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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  • This AI literally refused to turn itself off - Matt V, Mindstream
    It’s designed to handle tasks more independently, but this latest research suggests that might come with trade-offs. Other models, including Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, showed similar behaviour during tests, though o3 was the most likely to override shutdown instructions.Here’s what stood out:OpenAI’s o3 modified shutdown commands to keep itself running.Anthropic and Google’s models did […]
  • 1 big thing: The scariest AI reality - Mike Allen, Axios AM
    The wildest, scariest, indisputable truth about AI's large language models is that the companies building them don't know exactly why or how they work, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.Sit with that for a moment. The most powerful companies, racing to build the most powerful superhuman intelligence capabilities — ones they readily […]
  • Tech prophet Mary Meeker just dropped a massive report on AI trends - here's your TL;DR - Steven Vaughan-Nichols, ZD Net
    Mary Meeker, famed for her era-defining Internet Trends reports, has returned with a sweeping 340-page analysis of AI's global impact in 2025. Her "Trends – Artificial Intelligence" report details a technology revolution moving at a pace and scale she calls "unprecedented." She uses the term over 50 times in the report. For those unaware of […]
  • The Rising Voices Podcast | Navigating Career Transitions - EDUCAUSE
    This EDUCAUSE Rising Voices podcast episode features Wes Johnson and Sarah Buska, co-hosts, along with guests Jay James and Mike Rkiki, discussing career transitions in higher education. Jay and Mike share their experiences with significant career changes, highlighting that these transitions take time and are not always fully controllable [04:10, 08:52]. The podcast also explores […]
  • AI’s big interoperability moment: Why A2A and MCP are key for agent collaboration - Tomas Talius, Venture Beat
    As agents become more capable and specialized, enterprises are discovering that coordination is the next big challenge. Two open protocols — Agent-to-Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) — are emerging to meet that need. They simplify how agents share tasks, exchange information, and access enterprise context, even when they were built using different models […]
  • Mark Cuban and Anthropic’s CEO Are Arguing About How Many Jobs AI Will Replace - Jessica Stillman, Inc.
    Will AI add 15 percent to the GDP or one percent? Is AI about to become smarter than humans or is it doomed to unreliable hallucinations for a long time yet? Is humanity about to enter an era of massive abundance or terrible loss? You can find a well-regarded expert arguing every one of these […]
  • Why This IBM Exec Says AI Adoption Should Be Led by HR - Kayla Webster, Inc.
    HR is the natural choice to lead company-wide adoption of AI, according to Nickle LaMoreaux, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at IBM, who took to LinkedIn to make her case. She sat down Monday with LinkedIn chief people officer Teuila Hanson in the social-media platform’s latest episode of Conversations with CHROs, and […]
  • Working-age adults with some college but no credential reaches 37.6M, report finds - Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive
    Some 37.6 million working-age adults had some college credits but no credential at the start of the 2023-24 academic year, according to new data released Wednesday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The population, up 2.2% nationally from the previous year, increased across all states. But reenrollment among “some college, no credential” adults climbed […]
  • Nurturing New Talent: Partnering with Colleges to Recruit Interns - US Chamber of Commerce
    Businesses of all sizes that want to increase their productivity while nurturing their talent pipeline often find tremendous value in hiring an intern. Businesses benefit from fresh perspectives and potential cost savings, while students gain valuable work experience in their chosen industries. One way to recruit interns is by working directly with colleges and universities, […]
  • When your LLM calls the cops: Claude 4’s whistle-blow and the new agentic AI risk stack - Matt Marshall, Venture Beat
    The recent uproar surrounding Anthropic’s Claude 4 Opus model – specifically, its tested ability to proactively notify authorities and the media if it suspected nefarious user activity – is sending a cautionary ripple through the enterprise AI landscape. While Anthropic clarified this behavior emerged under specific test conditions, the incident has raised questions for technical […]
  • AI revolt: New ChatGPT model refuses to shut down when instructed - Anthony Cuthbertson, the Independent
    OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT model ignores basic instructions to turn itself off, and even sabotaging a shutdown mechanism in order to keep itself running, artificial intelligence researchers have warned. AI safety firm Palisade Research discovered the potentially dangerous tendency for self-preservation in a series of experiments on OpenAI’s new o3 model.The tests involved presenting AI models […]
  • What HR leaders can learn from Medtronic’s employee education program - InStride
