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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- How instructional design shapes higher-order thinking among higher education students in generative artificial intelligence-supported teaching contexts - Yujia Chen & Jinling Wang, NatureAgainst the backdrop of the widespread integration of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) into higher education, previous research has yielded divergent findings regarding its relationship with students’ higher-order thinking (HOT). Moving beyond outcome-oriented discussions of technology use itself, this study examines the association between HOT performance, instructional design elements, and cognitive processes in GAI-supported teaching contexts […]
- How AI Actually works - Cris Tolomia, QuartzThis piece is not about whether AI is good or bad. It's about what it actually is: how it learns, how it generates output, where its failures come from, and why the problems that afflict these systems are structural rather than incidental. Understanding these things won't make you a machine learning engineer. It will make […]
- Building expertise in the age of AI: Who trains the next generation? - Bryan Hancock, McKinseyFor decades, organizations have relied on early-career talent to do the routine, lower-risk work that supports the business and to serve as a training ground for future leaders. Think of Peggy Olson’s trajectory on Mad Men, from novice assistant to Don Draper’s protégé to confident copy chief at an advertising agency—a climb that began because […]
- How to make your academic work visible to AI - Darshan Vigneswaran, Times Higher EducationHere is the brutal truth about AI discoverability: it is not replacing citation metrics. It is layering itself on top of them. So, work that is already cited, circulated and sitting inside recognisable debates is likely to become even more visible. The rich get richer, now with a chatbot assistant. If Google Scholar sometimes buries […]
- Lifelong learning in an AI-driven world: assistance, personalization and automation under scrutiny - Gerardo Alfredo Rodríguez, Andres Chiappe, Fabiola Sáez-Delgado, Frontiers in EducationThis scoping review examines the growing intersection between lifelong learning (LLL) and artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on whether the promises of assistance, personalization, and automation are aligned with the broader educational, social, and equity-oriented aims of LLL. The review addresses a central concern: although AI is increasingly promoted as a transformative resource for lifelong education, […]
- Improving GPT‑5.6 Sol in ChatGPT—and expanding access to GPT‑5.6 Luna for free users - OpenAIOur mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. We’re introducing updates to ChatGPT that improve everyday conversations while expanding access for Free users. For Plus and Pro users, we’re updating GPT‑5.6 Sol in Chat to be more reliable with facts and provide more focused answers. A new slider lets you […]
- Top 10 Online Course Apps and Websites for Learning New Skill - SekolapediaThe global education landscape has undergone a permanent shift. Up-skilling, continuous learning, and professional certifications are no longer optional extras—they are essential requirements for navigating an increasingly automated and competitive workforce. Online learning platforms have democratized education, allowing anyone with an internet connection to learn from top university professors, industry practitioners, and subject-matter experts.https://daftarsekolah.spmb.teknokrat.ac.id/2026/08/top-10-online-course-apps-and-websites-for-learning-new-skills/
- Self-directed learning ability and online student engagement among nursing students: the mediating role of information literacy and the moderating role of self-control - Haihong Zhang, et al; NIH National Library of MedicineSelf-directed learning ability had a significant positive direct effect on online student engagement (β = 0.511, t = 17.586, p < 0.001). Information literacy mediated the relationship between self-directed learning ability and online student engagement, with an indirect effect of 0.346, accounting for 67.7% of the total effect. Self-control negatively moderated the direct effect of […]
- AI won’t kill the college degree, but it will change what it’s for - Colin Gabler, Atlanta Journal ConstitutionIn the AI era, the value of college will not be measured by the output students generate, but whether they can form and defend the judgments they make behind it. That shift to artificial intelligence is already changing what counts as evidence of real learning in higher education, how we justify the valuable time and […]
- AI Detectors Are Out, New Assessments Are In - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed“It’s a difficult, delicate moment right now. And I’m not sure we have all the answers,” Kevin Yee, director of the Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning at the University of Central Florida, told Inside Higher Ed. “If faculty had an AI detector that was reliable, that’s what they would use. But many are reluctantly […]
- OpenAI wants teachers and profs to foist their work off on ChatGPT - The RegisterThe House of Altman announced a trio of new education-focused offerings on Tuesday: one for K-12 teachers, another for college educators, and a third for college students. The new plugins, the company explained, will help students and educators make more use of ChatGPT’s agentic capabilities for both studying and teaching. The new features are available […]
