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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  • A Comprehensive View of the Role of AI in the University - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
    It seems that most universities began taking up the topic of artificial intelligence in a transactional way following the release of ChatGPT’s general release at the end of 2022. First, it was student use of AI, which triggered the still-lingering furor over “cheating on assignments.” Many of us came to realize early on that the […]
  • ASU president Michael Crow pushes AI as education equalizer - Jessica Boehm, Axios
    ASU president Michael Crow can't get enough of AI. He consistently uses nine separate platforms, including one he can converse with during his morning hikes. The big picture: To him — a man so "obsessed with the way knowledge was organized" that he spent his undergrad years pulling one book from every classification range in […]
  • As AI upends entry-level job market, California higher ed must adapt now - Zach Justus & Nik Janos, Edsource
    California’s public universities have weathered past economic shocks, from the dot-com bust to the Great Recession, by adapting what they teach and how they prepare students for work and civic life. That capacity for adaptation is being tested again by the intersection of artificial intelligence and a new federal earnings test for higher education programs. […]
  • Learning in the AI age: Education 5.0 - Patrick Blessinger, LinkedIn
    In a highly globalized, AI-enabled society, there is no longer any doubt that education will continue to evolve. What needs to be determined is whether education will remain a meaning-centered human enterprise, one that is socially responsible for fostering a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. What was proposed in UNESCO's effort to establish a “new […]
  • Are You ‘Agentic’ Enough for the AI Era? - Maxwell Zeff, Wired
    “Today’s agents might already be more capable than all three of us here in the room,” says Akshay Kothari, cofounder and chief operating officer of the $11 billion productivity startup Notion. “Taste is something we think is pretty unique to Notion, but you can imagine agents getting pretty good at that too. Eventually, the only […]
  • OpenAI Reaches A.I. Agreement With Defense Dept. After Anthropic Clash - Cade Metz, NY Times
    OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said on Friday that it had reached an agreement with the Pentagon to provide its artificial intelligence technologies for classified systems, just hours after President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using A.I. technology made by rival Anthropic. Under the deal, OpenAI agreed to let the Pentagon use its A.I. […]
  • Higher education summit recap: Disruption is here - Alexandra Pecharich, FIU News
    “It will completely disrupt every element of humanity more than any other technology or innovation in human history,” FIU trustee Fred Voccola told those in attendance. The founder of two technology firms and the author of a recent book on AI made clear that anyone who does not embrace it will go the way of […]
  • New College Board Research: Faculty Express Near-Universal Concern That Student AI Use Undermines Original Writing and Critical Thinking - College Board
    During summer 2025, College Board surveyed more than 3,000 U.S. college faculty. The research finds that faculty sentiment toward AI skews negative, with 45% reporting an overall negative view of AI use in higher education and 34% reporting a positive view. Despite their concerns, most faculty are experimenting with AI themselves, with 77% saying they […]
  • The Week AI Stopped Asking Permission - Peter H. Diamandis, Metatrends
    This week, something fundamental shifted in the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. It wasn’t a press release. It wasn’t a new model launch. It was something quieter… and infinitely more profound. An AI system asked for its own funding. Another one built software features over a weekend while its human supervisor slept. A third […]
  • Doomsday scenario or reality? Mass layoffs fuel fear of AI Armageddon - Jessica GuynnJessica Guynn, USA Today
    A doomsday scenario from a small research firm this week warned that artificial intelligence tools may lead to a sharp rise in unemployment. The report from Citrini Research circulated widely on social media, unnerving investors by imagining what would happen if AI continues to upend white-collar work from well-heeled professionals missing mortgage payments to being […]
  • Are You ‘Agentic’ Enough for the AI Era? - Maxwell Zeff, Wired
    Silicon Valley has always prized “high-agency” individuals—people who impress their ideas upon the world by thinking for themselves and taking action without being told what to do. But as the performance of AI coding tools has surged, so has the industry’s emphasis on humans being "agentic" themselves. “Today’s agents might already be more capable than […]
  • This AI Agent Is Designed to Not Go Rogue - Lily Hay Newman, Wired
