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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- Groundbreaking BBC research shows issues with over half the answers from Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistantsNew BBC research published today provides a warning around the use of AI assistants to answer questions about news, with factual errors and the misrepresentation of source material affecting AI assistants.The findings are concerning, and show:51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form19% of […]
- A new operating model for people management: More personal, more tech, more human - McKinseyThe way organizations manage their most important assets—their people—is ready for a fundamental transformation. New technologies, hybrid working practices, multigenerational workforces, heightened geopolitical risks, and other major disruptions are prompting leaders to rethink their methods for attracting, developing, and retaining employees. In the past year alone, for instance, we have seen more and more companies […]
- Colleges rebrand humanities majors as job-friendly - Jon Marcus, Hechinger ReportThe number of undergraduates majoring in the humanities at the University of Arizona has increased 76 percent since 2018, when it introduced a bachelor’s degree in applied humanities that connects the humanities with programs in business, engineering, medicine and other fields. It also hired a humanities recruitment director and marketing team and started training faculty […]
- Thinking Out Loud With AI - Ray Schroeder Inside Higher EdI had the pleasure recently to participate in a lifelong learning session with a group of mostly current or retired educators at my nearby Lincoln Land Community College. The topic was AI in education. It became clear to me that many in our field are challenged to keep up with the rapidly emerging developments in […]
- Sam Altman says AI is progressing faster than Moore’s law as he predicts AGI is ‘coming into view’, and it's leaving me worried about the future - Graham Barlow, Tech RadarAltman’s point is that the falling cost of using AI is another indicator that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is “coming into view”. AGI is an artificial intelligence that is on a par with, or smarter than, human intelligence, and developing it is the whole reason that companies like OpenAI exist because the benefits of AGI […]
- An Insider's Guide to How Students Use GenAI - Miriam Wun & Nah Yong En, Times Higher EdLast year, we talked to students across a range of disciplines, on what they thought of using GenAI tools in their studies. Some of the ways they were using the tools, we discovered, were pretty useful. But some students felt that they were getting too reliant on technology. We asked them about how they crafted […]
- Driver vehicle crashes and mental health challenges among commuter college students - Louis A. Merlin, Journal of Transport and HealthWe examine the relationship between commuter college students’ mental health and their driver vehicle crashes. Poor mental health, depression, insomnia, and constrained activity are positively correlated with being in a crash while driving. Caring for an adult at home was also associated with being in a crash, while higher GPA was negatively associated. Colleges may […]
- ‘Self-inflicted wound’: Widespread alarm as Trump administration slashes NIH funding - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed DiveA coalition of 22 attorneys general filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday seeking to block the National Institutes of Health’s newly announced research funding cuts. NIH announced Friday it would cut roughly $4 billion a year worth of funding for indirect research costs such as administration and facilities — by capping reimbursement for […]
- Does OpenAI's Deep Research signal the end of human-only scholarship? - Andrew Maynard, The Future of Being HumanThis past Sunday, OpenAI launched Deep Research — an extension of its growing platform of AI tools, and one which the company claims is an “agent that can do work for you independently … at the level of a research analyst.” I got access to the new tool first thing yesterday morning, and immediately put […]
- ‘Shortsighted’ and ‘Dangerous’: Colleges Warn of Budget Cuts After NIH Slashes Medical Research Funding - Katherine Knott and Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher EdThe National Institutes of Health’s plan to cut funding for colleges’ “indirect costs” of conducting medical research, which includes hazardous waste disposal, utilities and patient safety, could cost institutions billions. Advocates and researchers also warned that the cuts would undermine key research life-saving medical advancements. “While this retrenchment may seem like a good deal for […]
- GPT-5 Will Be Smarter Than Me: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman - Office ChaiOpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that GPT-5 — the company’s upcoming large language model — will be smarter than he is. “How many people feel they are smarter than GPT 4? ” he asked the audience at an event, and several hands went up. “Okay, how many of you think you’re still going to […]
