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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- UntitledWharton Online Launches Innovation Strategy and Design Thinking Certificate - University of PennsylvaniaWharton Online today announced the launch of its new Innovation Strategy and Design Thinking Certificate, a fully online, self-paced credential designed to help professionals master innovation from idea generation through execution. Developed and led by Wharton professors Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich, global […]
- The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation - McKinseyAlmost all survey respondents say their organizations are using AI, and many have begun to use AI agents. Most organizations are still in the experimentation or piloting phase: Nearly two-thirds of respondents say their organizations have not yet begun scaling AI across the enterprise. High curiosity in AI agents: Sixty-two percent of survey respondents say […]
- EDUCAUSE ’25: How AI Policies Affect Student Mental Health - Abby Sourwine, GovTechPunitive, fear-driven approaches to rule-making about artificial intelligence in higher education can deepen mistrust, stress and disconnection among students. Alternatively, there are opportunities for teachable moments. As some institutions and instructors respond to the boom of artificial intelligence with bans and automated detection tools, students are worried about being falsely accused of using AI. At […]
- Google seeks partnerships lead to drive AI in higher education - Edtech Innovation HubRole aims to advance adoption. Google is recruiting a senior partnerships manager to help shape its artificial intelligence work across higher education, according to a recent LinkedIn post by Alisa Sommer O’Hara, who leads Global EdTech Business Partnerships and Developer Relations at the company. The new Strategic Partner Development Principal Lead will focus on building […]
- Penn State Smeal launches comprehensive artificial intelligence initiative - Smeal College of BusinessThe Penn State Smeal College of Business has announced a comprehensive, college-wide artificial intelligence (AI) initiative. Smeal is integrating AI across its teaching, research and operations — ensuring students, faculty and staff are equipped to lead responsibly in an AI-driven economy. “AI isn’t a future possibility — it’s here, now,” said Corey Phelps, John and […]
- The rise of micro-credentials in continuing education - BC BusinessLearn or be left behind. This is the imperative that’s driving many mid-career (and, increasingly, earlycareer) professionals to gain a competitive advantage in today’s tough employment market through upskilling. “Today, artificial intelligence is not a futuristic concept but a mainstream reality reshaping industries and professions,” says Jo-Anne Clarke, dean of Division of Continuing Studies at […]
- Scaling the 21st-century leadership factory - Bob Sternfels, Daniel Pacthod, and David H. Berger; McKinseyIn the wake of extreme uncertainty, CEOs should take a step back and reflect on the leadership traits and capabilities that will define their own and others’ success in the future and embed these traits and capabilities into their organizations. Our previous research on the art of 21st-century leadership, as well as our more recent […]
- Kelsey Robinson: Reshaping the Marketing Landscape - McKinley QuarterlyAcross C-suites, there is growing interest in working hand in hand on everything from ROI and performance measurement to making space for bold ideas that drive growth. There is a lot of interest in the duality of rigor and inspiration. Another topic that’s dominating marketing conversations is agentic AI, autonomous AI systems that work independently […]
- UPenn Expands Educator AI Training Program With Google - Government TechnologyA $1 million grant from Google will help scale a one-district pilot program on teaching with artificial intelligence, offered through the University of Pennsylvania, up to five districts and regions. A University of Pennsylvania program training K-12 teachers and administrators on artificial intelligence best practices is scaling up, thanks to a $1 million investment from […]
- Use GenAI to slow down and reflect more deeply - Sam Illingworth, Times Higher EducationGenAI is often presented to academics as a tool for acceleration. Marking can be automated, lecture slides summarised in seconds and drafts polished at speed. The message is clear: do the same work, only faster. Yet, this framing risks reinforcing an already unsustainable level of efficiency. What if, instead of speeding up, GenAI could help […]
- Opinion: Higher education needs to catch up with AI, not run from it - Teresa Butzerin, Willamette CollegianGiven that AI will only become more prevalent in our lives, universities should be taking more formal steps to make sure graduating students are literate in the practical uses of AI and leave college with a well-rounded understanding of the ethical issues surrounding it. While the threat AI poses to academic integrity has caused it […]
