Coursera’s Global Skills Report for 2023 — from coursera.org
Benchmark talent and transform your workforce with skill development and career readiness insights drawn from 124M+ learners.

Excerpt:

Uncover global skill trends
See how millions of registered learners in 100 countries are strengthening critical business, technology, and data science skills.

 

The Cambrian Explosion of AI Edtech Is Here — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Alex Sarlin, Sarah Morin, and Ben Kornell

Excerpt:

Our AI in Edtech Takeaways

After chronicling 160+ AI tools (which is surely only a small fraction of the total), we’re seeing a few clear patterns among the tools that have come out so far- here are 10 categories that are jumping out!

  • Virtual Teaching Assistants:
  • Virtual Tutors:
  • AI-Powered Study Tools:  
  • Educational Content Creation:
  • Educational Search:
  • Auto-generated Learning Paths: 
  • AI-Powered Research:
  • Speak to Characters:  
  • Grammar and Writing: 
  • AI Cheating Detection:

 


Ready or not, AI is here — from the chronicle.com’s The Edge, by Goldie Blumenstyk

Excerpt:

“I don’t usually get worked up about announcements but I see promise in JFF’s plans for a new Center for Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work, in no small part because the organization bridges higher ed, K-12 education, employers, and policymakers.”

Goldie Blumenstyk

Goldie’s article links to:

Jobs for the Future Launches New Center for Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work — from archive.jff.org
Center launches as JFF releases preliminary survey data which finds a majority of workers feel they need new skills and training to prepare for AI’s future impact.

Excerpt:

BOSTON June 14, 2023 —Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national nonprofit that drives transformation in the U.S. education and workforce systems, today announced the launch of its new Center for Artificial Intelligence &the Future of Work. This center will play an integral role in JFF’s mission and newly announced 10-year North Star goal to help 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement work in quality jobs. As AI’s explosive growth reshapes every aspect of how we learn, work, and live, this new center will serve as a nexus of collaboration among stakeholders from every part of the education-to-career ecosystem to explore the most promising opportunities—and profound challenges—of AI’s potential to advance an accessible and equitable future of learning and work.

 


OpenAI Considers ‘App Store’ For ChatGPT — from searchenginejournal.com by; with thanks to Barsee at AI Valley for this resource
OpenAI explores launching an ‘app store’ for AI models, potentially challenging current partners and expanding customer reach.

Highlights:

  • OpenAI considers launching an ‘app store’ for customized AI chatbots.
  • This move could create competition with current partners and extend OpenAI’s customer reach.
  • Early interest from companies like Aquant and Khan Academy shows potential, but product development and market positioning challenges remain.

The Rise of AI: New Rules for Super T Professionals and Next Steps for EdLeaders — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Key Points

  • The rise of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, boosts productivity in content creation–text, code, images and increasingly video.
  • Here are six preliminary conclusions about the nature of work and learning.

Wonder Tools: AI to try — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
9 playful little ways to explore AI

Excerpt:

  1. Create a personalized children’s story ? Schrodi
    Collaborate with AI on a free customized, illustrated story for someone special. Give your story’s hero a name, pick a genre (e.g. comedy, thriller), choose an illustration style (e.g. watercolor, 3d animation) and provide a prompt to shape a simple story. You can even suggest a moral. After a minute, download a full-color PDF to share. Or print it and read your new mini picture book aloud.
  2. Generate a quiz ? | Piggy
    Put in a link, a topic, or some text and you’ll get a quiz you can share, featuring multiple-choice or true-false questions. Example: try this quick entrepreneurship quiz Piggy generated for me.

 


3 Questions for Coursera About Generative AI in Education — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim
How this tech will change the learning experience, course creation and more.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Q: How will generative AI impact teaching and learning in the near and long term?

Baker Stein: One-on-one tutoring at scale is finally being unlocked for learners around the world. This type of quality education is no longer only available to students with the means to hire a private tutor. I’m also particularly excited to see how educators make use of generative AI tools to create courses much faster and likely at a higher quality with increased personalization for each student or even by experimenting with new technologies like extended reality. Professors will be able to put their time toward high-impact activities like mentoring, researching and office hours instead of tedious course-creation tasks. This helps open up the capacity for educators to iterate on their courses faster to keep pace with industry and global changes that may impact their field of study.

