Putting AI into Action for Higher Education
UPCEA is the hands-on partner for leaders who need to translate AI from idea to implementation. We bring together practitioners, publish applied research on artificial intelligence in higher education, and deliver cohort-based learning so members can move from piloting AI tools to measurable results through strategic implementation. While postsecondary leaders gravitate to frameworks, innovators operationalize and pilot new initiatives, like AI.
This hub centralizes our primers, research briefs, training, and member spotlights on AI resources, with an emphasis on marketing and enrollment, learner support, credential innovation, and workforce alignment.
AI Primers & Insights
Short, actionable overviews to get your team aligned—plus starter resources from UPCEA.
Each topic includes a few UPCEA resources so your team can operationalize AI in your online and professional education departments. These AI resources for UPCEA members will grow over time as we add new guides, cases, and tools.
Implementing AI in our work - Enrollment, Student Success, Teaching
AI-Enabled Enrollment & Marketing
AI is rewriting discovery and conversion. Recent UPCEA research shows half of prospective students use AI-powered search weekly, so showing up in AI overviews (and the SEO that feeds them) determines visibility.
Student Success, Advising & Retention
AI is moving from content creation to tutoring and agentic systems, enabling responsive support and mastery-based progress—key for learner success.
Teaching & Learning Design
Generative and embodied AI are reshaping course design, assessment, and feedback loops across online and hybrid modalities.
Leading AI - Governance, Credentials, Institutional Strategy
Governance, Ethics & Operational Readiness
Responsible AI demands policy alignment, cross-functional coordination, and cultural readiness across marketing, enrollment, IT, data privacy, and academic units.
Credential Innovation, Program Design & Workforce Alignment
AI is accelerating employer demand, microcredentials, and stackable pathways—and reshaping learning mobility.
Institutional Strategy & Future-Proofing
AI influences revenue models, online enterprise strategy, and institutional resilience; leaders need a forward-looking view.
- UPCEA Senior Fellow Ray Schroeder's EduAI Advisor GPT
- New book: AI Applications in Online Higher Administration: Strategies for Maximizing Returns and Improving Outcomes
- Focus on the Future
What's Next + Engage More
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Insights on AI and the future of higher education from UPCEA Senior Fellow, Ray Schroeder.
A Fresh Look at Blockchain in Higher Ed
Blockchain is advancing in higher education, as it is in all of society, with some interesting new applications and ramifications. Blockchain is the technology that first gained recognition as the backbone for Bitcoin. It is best described as a distributed ledger system. Each entry is a block that is time-stamped, encrypted and replicated at all…
Quantum Computing Is Poised to Change Everything
I recall the advent of the ILLIAC computer, ARPANET (that grew into the internet), the personal computer, the mobile phone, the smartphone, and other advancements in technology that have had such a huge impact on our society. Yet these are mere drops in the ocean compared to the impact we will see from the advent…
The Impact of “At-Scale” and Mega-U Degrees
The landscape of online higher education is changing with the growth of mega-universities and the advent of scores of MOOC-sized at-scale degree programs from prestigious universities. Mid and small sized regional universities are seeing the some of the largest declines in enrollments. In assessing the cause of this disproportionate decline I believe, not enough consideration is…
Curated Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education News Posts
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- Assessing students when artificial intelligence is ubiquitous - Michelle Seref, Times Higher EducationIf we continue to prioritise memorisation in an age of wall-to-wall information, we send the wrong message to our students and employers. Michelle Seref offers advice on assessment that builds critical thinking skills. For much of higher education’s modern history, assessment has followed a familiar formula: a midterm and a final exam, with a heavy […]
- AI and the Employment Outlook for College Grads - Jim A. Jorstad, GovTechIt’s that time of the year when graduation ceremonies take place at colleges and universities throughout the country. Students will fill auditoriums, gymnasiums and stadiums, each with their own dreams and hopes of landing that ideal job they’ve been working toward. Some will have taken certification courses, served as researchers or graduate assistants, or participated […]
- From Restriction to Integration: Practical Strategies for Embracing AI in Online Courses - Taoufik Ennoure, Faculty FocusInstead of prohibiting the use of AI, it is more effective to assign tasks that require students to use AI tools and then have them critically assess the outputs. In asynchronous online courses with less frequent instructor interaction, I have adopted a new approach to enhance engagement in weekly discussions. I ask students to use […]
- The Case for Data Centers in Space- McKinseyStarcloud CEO Philip Johnston on the potential role orbital data centers could play in meeting growing AI compute demand—and the technical and economic uncertainties that remain. Philip Johnston, a McKinsey alumnus and cofounder of orbital compute infrastructure provider Starcloud, believes that space-based systems could become a meaningful part of the future compute landscape. He recently […]
- Layoffs down from early '25 — except in this one field - Emma W. Thorne, Editor at LinkedIn NewsLayoffs fell 50% from the first third of 2025 to the first third of 2026 — with one glaring exception. Tech was hit the hardest, laying off more than 85,000 workers in the first four months of the year, according to a new report out Thursday from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's a 33% jump […]