lives, workplace models, and distribution of income. Professional positions requiring college degrees will be lost, remade into highly-productive, cost-efficient, hybrid human-AI models where human contributions and compensation will…
Policy Matters | House and Senate Pass FUTURE Act, Restoring Funding to HBCUs and Minority Institutions and Simplifying FAFSA (December 2019)
Welcome to the December edition of Policy Matters. Each issue has the latest updates and actionable items in public policy for adult and nontraditional education stakeholders. Please note that if you do not wish to continue to receive these sorts of emails, click here. Major Update House and Senate Pass FUTURE Act, Restoring Funding to HBCUs and…
Insight from a Dean: Never Stop Learning
By SmartBrief Editors This post is produced in partnership with UPCEA. Professional learning should never stop — even when leaders reach pinnacles of success. Dr. Jenni Murphy is the Dean of the College of Continuing Education at Sacramento State and has won many awards in her field. She shares some insight from her own professional…
UPCEA Announces 2019 Division And Best In Show Marketing Award Recipients
5 Recipients Chosen Out of 30 Leading Entries for Top Honors WASHINGTON, D.C., December 6, 2019 — UPCEA, the leader in professional, continuing, and online education, has announced the Division and Best in Show award recipients of the 2019 Marketing Awards. The UPCEA Marketing Awards program recognizes the top marketing and creative work across the…
UPCEA Encourages Passage of FUTURE Act
UPCEA joined with other organizations in a letter to the House and Senate to express our strong support for H.R.5363, the FUTURE Act. Following our letters, both the House and the Senate passed the bill, sending it to the President’s desk for signature. This much needed legislation addresses a few important issues. First, it would…
The tagline for Convergence, Credential Innovation in Higher Education, raises two important questions: First, what kind of credentials are we talking about? Is the scope of credentials unlimited, blue sky, or confined to incremental changes on the margins of the status quo? And second, who is leading that innovation, and what do they need to…
We are pleased to share the foreword by UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen from the newly released Chief Online Learning Officers’ Guidebook: A Framework for Strategy and Practice in Higher Education. The guidebook, now available from Routledge in paperback, hardback, and eBook formats, provides a comprehensive framework for today’s online learning leaders. Learn more and purchase…
Online enrollment leaders don’t need another mandate to “use AI.” They need relief. Most teams are already stretched thin by demands to manage inquiry volume, follow-up expectations, data hygiene, and prospect responsiveness. They lack the capacity to take on yet another complex initiative, especially one that feels abstract or disruptive. AI mandates promise transformation when…
Discover how to explain AI SEO ROI to university leadership when attribution is imperfect, with insights and strategy from Search Influence. Across higher education, marketing teams are being asked to explain AI search visibility before institutions agree on how to measure it. Leadership discussions are moving quickly, while reporting frameworks remain centered on keyword rankings,…