Another important use case is how generative AI can serve as a great equalizer for students when it comes to writing, especially second language learners.

 
 

AI-driven Legal Apprenticeships — from thebrainyacts.beehiiv.com by Josh Kubicki

Excerpts:

My hypothesis and research suggest that as bar associations and the ABA begin to recognize the on-going systemic issues of high-cost legal education, growing legal deserts (where no lawyer serves a given population), on-going and pervasive access to justice issues, and a public that is already weary of the legal system – alternative options that are already in play might become more supported.

What might that look like?

The combination of AI-assisted education with traditional legal apprenticeships has the potential to create a rich, flexible, and engaging learning environment. Here are three scenarios that might illustrate what such a combination could look like:

    • Scenario One – Personalized Curriculum Development
    • Scenario Two – On-Demand Tutoring and Mentoring
    • Scenario Three – AI-assisted Peer Networks and Collaborative Learning:

Why Companies Are Vastly Underprepared For The Risks Posed By AI — from forbes.com by
Accuracy, bias, security, culture, and trust are some of the risks involved

Excerpt:

We know that there are challenges – a threat to human jobs, the potential implications for cyber security and data theft, or perhaps even an existential threat to humanity as a whole. But we certainly don’t yet have a full understanding of all of the implications. In fact, a World Economic Forum report recently stated that organizations “may currently underappreciate AI-related risks,” with just four percent of leaders considering the risk level to be “significant.”

A survey carried out by analysts Baker McKenzie concluded that many C-level leaders are over-confident in their assessments of organizational preparedness in relation to AI. In particular, it exposed concerns about the potential implications of biased data when used to make HR decisions.


AI & lawyer training: How law firms can embrace hybrid learning & development — thomsonreuters.com
A big part of law firms’ successful adaptation to the increased use of ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI, may depend upon how firmly they embrace online learning & development tools designed for hybrid work environments

Excerpt:

As law firms move forward in using of advanced artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI, their success may hinge upon how they approach lawyer training and development and what tools they enlist for the process.

One of the tools that some law firms use to deliver a new, multi-modal learning environment is an online, video-based learning platform, Hotshot, that delivers more than 250 on-demand courses on corporate, litigation, and business skills.

Ian Nelson, co-founder of Hotshot, says he has seen a dramatic change in how law firms are approaching learning & development (L&D) in the decade or so that Hotshot has been active. He believes the biggest change is that 10 years ago, firms hadn’t yet embraced the need to focus on training and development.

From DSC:
Heads up law schools. Are you seeing/hearing this!?

  • Are we moving more towards a lifelong learning model within law schools?
  • If not, shouldn’t we be doing that?
  • Are LLM programs expanding quickly enough? Is more needed?

Legal tech and innovation: 3 ways AI supports the evolution of legal ops — from lexology.com

Excerpts:

  1. Simplified legal spend analysis
  2. Faster contract review
  3. Streamlined document management

AI’s Potential for Access to Justice -- a podcast from the Legal Talk Network

 

Shocking, But Not Shocking — from onedtech.beehiiv.com by Phil Hill
Wiley announces plans to sell its OPM business

Excerpt:

Just under three months ago Pearson, one of the “Big Four” of in the Online Program Management (OPM) space, announced the sale of its OPM business. Today, another of the four is also getting out of the business (the others are Wiley, 2U/edX, and Academic Partnerships).

Why the Sale?
The immediate issue from an OPM perspective is that Wiley University Services has been losing revenue with no signs of returning to growth.

 


From DSC:
I put the following comment on Dan’s posting:

I couldn’t agree more Dan. Millions of people could benefit from the considered, careful research of — and eventual application of — technologies to significantly improve/impact access to justice (#A2J).


