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.
Sign up for daily updates
- Navigating Higher Ed’s Digital Shift as a Technophobe - Robert Ubell, EvolllutionPsychologists say that some of us are drawn to behavior we fear because the experience creates an exhilarating rush in a safe, controlled environment, allowing us to feel the excitement in a fight-or-flight response without actually being in danger, leading to feelings of euphoria, heightened alertness and a sense of mastery. Or I may be trapped in […]
- AI Agents in Higher Education: Transforming Student Services and Support - Tom Mangan, EdTechSimilarly, researchers have noted a host of ways that agentic AI tools can potentially drive improvements in higher education. Agents will be able to gather data from multiple sources to assess a student’s progress across multiple courses. If the student starts falling behind, processes could kick in to help them catch up. Agents can relieve […]
- Evaluating Recent Advances in Affective Intelligent Tutoring Systems: A Scoping Review of Educational Impacts and Future Prospects - Jorge Fernández-Herrero, Journal of Education Sciences, MDPIAffective intelligent tutoring systems (ATSs) are gaining recognition for their role in personalized learning through adaptive automated education based on students’ affective states. This scoping review evaluates recent advancements and the educational impact of ATSs, following PRISMA guidelines for article selection and analysis. A structured search of the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases […]
- Here are 4 ways AI will impact higher ed in the new year - Alcino Donadel, University Business1. Emotionally intelligent AIInstitutions will use technology to drive deeper human connection amid the rapid rise of AI assistants, chatbots and algorithmically tailored content, Researchers from MIT, the University of Pittsburgh and other institutions found that AI use in the classroom lowered brain activity and led to student anxiety and confusion. Teachers also feared losing […]
- The Limits of Artificial Intelligence in Professional Military Education - Matthew Woessner, Real Clear DefenseThe purpose of this paper is not to prescribe how to incorporate AI into specific courses, but rather to highlight potential student vulnerabilities and offer suggestions for how they can be managed within a broad curricular framework across PME. Even as AI is incorporated into PME, faculty must ensure that the technology does not supplant […]
- Artificial Intelligence in Education Market Growing at a CAGR of 37.68% During 2025 - 2035 - IT, New Media & Software, Market Reasearch Future (MRFR)AI technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, are no longer futuristic concept they are becoming integral to classrooms, online platforms, and administrative systems worldwide. The integration of AI in education enhances personalization, efficiency, and accessibility, creating opportunities for a more inclusive and effective learning experience. The Artificial Intelligence in Education market […]
- After being falsely branded an AI plagiarist, how can I accuse students? - David Mingay, Times Higher EdThe executive editor emailed back to say that the article aligned with the scope of the journal but that some formatting amendments were required. Also, it lacked a statement on whether AI had been used in its production. I duly made the amendments and included the factually correct line: “No generative AI or AI-supported technologies […]
- Using Machine Learning to Understand College Closures - Abby Sourwine, GovTechAs financial pressures mount across higher education, researchers are turning to machine learning to better predict which colleges are at risk of closing. In recent work, higher education researchers collaborated with the Federal Reserve to develop a predictive model that combines hundreds of institutional characteristics to estimate the likelihood a college might close. The model […]
- The ChatGPT Generation: How AI Is quietly rewriting the global student search experience - Tim O'Brien, ICEF MonitorIn September 2025, we conducted a cross-institution survey of over 1,600 newly enrolled international students in the US and UK. Our goal was simple: to understand how students are using AI in the crucial, early part of their journey – identifying and applying to university – long before they ever step into a lecture hall. […]
- Enhancing creative writing through AI-powered co-creation with cognitive and emotional outcomes - Xinqiao Cen & Goodarz Shakibaei, NatureQualitative insights revealed that students in the High-AI Support Group demonstrated increased engagement and creativity, attributed to tailored AI feedback that alleviated cognitive load by addressing technical aspects like grammatical accuracy. In contrast, members of the Low-AI Support Group appreciated the collaborative interaction between AI and instructor feedback, which enhanced their confidence, independence, and skills […]
- Opinion: From Lecture Halls to Virtual Classes, AI Is Rewriting the Rules - Oleg Vilchinski, GovTechModernizing education with artificial intelligence is less about buying this or that new tool than about new processes, new applications for data analytics, and reorganizing instructional priorities around new norms. For generations, education has revolved around classrooms, textbooks and static curricula. But today’s learners are rewriting the rules. By August 2024, over 86 percent of […]
