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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- What we’re optimizing ChatGPT for - OpenAIThis is what a helpful ChatGPT experience could look like:“Help me prepare for a tough conversation with my boss.” ChatGPT tunes into what you need to feel at your best, with resources like practice scenarios or a tailored pep talk so you can walk in feeling grounded and confident.“I need to understand my lab results.” […]
- ChatGPT’s Study Mode Is Here. It Won’t Fix Education’s AI Problems - Reece Rogers, WiredOpenAI’s new study mode for ChatGPT throws questions back at students, but the learning feature doesn’t address generative AI’s underlying disruption of education. The mode is designed around the Socratic method, so when activated, OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot rejects direct requests for answers, instead guiding the user with open-ended questions. The new study mode is […]
- The Quantum-AI Convergence Changes Everything - Click Future, YoutubeQuantum-enhanced AI can solve problems impossible for classical systems, excelling in areas like optimization, pattern recognition, and complex system modeling. It can learn from smaller datasets and has demonstrated creativity and insight beyond classical AI. The podcast highlights rapid advancements in this field and outlines practical applications across various industries, including drug discovery, material science, […]
- CSU Faculty Projects Test AI for Creative Majors, Design - Abby Sourwine, GovTechSixty-three projects funded by the California State University system are experimenting with generative AI, from single-course pilots to full program overhauls, and producing open resources for others to consult. In classrooms across the California State University (CSU) system, faculty are looking to turn generative artificial intelligence from a disrupter into a teaching tool. From musical […]
- An AI-Enhanced Education - Allison Elliott, Columbia EngineeringWhile Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, the entry of ChatGPT in 2022 marked the beginning of a new era in AI. Institutions of higher education were particularly impacted by the explosion in AI use and are now navigating how to incorporate these technologies in a way that can improve educational models and […]
- 99% of People Are Using ChatGPT Wrong (Do This Instead) - There's An AI For ThatThis podcast explains how to use ChatGPT more effectively through various prompt engineering techniques. It highlights the importance of crafting precise instructions for optimal output. Key techniques discussed include: Role Prompting: Assigning ChatGPT a specific persona (e.g., career coach, finance professor) to influence the style and quality of its responses [00:43].Chain of Thought Prompting: Guiding ChatGPT […]
- AI literacy: What it is, what it isn’t, who needs it and why it’s hard to define - Daniel Schiff, et al; the ConversationThe implications of AI literacy, or lack thereof, are far-reaching. They extend beyond national ambitions to remain “a global leader in this technological revolution” or even prepare an “AI-skilled workforce,” as the executive order states. Without basic literacy, citizens and consumers are not well equipped to understand the algorithmic platforms and decisions that affect so […]
- Faculty Latest Targets of Big Tech’s AI-ification of Higher Ed - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher EdA new partnership between OpenAI and Instructure will embed generative AI in Canvas. It may make grading easier, but faculty are skeptical it will enhance teaching and learning. Last week, Instructure, which owns the widely used learning management system Canvas, announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate into the platform native AI tools and agents, […]
- OpenAI Just Changed Studying Forever - There's an aI for That (TAAFT)There's An AI For ThatThis video introduces ChatGPT's new "Study Mode," a feature designed to revolutionize learning by offering interactive tutoring. It utilizes a Socratic method, asking questions to guide users through topics and adapting explanations based on their knowledge. Users can upload various materials like worksheets or lecture slides for step-by-step breakdowns, and the […]
- GPT-5 is here: Expert intelligence for everyone - OpenAIOur smartest, fastest, and most useful model yet, with thinking built in. Available to everyone. Expert intelligence for everyone. GPT‑5 is smarter across the board, providing more useful responses across math, science, finance, law, and more. It's like having a team of experts on call for whatever you want to know. The best response, every […]
- 1 in 2 graduates say their college major didn’t prepare them for today’s market - Carolyn Crist, Higher Ed DiveRespondents report feeling unprepared in numerous ways, especially in finding a job after graduation and navigating student debt and personal finances. Beyond that, 1 in 6 Americans who went to college said they regret it. When thinking about their college experience, college graduates said their top regrets included taking out student loans, not networking more […]
- Marketing and enrollment surge to gain AI’s competitive edge - Alcino Donadel, University BusinessAs AI tools prove more effective in the workplace, higher education marketing and enrollment management offices face mounting pressure to adopt new technologies, or risk falling behind. That’s according to the latest annual survey from Education Dynamics and the Online and Professional Education Association, two organizations that support adult and online learners. Respondents specialized in […]
- 150K fewer international students this fall? That’s what one analysis predicts. - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed DiveA sharp drop in foreign enrollment could cost colleges $7 billion in revenue and 60,000 jobs, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. International enrollment at U.S. colleges could drop by as much as 150,000 students this fall unless the federal government ramps up its issuing of visas this summer, according to recent projections from […]
- What to make of the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan - Sorelle Friedler, BrookingsLast week, the Trump administration revealed its AI Action Plan. President Donald Trump first directed high-level officials to develop the plan in one of his early executive orders on January 23, 2025, seeking to create a roadmap to “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national […]
- "AlphaGo Moment" For Self Improving AI... can this be real? - Wes Roth, YouTube]This podcast discusses a new research paper from China titled "AlphaGo Moment for model architecture discovery" [00:05]. The paper introduces ASIArch, an AI system that autonomously innovates its own architecture, claiming that humans are the bottleneck in AI research [01:12, 01:21]. ASIArch reportedly conducted almost 2,000 autonomous experiments, discovering 106 innovative linear attention architectures, and […]
- AI in the University: From Generative Assistant to Autonomous Agent This Fall - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher EducationWe have become accustomed to generative artificial intelligence in the past couple of years. That will not go away, but increasingly, it will serve in support of agents. “Where generative AI creates, agentic AI acts.” That’s how my trusted assistant, Gemini 2.5 Pro deep research, describes the difference. By the way, I commonly use Gemini […]
- OpenAI launches Study Mode in ChatGPT - Maxwell Zeff, TechCrunchOpenAI announced Tuesday the launch of Study Mode, a new feature within ChatGPT that aims to help students develop their own critical thinking skills, rather than simply obtain answers to questions. With Study Mode enabled, ChatGPT will ask users questions to test their understanding and, in some cases, refuse to offer direct answers unless students […]
- Researchers create ‘virtual scientists’ to solve complex biological problems - Hanae Armitage, StanfordStanford Medicine researchers created a team of virtual scientists backed by artificial intelligence to help solve problems in their real-world lab. There may be a new artificial intelligence-driven tool to turbocharge scientific discovery: virtual labs. Modeled after a well-established Stanford School of Medicine research group, the virtual lab is complete with an AI principal investigator […]
- The need to reinvent universities for the learning society - Patrick Blessinger, University World NewsThe traditional boundaries between and among post-secondary institutions are transforming. The university is no longer the exclusive owner of knowledge. The disciplinary silos continue to erode as interdisciplinary learning continues to grow. Learning is no longer a one-time activity; now it’s a continuous practice. The need for accessible, applicable, skills-based learning paths is reshaping the […]
- Six Tactics to Get Better Results From AI - Ethan Mollick, et al; Knowledge at WhartonAchieving valuable results from AI is as much about the quality of your prompts as the capabilities of the tool. You can be a more effective “human in the loop” by refining your ability to formulate clear, specific, and context-rich queries, and obtain more useful solutions and actionable insights as a result. Here are six […]
Other Curated News:
News from UPCEA:
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