Also see:

Generative AI could radically alter the practice of law — from The Economist
Even if it doesn’t replace lawyers en masse

Excerpts:

According to a recent report from Goldman Sachs, a bank, 44% of legal tasks could be performed by AI, more than in any occupation surveyed except for clerical and administrative support. Lawyers spend an awful lot of time scrutinising tedious documents—the sort of thing that AI has already demonstrated it can do well. Lawyers use AI for a variety of tasks, including due diligence, research and data analytics. These applications have largely relied on “extractive” AI, which, as the name suggests, extracts information from a text, answering specific questions about its contents.

Ultimately this will be good news for clients. “People who go to lawyers don’t want lawyers: they want resolutions to their problems or the avoidance of problems altogether,” explains Mr Susskind. If AI can provide those outcomes then people will use AI. Many people already use software to do their taxes rather than rely on professionals; “Very few of them are complaining about the lack of social interaction with their tax advisers.”


Also see:


 

Why L&D should be at the forefront of the AI revolution — from managementtoday.co.uk by Bill Borrows
AI means that 50% of all employees will need reskilling or upskilling by 2025, according to the World Economic Forum.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Ernst and Young dug a little deeper. “Today’s disruptive working landscape requires organisations to largely restructure the way they are doing work,” they noted in a bulletin in March this year. “Time now spent on tasks will be equally divided between people and machines. For these reasons, workforce roles will change and so do the skills needed to perform them.”

The World Economic Forum has pointed to this global skills gap and estimates that, while 85 million jobs will be displaced, 50% of all employees will need reskilling and/or upskilling by 2025. This, it almost goes without saying, will require Learning and Development departments to do the heavy-lifting in this initial transformational phase but also in an on-going capacity.

“And that’s the big problem,” says Hardman. “2025 is only two and half years away and the three pillars of L&D – knowledge transference, knowledge reinforcement and knowledge assessment – are crumbling. They have been unchanged for decades and are now, faced by revolutionary change, no longer fit for purpose.”


ChatGPT is the shakeup education needs — from eschoolnews.com by Joshua Sine
As technology evolves, industries must evolve alongside it, and education is no exception–especially when students heavily and regularly rely on edtech

Key points:

  • Education must evolve along with technology–students will expect it
  • Embracing new technologies helps education leverage adaptive technology that engage student interest
  • See related article: AI tools are set to impact tutoring in a big way


Welcome to the new surreal. How AI-generated video is changing film. — from technologyreview.com by Will Douglas Heaven
Exclusive: Watch the world premiere of the AI-generated short film The Frost.

.



The Future Of Education – Disruption Caused By AI And ChatGPT: Artificial Intelligence Series 3 Of 5 — from forbes.com by Nicole Serena Silver
Here are some ways AI can be introduced at various age levels


 

Teacher Burnout Statistics: Why Teachers Quit in 2023 — from devlinpeck.com by Devlin Peck

Excerpt:

What are the most common causes for teacher burnout?
There are plenty of reasons for teacher burnout. Teachers report:

  • Heavy workloads
  • A poor education landscape of Individual Education Program (IEP) plans
  • Staff shortages
  • Social media issues
  • Safety issues
  • Low salaries
  • Mental health
  • A deficit of education funds
  • And more

From DSC:
Our oldest daughter teaches third grade. She and all of the other third-grade teachers at her school are not returning next year. Ouch! The school system that she works for asks teachers to serve as daycare providers before and after the official school day. Plus, the workloads require 6-7 days a week, especially for first-year teachers and/or other teachers who needed to teach different grade levels (i.e., increased prep times).

 

What new grads can expect as they enter the working world — from mckinsey.com by Patrick Guggenberger, Dana Maor, Michael Park, and Patrick Simon

Excerpt:

May 21, 2023 It’s officially the season of caps, gowns, and stoles—and new grads are gearing up for entry into the world of work at a time when organizations are undergoing massive shifts. “The shifts include complex questions about how to organize for speed to shore up resilience, find the right balance between in-person and remote work models, address employees’ declining mental health, and build new institutional capabilities at a time of rapid technological change, among others,” write Patrick Guggenberger, Dana Maor, Michael Park, and Patrick Simon in a new report. These changes have significant implications for structures, processes, and people. How can new grads set themselves up for success in a quickly evolving environment? If you’re a soon-to-be new grad or know one, check out our newly refreshed special collection for insights and interviews on topics including productivity, hybrid work models, worker preferences, tech trends, and much more.


