Online and Professional Continuing Education News
See below for a listing of curated news articles of the day brought to you by Ray Schroeder, Senior Fellow at UPCEA.
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- For Whom the Bell (Curve) Tolls? Classes That Yield Too Many A’s! - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher EdWe are seeing colleges and universities across the country cracking down on grade inflation. There are multiple points of pressure that tend to inflate grading at both the institutional and individual faculty member levels. The flaw is not inherent in AI; rather, it is in the failure of faculty members to apply the technology in a […]
- AI research papers are getting better, and it’s a big problem for scientists - Joshua Dzieza, the Verge“It’s a huge burden on the peer-review system, which is already at the limit,” Degen said. “There’s just too many papers being published and there’s not enough peer reviewers, and if the LLMs make it so much easier to mass produce papers, then this will reach a breaking point.” Optimists about generative AI have high […]
- Institutions Prepare for New Accreditation Regulations = Jessica Blake, Inside Higher EdAs the second week of accreditation negotiations gets underway, experts say the operational cost of the new regulations may be high for institutions—but the payoff could be worth it. As the Department of Education heads into its second week of negotiations over accreditation policies, the proposed regulations remain largely unchanged, higher education experts say. That […]
- First UK universities to offer LLE short courses announced - Tom Williams, Times Higher EducationJust under 60 English universities will be able to offer short courses that qualify for student loans when the new lifelong learning entitlement (LLE) is introduced later this year. The Department for Education has announced the first institutions approved through the new system, with those on the list able to offer single modules for study […]
- We now have clashing views on the value of college - Matt Zalaznick, University BusinessAmericans’ outlook on the value of college is split between a belief in the power of a degree and serious doubts about affordability. Degree-seekers, graduates and employers think costs put a crucial credential out of reach for many potential students, according to a new survey by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. “Americans haven’t lost faith […]
- The AI assembly line: Strategic imperatives for CEOs - Gianmarco Cilento, Steffen Fuchs , and Varun Marya; McKinseyJust as Ford’s production line transformed physical labor, agentic AI—systems that can act autonomously rather than just responding to prompts—is now reshaping cognitive work, including engineering design, supply chain planning, and risk assessment. (We will refer to agentic AI simply as “AI” throughout this article.) With AI, companies no longer need to depend solely on […]
- Landscape of Emerging Technologies in Higher Education: A Review - Sharin Jacob, Heather Miceli and Hannah Schneider, Digital PromiseThis literature review explores the rapid integration of artificial intelligence in higher education, examining both institutional influences and instructional practices. It highlights how governance frameworks, resource allocation, and faculty attitudes shape access and responsible technology adoption. Pedagogically, the paper emphasizes the necessity of embedding AI literacy, critical evaluation, and ethical reasoning into curricula to prevent […]
- Students prefer personalized, AI-generated educational videos over non-personalized, human-recorded videos - Bill Tomlinson, etc all; NaturePersonalization is a well-established driver of student engagement, yet delivering individualized instruction at scale remains a challenge in online education. Recent advances in generative AI make scalable personalization feasible, but AI-generated educational videos are often perceived as inferior to human-recorded content. This tension raises the question: how does the value of personalization compare to that […]
- The Third Wave of Online Education: Why AI-Powered Adaptive Learning Could Disrupt Universities, Corporate Training, and Workforce Development - Tim King, Solutions ReviewThe Third Wave of Online Education Has Begun. Artificial intelligence is beginning to fundamentally reshape education. Not simply classroom technology. Not digital homework systems. Not video-based e-learning platforms. Education itself. During a recent episode of Inside Jam, Solutions Review President Doug Atkinson sat down with Jonathan Cornelissen to discuss what may become one of the […]
- The fierce battle over AI in schools The AI arms race has hit the classroom. - Chase DiBenedetto, MashableNew York City, with the largest public school district in the country, was breaking ground on a novel, AI-themed high school when district leadership abruptly pulled the plug last month. They cited mounting parental concern and nationwide backlash to what has been labeled rapid, unsafe adoption of AI. Because there has been a rapid adoption […]
- The AI industry is still in flux, and university programs are trying to keep up - MarketplaceWelcome to May — the job market is currently awash in fresh graduates looking for that first post-college job, and it’s not an easy task. The unemployment rate for young college graduates jumped to 5.6% at the end of last year, entry-level job postings in the U.S. are down by a third since 2023, and […]
- Student AI use is fuelling grade inflation – Berkeley study - Nathan M Greenfield, University World NewsOver the past month, Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Magazine, the (conservative) National Review and Nature have published articles decrying grade inflation. Together, they pointed to the ‘usual suspects’: spineless professors; coddled students demanding to be treated like the customers administrators say they are; and the general decline in rigorous academic standards. In his just-published paper “Artificial […]
- 5 Things to Know About the Changing Cybersecurity Landscape in Higher Education - UMass AmherstRecent incidents affecting institutions nationwide, including the widely used Canvas learning management system, have reinforced the importance of cybersecurity not only as a technical priority, but as a shared community responsibility. For Jeremy Pelegrin, Chief Information Security Officer at UMass Amherst, the conversation around cybersecurity today extends far beyond firewalls and software updates. It’s about […]
- Assessing students when artificial intelligence is ubiquitous - Michelle Seref, Times Higher EducationIf we continue to prioritise memorisation in an age of wall-to-wall information, we send the wrong message to our students and employers. Michelle Seref offers advice on assessment that builds critical thinking skills. For much of higher education’s modern history, assessment has followed a familiar formula: a midterm and a final exam, with a heavy […]
- AI and the Employment Outlook for College Grads - Jim A. Jorstad, GovTechIt’s that time of the year when graduation ceremonies take place at colleges and universities throughout the country. Students will fill auditoriums, gymnasiums and stadiums, each with their own dreams and hopes of landing that ideal job they’ve been working toward. Some will have taken certification courses, served as researchers or graduate assistants, or participated […]
- The Case for Data Centers in Space- McKinseyStarcloud CEO Philip Johnston on the potential role orbital data centers could play in meeting growing AI compute demand—and the technical and economic uncertainties that remain. Philip Johnston, a McKinsey alumnus and cofounder of orbital compute infrastructure provider Starcloud, believes that space-based systems could become a meaningful part of the future compute landscape. He recently spoke […]
- ‘Student Guide to AI’ returns for third year with a new focus: Human capabilities - Elon University News Bureau“Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential Skills”, a publication by Elon University, the American Association of Colleges and Universities and The Princeton Review, is provided to students and institutions free of charge. The new publication, “Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential […]
- AI risk to university jobs despite staff believing roles are safe - Juliette Rowsell, Times Higher EdUniversity workers generally do not believe that their jobs will be taken by artificial intelligence in the short term but experts have warned against complacency, saying that automation may still be used as “justification” to cut roles anyway. While respondents to Times Higher Education’s UK University Redundancy Survey expressed widespread concern about the impact of […]
- In an AI-driven world, the most important skills are still human - Eric Townsend, Inside Higher EdAcross higher education, artificial intelligence is now embedded in everyday academic work, from early research to final drafts. For many students, it has become a default starting point. The urgent question is not whether students use AI, but how they use it—specifically, whether these tools are reinforcing learning or bypassing the cognitive work that leads […]
- Gaining real-world experience through internships - Massey University NewsWithin the Massey Business School, internship opportunities are available at 300 level, allowing students to work with organisations in areas aligned to their major. These placements give students the opportunity to take on real projects, contribute to teams and experience the pace and expectations of their chosen industry. Internships coordinator Professor Sarah Leberman says internships […]
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