- Artificial intelligence is here ... and it is already rewriting the rules of education - Susan Galavan, Irish Times‘As educators, our job is not to shield students from AI, but to prepare them for the reality of the working world’ - Artificial intelligence is everywhere. When I open Microsoft Word to draft this piece, a Copilot icon pops up, asking if I want help. One click, one prompt, and a passable first draft […]
- Campus Forecast 2026: How Agentic AI Could Transform University Operations - Times of IndiaArtificial intelligence (AI) has long served universities as a helpful junior colleague—fast, eager, and dependent on detailed instructions. But according to the UPCEA report, Predictions 2026: Insights for Online & Professional Education, this era is coming to an end. The next phase, agentic AI, is framed not as smarter assistance but as autonomous execution, a […]
- A closer look at workforce development initiatives that prepare and inspire the next-gen workforce - Karen Haywood Queen, Advanced ManufacturingThe skills gap is across multiple generations of workers, observes Dora Smith, senior director, global academic and startup strategy, at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “The accelerated pace of technological change means the traditional knowledge and skills taught even a few years ago are outdated,” Smith says. “We’re seeing a widening digital-skills gap that needs immediate […]
- When AI-Powered Humanoid Robots Make Bad Choices - Shaun Shutner, AI BusinessWhen large language models hallucinate, they deliver incorrect statistics or problematic advice. But when LLMs are controlling humanoid robots, the problems they create could be worse. What kind of real-world scenarios did you consider most to uncover whether robots could do violent, aggressive acts? Did you prompt robots to use a gun and hold up […]
- What’s in NIH’s settlement over delayed research funding? - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed DiveThe National Institutes of Health reached a settlement last week with 16 states over delayed reviews of research grant applications representing potentially billions of dollars for university and other institutions’ projects. The Dec. 29 settlement follows nine months of litigation between state attorneys general and the Trump administration after NIH withheld final decisions on hundreds […]
- Google Gemini Is Taking Control of Humanoid Robots on Auto Factory Floors - Will Knight, WiredGoogle DeepMind is teaming up with Boston Dynamics to give its humanoid robots the intelligence required to navigate unfamiliar environments and identify and manipulate objects—precisely the kinds of capabilities needed to perform manual labor. The collaboration, announced at CES in Las Vegas, will see Google’s Gemini Robotics model deployed on various Boston Dynamics’ robots, including […]
- True agentic AI is years away - here's why and how we get there - Tiernan Ray, ZDnetToday's AI agents don't meet the definition of true agents. Key missing elements are reinforcement learning and complex memory. It will take at least five years to get AI agents where they need to be. While they may bring benefits, these agents are not the agents we really want. They are simple automations and don't […]
- How lifetime pathways will build the university of the future - Alcino Donadel, University BusinessTwo years into his tenure at Fairleigh Dickinson University, President Michael Avaltroni is building a statewide network that spans a learner’s journey from K12 to higher ed to the workplace. Avaltroni is building a coalition of New Jersey higher education institutions and organizations to better integrate human and machine learning in healthcare. Fairleigh Dickinson University […]
- IsotopeAI Helps Users Solve Physics, Chemistry and Math Challenges - Ellen Smith, Trend HunterIsotopeAI is an AI-powered educational platform designed to assist students with Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics (PCM) concepts. This is a platform that allows its users to input questions or problems and receive instant AI-generated explanations, solutions, and guidance, making it perfect for school. By providing step-by-step answers, IsotopeAI helps learners understand complex topics, clarify doubts, […]
Other Curated News:
News from UPCEA:
Secretary DeVos Issues Statement on Regulatory Reform Task Force Progress Report
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION — U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today released the following statement on the Department’s Regulatory Reform Task Force’s first progress report as required by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13777: “The Regulatory Reform Task Force has been hard at work…
Department of Education Provides Year Round Pell and Increased Flexibility for Students
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION – WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Year Round Pell grants will be available to students beginning July 1, 2017. This policy change will ensure hundreds of thousands of college students have the resources needed to finish their coursework in…
Increasing Millennial Interest in Alternative Credentials
As Millennials continue taking over the workforce as the nation’s largest generation, it is important to take note of upcoming trends for this cohort of people — specifically with regards to the educational routes they each take. While it is clear that college enrollment rates…
The Nation's Top Universities Choose UPCEA Consulting
Informed decisions. Ideas that work. The data you need. Trusted by the top universities in the nation.