On a somewhat relevant posting (it has to do with career development as well), also see:

From Basic to Brand: How to Build and Use a Purposeful LinkedIn Profile — from er.educause.edu by Ryan MacTaggart and Laurie Burruss
Developing a professional brand helps higher education professionals establish meaningful work-related connections and build credibility in their area of expertise.


 

Trend No. 3: The business model faces a full-scale transformation — from www2.deloitte.com by Cole Clark, Megan Cluver, and Jeffrey J. Selingo
The traditional business model of higher education is broken as institutions can no longer rely on rising tuition among traditional students as the primary driver of revenue.

Excerpt:

Yet the opportunities for colleges and universities that shift their business model to a more student-centric one, serving the needs of a wider diversity of learners at different stages of their lives and careers, are immense. Politicians and policymakers are looking for solutions to the demographic cliff facing the workforce and the need to upskill and reskill generations of workers in an economy where the half-life of skills is shrinking. This intersection of needs—higher education needs students; the economy needs skilled workers—means that colleges and universities, if they execute on the right set of strategies, could play a critical role in developing the workforce of the future. For many colleges, this shift will require a significant rethinking of mission and structure as many institutions weren’t designed for workforce development and many faculty don’t believe it’s their job to get students a job. But if a set of institutions prove successful on this front, they could in the process improve the public perception of higher education, potentially leading to more political and financial support for growing this evolving business model in the future.

Also see:

Trend No. 2: The value of the degree undergoes further questioning — from www2.deloitte.com by Cole Clark, Megan Cluver, and Jeffrey J. Selingo
The perceived value of higher education has fallen as the skills needed to keep up in a job constantly change and learners have better consumer information on outcomes.

Excerpt:

Higher education has yet to come to grips with the trade-offs that students and their families are increasingly weighing with regard to obtaining a four-year degree.

But the problem facing the vast majority of colleges and universities is that they are no longer perceived to be the best source for the skills employers are seeking. This is especially the case as traditional degrees are increasingly competing with a rising tide of microcredentials, industry-based certificates, and well-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.

Trend No. 1: College enrollment reaches its peak — from www2.deloitte.com by Cole Clark, Megan Cluver, and Jeffrey J. Selingo
Enrollment rates in higher education have been declining in the United States over the years as other countries catch up.

Excerpt:

Higher education in the United States has only known growth for generations. But enrollment of traditional students has been falling for more than a decade, especially among men, putting pressure both on the enrollment pipeline and on the work ecosystem it feeds. Now the sector faces increased headwinds as other countries catch up with the aggregate number of college-educated adults, with China and India expected to surpass the United States as the front runners in educated populations within the next decade or so.

Plus the other trends listed here >>


Also related to higher education, see the following items:


Number of Colleges in Distress Is Up 70% From 2012 — from bloomberg.com by Nic Querolo (behind firewall)
More schools see falling enrollement and tuition revenue | Small private, public colleges most at risk, report show

About 75% of students want to attend college — but far fewer expect to actually go — from highereddive.com by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

There Is No Going Back: College Students Want a Live, Remote Option for In-Person Classes — from campustechnology.com by Eric Paljug

Excerpt:

Based on a survey of college students over the last three semesters, students understand that remotely attending a lecture via remote synchronous technology is less effective for them than attending in person, but they highly value the flexibility of this option of attending when they need it.

Future Prospects and Considerations for AR and VR in Higher Education Academic Technology — from er.educause.edu by Owen McGrath, Chris Hoffman and Shawna Dark
Imagining how the future might unfold, especially for emerging technologies like AR and VR, can help prepare for what does end up happening.

Black Community College Enrollment is Plummeting. How to Get Those Students Back — from the74million.org by Karen A. Stout & Francesca I. Carpenter
Stout & Carpenter: Schools need a new strategy to bolster access for learners of color who no longer see higher education as a viable pathway

As the Level Up coalition reports ,“the vast majority — 80% — of Black Americans believe that college is unaffordable.” This is not surprising given that Black families have fewer assets to pay for college and, as a result, incur significantly more student loan debt than their white or Latino peers. This is true even at the community college level. Only one-third of Black students are able to earn an associate degree without incurring debt. 