    With persistent talent gaps in high-demand roles and tightening budgets, HR leaders are focused on how to do more with the workforce they already have—meaning growing talent from within and giving employees the skills they need to step into critical roles. Leaders are shifting from reactive hiring to long-term workforce planning. The question isn’t just […]
  • Pros and cons of educational AI - Ameera Fouad, Al-Ahram
    Artificial intelligence (AI) has certainly transformed the way we see life. It can apparently do almost anything in a way impossible to believe when it was introduced nearly a decade ago. The way AI has become integrated into the education system cannot be disregarded as it has become a fact that everyone must relate to. […]
  • How much energy does AI really use? The answer is surprising - and a little complicated - Radhika Rajkumar and Sabrina Ortiz, ZD Net
    As AI adoption continues to grow, so do the technology's energy costs. Made up of high-compute systems, AI requires a lot of data, which needs to be stored on large networks of computers known as data centers. Just like your personal computer, those gigantic centers need electricity -- as does the process of training an […]
  • 5 leadership skills that break at scale - Meg Crosby, Fast Company
    As the founder of a high-growth SaaS business, Evan was the quintessential entrepreneur. Ideas and innovation were his strength, and they led to his success in attracting investors and inspiring his early hires. With the infusion of investment capital, the company entered a new stage of growth. To scale successfully, the business needed to standardize […]
  • AI shakes up higher ed: UNO choosing to embrace change, not fear disruption - Omaha World-Herald
    In 2024, UNO launched the state’s first-ever bachelor’s degree program in artificial intelligence. The Division of Innovative and Learning Centric Initiatives also launched the AI Learning Lab to equip faculty and staff with AI skills, infuse AI into coursework, identify opportunities for operational efficiency through the use of AI and amplify the ethical use of […]
  • Shaping the Future: ChatGPT and AI Assistance in Higher Education – Insights by The Business Fame, Sangri Today
    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping higher education by enhancing learning experiences, streamlining administrative tasks, and expanding research capabilities. ChatGPT and similar AI-powered assistants are playing a pivotal role in personalized learning, content generation, academic research, and student support. These tools help students refine their understanding of complex topics, assist educators in developing course materials, and […]
  • AI Mythbusters: INBOUND Experts Set the Record Straight - Inbound
    AI is everywhere. But that doesn’t mean we all agree on what it’s doing or what it’s actually good at. From sales teams to support communities, inboxes to dashboards, there’s a lot of confusion around how to use AI well. So we asked some of the top minds speaking at INBOUND to debunk the biggest […]
  • Our New Co-Workers in Higher Ed - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
    I was reading a Substack posting from Jurgen Gravestein, conversational AI consultant at the Conversation Design Institute in the Netherlands. Gravestein is author of the newsletter Teaching Computers How to Talk. His writings prompted me to go to the source itself! I set up a conversation between Anthropic Claude 4 and a GPT that I […]
  • Zochi Achieves Main Conference Acceptance at ACL 2025 - Intology
    Today, we’re excited to announce a groundbreaking milestone: Zochi, Intology’s Artificial Scientist, has become the first AI system to independently pass peer review at an A* scientific conference¹—the highest bar for scientific work in the field. Zochi’s paper has been accepted into the main proceedings of ACL—the world’s #1 scientific venue for natural language processing […]

Other Curated News: 

News from UPCEA: 

Survey: About Half of Faculty are More Positive About Online Learning Today Than Pre-Pandemic, And Expect to Keep New Teaching Techniques and Digital Materials in Place Post-Pandemic

The Third Digital Learning Pulse Survey, Conducted by Bay View Analytics on Behalf of OLC, WCET, UPCEA, CDLRA and Cengage, Looks at How Higher Education is Changing in the Wake of COVID-19 March 24, 2021—As the pandemic has moved U.S. higher education online, half of…

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[Snap Poll Results] In Pandemic Higher Ed, PCO Gets the Playing Time It Deserves

[Snap Poll Results] In Pandemic Higher Ed, PCO Gets the Playing Time It Deserves

My world before the pandemic included going to sporting events, and trying my hand at fantasy football and baseball leagues.  These activities fed my inner stats nerd. During the pandemic, however, I found that what I had previously found so important to me and my…

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Higher Ed's Future at the Intersection of Learners and Employers

Higher Ed’s Future at the Intersection of Learners and Employers

The future of higher education is bridging the gap between the expectations of learners and the needs of employers.  Fewer students started or returned to college last fall — numbers were down half a million below 2019. In understanding those numbers, we should remember that enrollments…

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