- Teaching with AI: From Prohibition to Partnership for Critical Thinking - Michael Kiener, Faculty FocusHowever, banning AI will not prevent students from using it, whether for nefarious or appropriate purposes. Instead, it may deny students a chance to practice and engage with AI in an educational setting where they and faculty can explore its full potential collaboratively. This kind of restrictive thinking is based on two flawed assumptions: that […]
- Transitioning to the Agentic University 2026–27 - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher EdMost of us in higher education are now familiar with generative AI bots, where you formulate a prompt and get a reply. Yet, we are now beginning the advancement to agentic AI, the autonomous 24-7 project manager. The dramatic enhancement in the capability of AI as it moves from bots to agents will bring about […]
- Agents for growth: Turning AI promise into impact - Kelly, Lisa Harkness, and Steve Reis - McKinseyAs CEOs and CMOs ask where AI is moving from hype to real results, frontrunners demonstrate that tighter human–AI collaboration and sharper governance is required. Value comes from end-to-end change. Broad productivity wins are table stakes. Impact comes from prioritizing the biggest growth problems and then solving them end to end in a domain. Reimagine […]
- Student Mental Health Challenges Persist - Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher EdStudents’ mental health and overall well-being continue to lag, finds Inside Higher Ed’s Student Voice survey, even as campuses expand support services. Just 27 percent of undergraduates describe their mental health as above average or excellent, according to new data from Inside Higher Ed’s main annual Student Voice survey of more than 5,000 undergraduates at […]
- Can creativity still exist in a world of Artificial Intelligence? - Bailee McLeod, AvondaleOur relationship with Artificial Intelligence (AI) is ever evolving. The continual advancement of the technology means our interactions with it can change, almost daily. What started as asking Siri to ‘call mum’ evolved to asking Google to ‘turn down the air conditioning’, to now asking Chat to make an itinerary of our three-week Euro vacation, […]
- Redefining Learning: How Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence are Transforming Education - digitalLEARNING NetworkWe are living through one of the most profound transformations in the history of education. The industrial model of learning is being replaced by a new paradigm that values experience, adaptability, and creativity. For decades, education has been structured around the transfer of information; now, we are moving toward the cultivation of intelligence itself — […]
- Explainable artificial intelligence for predictive modeling of student stress in higher education - Rasikh Tariq, et al; NatureStudent stress in higher education remains a pervasive problem, yet many institutions lack affordable, scalable, and interpretable tools for its detection and management. The objective of this research is to develop a cost-effective, survey-based stress classification model using multiple machine learning algorithms and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) to support transparent and actionable decision-making in educational […]
- Opinion: Ray Kurzweil’s Predictions — AI Today and Tomorrow - Jim A. Jorstad, GovTechTo prepare students for a world so saturated with technology, it has arguably never been more important to speculate on the possibilities of our future, and how we can prepare for it. In business, science and education, we are now continually searching for clues about the future of artificial intelligence. In October 2006, I had […]
- Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities - Rachele Dini, LA Review of BooksThe Guardian published “A Machine-Shaped Hand” on March 12, a day after Altman first shared it on X. A callout link at the top of the page directed readers to Jeanette Winterson’s response, “OpenAI’s Metafictional Short Story About Grief Is Beautiful and Moving”—a not-so-subtly titled piece that, while making an unconvincing case for the story’s […]
Other Curated News:
News from UPCEA:
New survey commissioned by StraighterLine and UPCEA delves into barriers to re-enrollment; opportunities for institutions seeking to re-engage adults with some college, but no degree WASHINGTON, (OCTOBER 31, 2023) — UPCEA , the online and professional education association, and StraighterLine today released the findings of…
Major Updates The Department of Education (ED) has released final rules on Ability to Benefit, Administrative Capability, Certification Procedures, and Financial Responsibility. These rules, part of negotiated rulemaking in early 2022, provide new requirements for programmatic accreditation, state licensure, and conforming with state laws when…
Aligning the Curriculum to Reality in AI-Accelerated Times
Curricula are reassessed as rarely as every five years. AI demands we do a deep review right now and repeat it often! Is your curriculum relevant today? Will it still be relevant at the end of the decade when many of today’s entering students complete…
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