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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- Bankrupt Anna Maria College to sell nursing program for $1.1M - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed DiveAfter closing abruptly this year, the Catholic institution is trying to pay off millions of dollars in debt. Anna Maria College, in Massachusetts, plans to sell its nursing program for $1.1 million to nearby Assumption University next month, according to court documents filed Monday. Anna Maria closed this year following its spring term due to […]
- With New AI Requirements and Courses, Colleges Eye AI Fluency - Emma Whitford, Inside Higher EdTheir approaches may differ but their motivations are the same: Employers are, at breakneck speed, increasingly asking for graduates who know how to effectively use AI. It’s called AI fluency, said Ray Schroeder, a senior fellow at the online and professional education association UPCEA, and it “can be a decisive factor between getting a job […]
- Organizational AI Adoption Jumps Six Points - Andy Kemp, GallupReported organizational adoption of AI grew sharply in Q2 2026. Forty-seven percent of U.S. employees now say their organization has integrated AI tools to improve productivity, efficiency or quality, up from 41% in the last quarter. One in five employees remain unsure as to whether their organization has integrated AI tools, unchanged from prior quarters. […]
- Worker Anxiety Over AI Is Growing, and Employers Aren't Preparing Employees for What's Next, New Survey Finds - JFF.orgIn a marked shift from a year ago, workers are now more likely to say AI is a net-negative than a net-positive when it comes to finding jobs, building wealth, and securing their quality of life, according to a new national survey released today by national nonprofit Jobs for the Future (JFF). The survey, conducted […]
- Once globally preeminent, U.S. universities are sliding into decline - Jon Marcus, Hechinger ReportNow, as a new academic year begins, American dominance in higher education globally is incontrovertibly in decline, according to data, international rankings and independent experts. The slide has been accelerated by a year and a half of funding cuts, restrictions on international students and curbs on what can be said or taught. But it began […]
- Private Colleges Are Losing Their Safest Market Position. The Middle Is Where Demand Dies First - Soren Kaplan, Inc.Higher education’s squeeze shows why leaders with neither premium power nor low costs can be first to crack when demand turns against them badly. Private colleges now discount their sticker price by a record 57 percent for first-year students, and net tuition revenue is falling. On July 1, new federal caps on student loans took […]
- New self-paced AI training courses launch - Purdue UniversityTeaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) has launched a new set of Artificial Intelligence Training Courses to help Purdue instructors and staff use AI confidently and responsibly in their day-to-day work. The four self-paced courses cover AI policy and ethics, approved tools, and practical ways to apply AI to teaching, research, and administrative tasks. TLT built […]
- Why college students are paying way less for course materials now - Alcino Donadel, University BusinessCollege students are spending markedly less on textbooks and other course materials than they were two decades ago thanks to the continued expansion of digital learning. Students spent $388 on course materials for the entire 2025-26 academic year. That’s 26% less than five years ago and about 50% less than in 2007-08, when students paid […]
- College costs for families up 10% from last year, poll finds - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed DiveCollege costs for families averaged $34,019 during the 2025-26 academic year, up 10% from the previous year, according to an annual report from financial services company Sallie Mae. Families paid out of pocket for 49% of those costs — which include tuition, fees, housing and other expenses — drawing from student and parent income and […]
- More Than a Virtual Class: How BU Virtual Brings the Classroom to Students Around the World - Boston University VirtualFor a student logging into a live session in one of Boston University’s online graduate programs, the experience can look deceptively simple: a faculty member appears on screen, classmates join from around the world, and the class begins. What students don’t see is everything happening around that moment. Behind each live online class is a […]
- UC introduces AI Buddy Program for staff amid learning, privacy concerns - Andrew Ramiro Diaz, Daily BruinThe UC launched a new initiative in July that encourages staff to learn more about how to use artificial intelligence tools. The AI Buddy Program pairs UC Office of the President staff at differing levels of AI expertise to meet once or twice a week and learn from each other. The program sign-up form allows […]
- AI agents are sitting through students’ online courses, and colleges are struggling to stop them - Varun Mirchandani, Digital TrendsAI cheating has already gone from asking a chatbot to write an essay to using tools that can make that AI-written work look human. We’ve previously talked about AI tools designed to help students cheat and the growing problem of AI detectors struggling to keep up, as well as how commonly students are already using […]
- Author Talks: The biggest misconceptions about leadership - McKinseyWhat if success depends less on talent than on luck, resilience, and your choices when things go wrong? Former Inflection CEO Mike Grossman challenges conventional wisdom about success and leadership. In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey’s Artemis Vallianatos speaks with Mike Grossman, six-time Silicon Valley CEO and McKinsey alumnus, about Failure Is An Option: […]
- Lifelong learning remains central to Mayo Clinic’s mission amid rapid healthcare change - Matthew Brenden, Mayo ClinicHealthcare is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Advances in artificial intelligence, precision medicine, digital health and quality improvement are transforming how care is delivered, while new knowledge and evolving professional standards require clinicians to continually adapt. For healthcare organizations, keeping pace is about more than meeting licensure or certification requirements. It requires a workforce prepared to respond to emerging […]
- One New Thing: Virtual Reality Brings Collaborative Learning to Life - Melissa Morriss-Olson, US NewsPurdue University’s Envision Center has developed CollabXR, an extended reality platform that allows faculty and students to enter the same immersive virtual environment and interact with three-dimensional models together. During a spring 2025 pilot, instructors in disciplines ranging from nursing and aeronautics to the liberal arts used the platform to help students visualize and explore […]
- From Workshop to Anytime: Bringing Live Training Online - Office of Innovative Technologies (UK)Some of the most valuable learning opportunities on campus happen in workshops. Whether they happen in a conference room or over Zoom, they create energy, connection, and opportunities for real-time questions. Workshops support learning and engagement across campus throughout the year. What a single session can’t do is reach everyone who needs it or remain […]
- How to Leverage Tech to Serve Rural Communities - Catherine Han and Heather Marriott, NCOAThe MAC, Inc., Maryland Living Well Center of Excellence (LWCE) is using technology to break down barriers for older adults in Smith Island and across Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties. All are regions marked by transportation limitations, health access challenges, and geographic isolation. Yet LWCE has become a beacon of innovation in aging services. […]
- LSU Launches Free AI Literacy Essentials Course - LSUToday, LSU launched AI Literacy Essentials, a free online course that provides a general introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) and how to use it effectively, professionally, and ethically. The course is offered through LSU Online’s professional development program and is available now to LSU students, faculty, and staff, and will open to the general public […]
- Would You Trust AI for Ethical Advice? - Christian Terwiesch, Gideon Nave, Lennart Meincke; Knowledge at WhartonNo disrespect to philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, but Wharton professor Christian Terwiesch no longer reads his wildly popular advice column, “The Ethicist.” Terwiesch used to love the long-running column in The New York Times until 2023, when he and two Wharton colleagues conducted an experiment to see whether people could tell the difference between Appiah’s […]
- A look at trends in college consolidation since 2016 - Higher Ed Dive TeamWe’re tracking major closings, mergers, acquisitions and other consolidation among public and private nonprofit institutions from 2016 to the present. The last few years have been tumultuous for many U.S. colleges. Pressure to lower tuition, stagnating state funding and a shrinking pool of high school graduates has strained many institutions’ bottom lines and questioned their […]
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Insight from a Dean: Never Stop Learning
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The Rise of Do-It-Yourself Education
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