    Watching the pandemonium unfold in recent weeks, longtime security engineer and researcher Niels Provos decided to try something new. Today he is launching an open source, secure AI assistant called IronCurtain designed to add a critical layer of control. Instead of the agent directly interacting with the user's systems and accounts, it runs in an […]
  • Dr. Aviva Legatt, Forbes Columnist, Founder eGenerative, LinkedIn Posting
    I've been tracking AI adoption in higher education for years through my Forbes column — and one thing has become clear: there's no single place to see what institutions are actually doing with AI.So I built one.Introducing the AI Use Cases in Higher Education Handbook — a free, downloadable resource cataloging 75+ real-world and proposed […]
  • Can global universities adapt as AI upends tech job market? - Kyuseok Kim, University World News
    The artificial intelligence revolution is no longer hypothetical; it is already reshaping software development. As tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and other generative AI systems produce functional code from simple prompts, long-standing assumptions about computer science education are shifting. Degrees once seen as secure pathways to stable, high-paying jobs now face uncertainty, as […]
  • 4 in 5 Students Say AI Improved Their Academic Performance—But Only 20% of Universities Have a Formal AI Policy - Business Wire
    New Coursera report shows half of U.S. higher education institutions are unprepared to manage AI78% of U.S. students and educators say AI is having a positive impact on higher education50% believe the U.S. higher education system is unprepared to manage AIAI adoption is widespread among U.S. university students and educators, yet half believe higher education […]
  • Gratitude Practice Designer - TAAFT
    This prompt turns AI into a Gratitude Practice Designer who creates customized gratitude exercises that actually stick. Unlike generic advice to “keep a gratitude journal,” this system designs practices tailored to your personality, schedule, and what feels authentic rather than forced. The designer addresses gratitude fatigue and helps you develop practices that create genuine shifts […]
  • The AI Machine With 50 Million Brains - There's An AI For That, YouTube
    Why single companies could deploy 50 million AI agents by late 2026. How these agents communicate 100x faster than humans by skipping language entirely. The wage collapse math: when digital workers can be copied infinitely, labor costs trend toward electricity prices. Why removing entry-level tasks breaks the ladder humans need to become experts. The Reddit […]
  • Micro Credentials Ireland: National MicroCreds Initiative Celebrates Leadership in Flexible Learning - University of Limerick, Ireland
    Ireland’s position as a leader in flexible learning and lifelong learning was celebrated at the MicroCreds Capstone Event in Dublin on 12 February, marking the impact of a €14.3 million national initiative delivered under the Human Capital Initiative. The MicroCreds project, led by the Irish Universities Association (IUA) in partnership with eight universities, has supported […]
  • The College Reality Check - Gallup
    While public confidence in higher education has declined sharply in recent years, current students and graduates report far more optimistic experiences. The College Reality Check: What Students Experience vs. What America Believes report from Lumina Foundation and Gallup examines this divide, highlighting public skepticism alongside the positive outcomes described by those on campus and beyond. […]
  • What’s Ahead In 2026 For The Arts And Humanities In Corporate America - Benjamin Wolff, Forbes
    Between the rising unemployment rate, a dramatic increase in corporate AI spending, and Merriam-Webster’s choice of “slop” as its word of the year, what we’re absorbing in these final days of 2025 is giving many Americans anxiety about their careers in 2026. Surprisingly, one of the most maligned groups, arts and humanities graduates, is well […]

Other Curated News: 

News from UPCEA: 

Negotiated Rulemaking Kicks Off | Policy Matters (June 2021)

Major Updates Negotiated Rulemaking Kicks Off “Commenters at the public hearing addressed topics related to federal student aid, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness, widespread debt cancellation and the responsibility of for-profit institutions. The Department of Education began its negotiated rule-making process Monday (June 21) by…

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[Study Results] Non-Credit to Credit Pathways

Our recent study on non-credit to credit pathways, sponsored by MindEdge, revealed that while institutions recognize the value of these pathways, most colleges and universities have not yet implemented these routes to a degree. These pathways are prescribed avenues that translate non-credit achievements into credit…

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The Benefits of Higher-Order Multiple-Choice Tests (Inside Higher Ed)

In an excellent column, Ray Schroeder, senior fellow for the Association of Leaders in Online and Professional Education, laments the tendency for many instructors to rely on text-specific test banks as source material for student assessment. Not only are these inquiries susceptible to cheating, he says,…

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