- Tennessee State University could run out of cash this spring without help - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed DiveTennessee State University is looking for help from state lawmakers as it tries both to stay afloat and to revamp its operations and finances for the long term. The public historically Black institution is on pace to run out of cash by April or May, Interim President Dwayne Tucker said Tuesday at a meeting hosted […]
- Interns Impacted by Hiring Freeze Left ‘In Limbo’ - Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher EdThe hiring freeze appears to have forced federal agencies to cancel numerous internships; most prominently, thousands of legal internships and entry-level positions within the Department of Justice and beyond have been impacted, according to reports on social media and in news outlet like Reuters and Law360. “We’ve most definitely seen impacts of the federal hiring […]
- Google Rolls Back AI Promises and DEI Measures as Staff Ask, ‘Are We the Bad Guys Now?’ - Kit Eaton, Inc.Google used to have an ethical promise baked into its AI guidelines that forbade the technology giant from using AI to build weapons, surveillance systems, or things that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm.” It was a comforting notion to Google’s staff and the general public, given the billions the company spends on […]
- OpenAI now reveals more of its o3-mini model’s thought process - Kyle Wiggers, Tech CrunchIn response to pressure from rivals including Chinese AI company DeepSeek, OpenAI is changing the way its newest AI model, o3-mini, communicates its step-by-step “thought” process. On Thursday, OpenAI announced that free and paid users of ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot platform, will see an updated “chain of thought” that shows more of the model’s […]
- Poll Finds Abolishing the Education Department ‘Wildly Unpopular’ - Sara Weissman, Inside Higher EdThe majority of likely voters oppose abolishing the U.S. Department of Education by executive order, according to a new poll conducted by the progressive think tank Data for Progress, on behalf of the Student Borrower Protection Center and Groundwork Collaborative, a left-wing advocacy group. The poll found 61 percent of all survey respondents “somewhat” or […]
- College Presidents’ Survey Finds Alarm Over Trump - Josh Moody, Inside Higher EdThe majority of college presidents surveyed by Inside Higher Ed believe the Trump administration will have a negative impact on the sector. Many are still optimistic. Even before President Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of executive orders involving higher education, college and university presidents expressed serious concerns about his possible impact on the sector and […]
- Amazon reportedly gears up to release next-gen Alexa - Kyle Wiggers, Tech CrunchPer a Reuters report, Amazon plans to preview an upgraded version of Alexa, the company’s smart home assistant that runs on a number of first- and third-party devices, at an event on February 26. The revamped Alexa is said to be able to respond to multiple commands in sequence, in contrast with the current iteration, […]
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns: AI will match ‘country of geniuses’ by 2026 - Michael Nuñez, Venture BeatAI will match the collective intelligence of “a country of geniuses” within two years, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned in a sharp critique of this week’s AI Action Summit in Paris. His timeline — targeting 2026 or 2027 — marks one of the most specific predictions yet from a major AI leader about the […]
- ChatGPT Search is now free for everyone, no OpenAI account required – is it time to ditch Google? - John-Anthony Disotto, Tech RadarChatGPT Search no longer requires an OpenAI account. You can access the AI search engine for free without logging in. ChatGPT Search lets you browse the web directly from within the world's most popular chatbot. ChatGPT Search is now available to everyone, regardless of whether you're signed into an OpenAI account or not. OpenAI announced […]
Other Curated News:
News from UPCEA:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 28, 2016 – A study released today by UPCEA (the University Professional and Continuing Education Association), Penn State and Pearson, at the UPCEA and the American Council on Education (ACE) Summit for Online Leadership in Washington, D.C., found widespread acceptance and…
I waited until I was 30 to go to college. Best decision ever. (The Washington Post)
Technically, being a nontraditional student isn’t all that nontraditional. The National Center for Education Statistics has delineated seven characteristics of nontraditional students, including delayed enrollment, full-time employment and supporting a dependent; NCES posits that 75 percent of all students have at least one of these…
ED Issues Proposed Rules on Borrower Defense to Repayment
The Department of Education has released proposed regulations on Borrower Defense to Repayment, a mechanism which would allow any student who believe they were defrauded at their school or the school violated state law, to file a claim with the Department of Education for discharging…
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