- Education Department Approves First Workforce Pell Program - Sara Weissman, Inside Higher EdStudents in an EMT program at Iowa Central Community College will be the first to take advantage of Workforce Pell. The U.S. Department of Education approved its first Workforce Pell program, for training emergency medical technicians at Iowa Central Community College, according to a Tuesday announcement. Students can now access Pell Grants, federal financial aid […]
- Public Colleges Anchor State Workforce Pipelines - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher EdThe type of college a person graduates from is one of the strongest predictors of whether they’ll remain in the state to work after graduation, new data shows. According to a report the Strada Institute for the Future of Work published Thursday, 62 percent of workers between the ages of 20 and 65 who graduated […]
- Fitch: New visa limits could hurt international enrollment and revenue - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed DiveThe Trump administration’s new rule capping international student visa stays at four years could hurt revenue and decrease enrollment at colleges, particularly those that heavily rely on foreign students, according to a Tuesday analysis from Fitch Ratings. Financial pressure will be greatest on institutions with weaker student demand, limited financial flexibility, and a high reliance […]
- Differential engagement with generative artificial intelligence in higher education: Gender, motivation, and achievement trajectories - uan-Hsuan Lee & Jiun-Yu Wu, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher EducationEngagement frequency was shaped by learner differences: female students, those with stronger autonomous motivation, lower prior knowledge, and higher course performance interacted more frequently, while higher-performing students were less likely to abstain from use. Importantly, engagement was not merely a matter of frequency but of inquiry quality and diversity. Growing Achievers (students who began with […]
- Why reinvention is the new responsibility of public higher education - Anthony Graham, Pine Bluss CommercialLeadership scholars have long observed that every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it produces. This simple observation carries profound implications for higher education. If our universities are producing outcomes that no longer meet the needs of today’s students, employers, and communities, the answer cannot be to simply work harder within the same […]
- A $40,000-Per-Year AI School With No Teachers Is Opening in Oklahoma - Maya Henry, Good Men ProjectAn AI-powered, billionaire-backed chain of private schools promises to educate students with two hours of virtual learning a day and entrepreneurship workshops. There are no teachers, and tuition is nearly double the most expensive private school in the state. This is Alpha School and, come August, it’s touching down in Oklahoma. Here’s how it works, […]
- AI use mirrors student schedules in study of 77,000 online learners - André Adler, Phys.orgThis makes it the world's largest empirical analysis to date of the actual use of a dedicated AI learning assistant in a higher education context. Syntea is currently available to more than 80,000 online students at IU International University of Applied Sciences, as well as around 5,000 learners at IU Academy. Among other findings, the analysis […]
- Montana Tech Names First Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer in Montana University System - Amanda Badovinac, Montana TechRecognizing the transformative impact of emerging technologies on higher education and industry, Montana Technological University has appointed Professor Chad Okrusch, Ph.D. to serve as the university’s first chief artificial intelligence officer. The position is the first of its kind in the Montana University System (MUS). As chief artificial intelligence officer, Okrusch will lead Montana Tech’s […]
- Public health courses provide opportunities for international collaboration and learning - Mellissa Withers, Keck School of Medicine, USCBoth of these courses are delivered online to facilitate international collaboration and participation across partner institutions, and are open to USC students in any modality or concentration. Students from outside of the MPH program are also welcome to enroll.https://keck.usc.edu/news/public-health-courses-provide-opportunities-for-international-collaboration-and-learning/
Other Curated News:
News from UPCEA:
Higher ed groups ask for flexibility with online learning rules (EducationDIVE)
Dive Brief: As regulators and industry representatives hash out a potential future for higher education accreditation, particularly rules governing online learning, three industry groups have put forward their own policy recommendations. Covering topics such as competency-based education (CBE), regular and substantive interaction and state authorization,…
Briefs Authored by UPCEA, OLC, and WCET Cover Competency-Based Education, Financial Aid, Regular and Substantive Interaction, and State Authorization WASHINGTON, DC – February 27, 2019 – Today, three organizations in higher education—UPCEA, OLC and WCET—have issued a set of policy briefs relating to necessary changes…
Don’t Tell My Mother…I Read a Fiction Book
My parents immigrated from China in the 1950s and 60s. They strongly encouraged my brothers and I to study engineering, computers, medicine or mathematics. Nothing else mattered. I chose math and my brothers chose computer science and electrical engineering. I went on to earn a…
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