Repairing Gen Ed | Colleges struggle to help students answer the question, ‘Why am I taking this class?’ — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie
Students Are Disoriented by Gen Ed. So Colleges Are Trying to Fix It.

Excerpts:

Less than 30 percent of college graduates are working in a career closely related to their major, and the average worker has 12 jobs in their lifetime. That means, he says, that undergraduates must learn to be nimble and must build transferable skills. Why can’t those skills and ways of thinking be built into general education?

“Anyone paying attention to the nonacademic job market,” he writes, “will know that skills, rather than specific majors, are the predominant currency.”

Micro-credentials Survey. 2023 Trends and Insights. — from holoniq.com
HolonIQ’s 2023 global survey on micro-credentials

3 Keys to Making Microcredentials Valid for Learners, Schools, and Employers — from campustechnology.com by Dave McCool
To give credentials value in the workplace, the learning behind them must be sticky, visible, and scalable.

Positive Partnership: Creating Equity in Gateway Course Success — from insidehighered.com by Ashley Mowreader
The Gardner Institute’s Courses and Curricula in Urban Ecosystems initiative works alongside institutions to improve success in general education courses.

American faith in higher education is declining: one poll — from bryanalexander.org by Bryan Alexander

Excerpt:

The main takeaway is that our view of higher education’s value is souring.  Fewer of us see post-secondary learning as worth the cost, and now a majority think college and university degrees are no longer worth it: “56% of Americans think earning a four-year degree is a bad bet compared with 42% who retain faith in the credential.”

Again, this is all about one question in one poll with a small n. But it points to directions higher ed and its national setting are headed in, and we should think hard about how to respond.


 

Is It Time to Rethink the Traditional Grading System? — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young and Robert Talbert

Excerpt:

After that, this professor vowed never to use traditional grades on tests again. But he wasn’t quite sure what to replace them with.

As Talbert soon discovered, there’s a whole world of so-called alternative grading systems. So many, in fact, that he ended up co-writing an entire book about them with a colleague at his university, David Clark. The book, which is due out this summer, is called “Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education.

EdSurge connected with Talbert to hear what he uses in his classes now, and why he argues that reforming how grading works is key to increasing student engagement.

 

OPINION: Post pandemic, it’s time for a bold overhaul of U.S. public education, starting now — from hechingerreport.org by William Hite and Kirsten Baesler
Personalized learning can restore public faith and meet the diverse needs of our nation’s students

Excerpt:

Across all socioeconomic and racial groups, Americans want an education system that goes beyond college preparation and delivers practical skills for every learner, based on their own needs, goals and vision for the future.

We believe that this can be achieved by making the future of learning more personalized, focused on the needs of individual learners, with success measured by progress and proficiency instead of point-in-time test scores.

Change is hard, but we expect our students to take risks and fail every day. We should ask no less of ourselves.

 

Introducing Teach AI — Empowering educators to teach w/ AI & about AI [ISTE & many others]


Teach AI -- Empowering educators to teach with AI and about AI


Also relevant/see:

 

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition — from library.educause.edu

Excerpt:

The Future of Teaching and Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, with new AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT opening up new opportunities in higher education for content creation, communication, and learning, while also raising new concerns about the misuses and overreach of technology. Our shared humanity has also become a key focal point within higher education, as faculty and leaders continue to wrestle with understanding and meeting the diverse needs of students and to find ways of cultivating institutional communities that support student well-being and belonging.

For this year’s teaching and learning Horizon Report, then, our panelists’ discussions oscillated between these seemingly polar ideas: the supplanting of human activity with powerful new technological capabilities, and the need for more humanity at the center of everything we do. This report summarizes the results of those discussions and serves as one vantage point on where our future may be headed.

 

From DSC:
I don’t think all students hate AI. My guess is that a lot of them like AI and are very intrigued by it. The next generation is starting to see its potential — for good and/or for ill.

One of the comments (from the above item) said to check out the following video.  I saw one (or both?) of these people on a recent 60 Minutes piece as well.


Speaking of AI, also see:

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian