Learners’ Edition: AI-powered Coaching, Professional Certifications + Inspiring conversations about mastering your learning & speaking skills — from linkedin.com by Tomer Cohen
Excerpts:
1. Your own AI-powered coaching
Learners can go into LinkedIn Learning and ask a question or explain a challenge they are currently facing at work (we’re focusing on areas within Leadership and Management to start). AI-powered coaching will pull from the collective knowledge of our expansive LinkedIn Learning library and, instantaneously, offer advice, examples, or feedback that is personalized to the learner’s skills, job, and career goals.
What makes us so excited about this launch is we can now take everything we as LinkedIn know about people’s careers and how they navigate them and help accelerate them with AI.
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3. Learn exactly what you need to know for your next job
When looking for a new job, it’s often the time we think about refreshing our LinkedIn profiles. It’s also a time we can refresh our skills. And with skill sets for jobs having changed by 25% since 2015 – with the number expected to increase by 65% by 2030– keeping our skills a step ahead is one of the most important things we can do to stand out.
There are a couple of ways we’re making it easier to learn exactly what you need to know for your next job:
When you set a job alert, in addition to being notified about open jobs, we’ll recommend learning courses and Professional Certificate offerings to help you build the skills needed for that role.
When you view a job, we recommend specific courses to help you build the required skills. If you have LinkedIn Learning access through your company or as part of a Premium subscription, you can follow the skills for the job, that way we can let you know when we launch new courses for those skills and recommend you content on LinkedIn that better aligns to your career goals.
2024 Edtech Predictions from Edtech Insiders — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Alex Sarlin, Ben Kornell, and Sarah Morin
Omni-modal AI, edtech funding prospects, higher ed wake up calls, focus on career training, and more!
Alex: I talked to the 360 Learning folks at one point and they had this really interesting epiphany, which is basically that it’s been almost impossible for every individual company in the past to create a hierarchy of skills and a hierarchy of positions and actually organize what it looks like for people to move around and upskill within the company and get to new paths.
Until now. AI actually can do this very well. It can take not only job description data, but it can take actual performance data. It can actually look at what people do on a daily basis and back fit that to training, create automatic training based on it.
From DSC:
I appreciated how they addressed K-12, higher ed, and the workforce all in one posting. Nice work. We don’t need siloes. We need more overall design thinking re: our learning ecosystems — as well as more collaborations. We need more on-ramps and pathways in a person’s learning/career journey.
Nearly half of companies say they plan to eliminate bachelor’s degree requirements in 2024 — from highereddive.com by Carolyn Crist
Many employers are dropping degree requirements to create a more diverse workforce and increase job candidate numbers, survey results show.
In 2023, 55% of companies removed degree requirements, particularly for entry-level and mid-level roles, the survey shows. Employers said they dropped these requirements to create a more diverse workforce, increase the number of applicants for open positions and because there are other ways to gain skills.
“Due to the expense of attending college, earning a bachelor’s degree is generally more difficult for people from traditionally marginalized groups and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds,” Diane Gayeski, higher education advisor for Intelligent.com and professor of strategic communication at Ithaca College, said in a statement.
Generative AI Is Set to Shake Up Education — from morganstanley.com
While educators debate the risks and opportunities of generative AI as a learning tool, some education technology companies are using it to increase revenue and lower costs.
Key Takeaways
Outgoing SNHU president: AI means universities must change ‘dramatically’ — from msn.com by Steven Porter
In his next chapter, LeBlanc will work with a team of researchers to study emerging AI trends, impacts on education, and opportunities to innovate. (The initiative harkens back to his early scholarship. During grad school decades ago, LeBlanc studied the ways computers could impact how societies think.)
LeBlanc said the AI-induced changes on the horizon will require educational institutions to reimagine how they assess student learning and grapple with implications for privacy and data security. There are also bigger questions about what jobs will go away and what jobs will be created, which influences the fields of study schools will offer, he said.
AI & Education: A Year in Review — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
The top five use cases & most popular tools among educators at the end of 2023 – the year than Gen AI shook-up education
Use Case #1: Content Creation
Use Case #2: Brainstorming & Ideation
Use Case #3: Research & Analysis
Use Case #4: Writing & Communicating
Use Case #5: Task Automation
I Used ChatGPT for 12 Months. Here Are Some Hidden Gems That Will Change Your Life — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol
Transform your life with these ChatGPT’s hidden gems.
1. Summarize videos, articles, papers and posts
Here’s how it works (note that you need to enable browsing or plugins for this)
AI ADVISORY BOARDS: Giving Students and Teachers a Voice — from aiadvisoryboards.wordpress.com
My mission is to spread awareness about the incredible potential of AI and AI advisory boards in education. Through my website, aiadvisoryboards.wordpress.com, I aim to inspire educators, administrators, and students to embrace AI and create innovative learning environments.
Report Update: Human and Computer Deep Learning and the Future of Humanity — from by Stefan Bauschard
New Chapter on School Guidance; updates on technology, the labor markets, and deep learning
Tips on making professional-looking, engaging videos for online courses — from timeshighereducation.com by Geoff Fortescue
Making videos for online classes doesn’t have to be costly. Here are ways to make them look professional on a budget
During lockdown, we were forced to start producing videos for Moocs remotely. This was quite successful, and we continue to use these techniques whenever a contributor can’t come to the studio. The same principles can be used by anyone who doesn’t have access to a media production team. Here are our tips on producing educational videos on a budget.
The Evolution of Collaboration: Unveiling the EDUCAUSE Corporate Engagement Program — from er.educause.edu
The program is designed to strengthen the collaboration between private industry and higher education institutions—and evolve the higher education technology market. The new program will do so by taking the following actions:
By building better bridges between our corporate and institutional communities, we can help accelerate our shared mission of furthering the promise of higher education.
Speaking of collaborations, also see:
Could the U.S. become an “Apprentice Nation?” — from Michael B. Horn and Ryan Craig
Intermediaries do the heavy lifting for the employers.
Bottom line: As I discussed with Michael later in the show, we already have the varied system that Leonhardt imagines—it’s just that it’s often by chaos and neglect. Just like we didn’t say to 8th graders a century ago, “go find your own high school,” we need to design a post-high school system with clear and well-designed pathways that include:
Listen to the complete episode here and subscribe to the podcast.
An Opinionated Guide to Which AI to Use: ChatGPT Anniversary Edition — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
A simple answer, and then a less simple one.
If you are at all interested in generative AI and understanding what it can do and why it matters, you should just get access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 in as unadulterated and direct way as possible. Everything else comes after that.
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Now, to be clear, this is not the free ChatGPT, which uses GPT-3.5.
1. America’s Next Top Model LLMs in Educational Settings
2. Hello, Mr. Chips: AI Teaching Assistants, Tutors, Coaches and Characters
He Was Falsely Accused of Using AI. Here’s What He Wishes His Professor Did Instead | Tech & Learning — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
When William Quarterman was accused of submitting an AI-generated midterm essay, he started having panic attacks. He says his professor should have handled the situation differently.
Teaching: Practical AI strategies for the classroom — from chronicle.com by Beckie Supiano and Luna Laliberte
Here are several strategies you can try.
Embracing Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom — from gse.harvard.edu; via Alex Webb at Bloomberg
Generative AI tools can reflect our failure of imagination and that is when the real learning starts
Class Disrupted S5 E3: The Possibilities & Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom — from the74million.org by Michael B. Horn & Diane Tavenner
AI expert and Minerva University senior Irhum Shafkat joins Michael and Diane to discuss where the technology is going.
Schools urged to teach children how to use AI from age of 11 — from news.sky.com by Tom Acres
Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT are being used by children to help with homework and studying – and there are calls for it to become a central part of the school curriculum.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Schools have been urged to teach children how to use AI from the age of 11 as the technology threatens to upend the jobs market.
Rather than wait for pupils to take up computer science at GCSE, the British Computer Society (BCS, The Chartered institute for IT) said all youngsters need to learn to work with tools like ChatGPT.
The professional body for computing wants a digital literary qualification to be introduced, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and its practical applications.
An understanding of AI should also become a key part of teacher training and headteacher qualifications, it added.
Improving Your Teaching With an AI Coach — from edutopia.org by Stephen Noonoo
New tools are leveraging artificial intelligence to help teachers glean insights into how they interact with students.
COMMENTARY
Embracing artificial intelligence in the workforce starts with higher education — from nebraskaexaminer.com by Jaci Lindburg and Cassie Mallette
When students can understand the benefit of using it effectively, and learn how to use AI to brainstorm, problem solve, and think through decision making scenarios, they can work more efficiently, make difficult decisions faster and improve a company’s production output.
It is through embracing the power and potential of AI that we can equip our students with future-ready skills. Through intentional teaching strategies that guide students to think creatively about how to use AI in their work, higher education can ensure that students are on the cutting edge in terms of using advancing technologies and being workforce ready upon graduation.
Also see:
The ChatGPT/AI Prompt Book is a resource for the UNO community that demonstrates how students can use AI in their studies and how faculty can incorporate it into their courses and daily work. The goal: to teach individuals how to be better prompt engineers and develop the skills needed to utilize this emerging technology as one of the many tools available to them in the workforce.
Two Ideas for Teaching with AI: Course-Level GPTs and AI-Enhanced Polling — from derekbruff.org by Derek Bruff
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Might we see course-level GPTs, where the chatbot is familiar with the content in a particular course and can help students navigate and maybe even learn that material? The answer is, yes and they’re already here. Top Hat recently launched Ace, an AI-powered learning assistant embedded in its courseware platform. An instructor can activate Ace, which then trains itself on all the learning materials in the course. Students can then use Ace as a personal tutor of sorts, asking it questions about course material.
Reflections On AI Policies in Higher Education — from jeppestricker.substack.com by Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
And Why First-Hand Generative AI Experience is Crucial for Leadership
AI is already showing far-reaching consequences for societies and educational institutions around the world. It is my contention that it is impossible to set strategic direction for AI in higher education if you haven’t yet tried working with the technology yourself. The first wave of overwhelming, profound surprise simply cannot be outsourced to other parts of the organization.
I mention this because the need for both strategic and operational guidance for generative AI is growing rapidly in higher education institutions. Without the necessary – and quite basic – personal generative AI experience, however, it becomes difficult for leadership to meaningfully direct and anchor AI in the organization.
And without clear guidance in place, uncertainty arises for all internal stakeholders about expectations and appropriate uses of AI. This makes developing an institutional AI policy not just sensible, but necessary.
A free report for educational leaders and policymakers who want to understand the AI World — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
And the immediate need for AI literacy
Beyond synthesizing many ideas from educational theory and AI deep learning, the report provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the field of AI, including current “exponential advances.” It’s updated through the release of Gemini and Meta’s new “Seamless” translation technology that arguably eliminates the need for most translators, and probably even the need to learn to speak another language for most purposes.
We were a mere 18 hours too late from covering an entire newscast (and news channel) that is produced with AI in a way that creates representations that are indistinguishable from what is “real” (see below) though it super-charges our comprehensive case and immediate AI literacy.
We also provide several suggestions and a potential roadmap for schools to help students prepare for an AI World where computers are substantialy smarter than them in many ways.
Google NotebookLM (experiment)
From DSC:
Google hopes that this personalized AI/app will help people with their note-taking, thinking, brainstorming, learning, and creating.
It reminds me of what Derek Bruff was just saying in regards to Top Hat’s Ace product being able to work with a much narrower set of information — i.e., a course — and to be almost like a personal learning assistant for the course you are taking. (As Derek mentions, this depends upon how extensively one uses the CMS/LMS in the first place.)
Education evolves to match the speed of tech innovation — from Tech predictions for 2024 and beyond — from allthingsdistributed.com
Higher education alone cannot keep up with the rate of technological change. Industry-led skills-based training programs will emerge that more closely resemble the journeys of skilled tradespeople. This shift to continuous learning will benefit individuals and businesses alike.
Similar to the software development processes of decades past, we have reached a pivotal point with tech education, and we will see what was once bespoke on-the-job-training for a few evolve into industry-led skills-based education for many.
We have seen glimpses of this shift underway for years. Companies like Coursera, who originally focused on consumers, have partnered with enterprises to scale their upskilling and reskilling efforts. Degree apprenticeships have continued to grow in popularity because education can be specialized by the employer, and apprentices can earn as they learn. But now, companies themselves are starting to seriously invest in skills-based education at scale.
…
All of these programs enable learners at different points in their career journey to gain the exact skills they need to enter in-demand roles, without the commitment of a traditional multi-year program.
But there will be many industries where the impact of technology outpaces traditional educational systems. To meet the demands of business, we will see a new era of industry-led educational opportunities that can’t be ignored.
From DSC:
It seems to me that this is saying that higher education is not able to — nor will it be able to in the future — match the speed of innovation taking place today. Therefore, alternatives will continue to hit the learning landscapes/radar. For example, Amazon’s CTO, Dr. Werner Vogels, mentioned Amazon’s efforts here:
Amazon just announced that it has already trained 21 million tech learners across the world in tech skills. And it’s in part thanks to programs like the Mechatronics and Robotics Apprenticeship and AWS Cloud Institute.
Syllabusters Are Outdated — from scholarlyteacher.com by Todd Zakrajsek
What does this all mean for the first day of class? Approach that first day with “learning-centered” in your mind. Focus on learning. Learning is all about curiosity and desire. Desire to know, to figure things out, to be surprised, all getting that dopamine flowing throughout the brain: That is what learning-centered is all about. An exam is best thought of as feedback, showing whether students are learning, not a date to cover on the first day and dread every class period in the meantime. An exam should never be the reason to learn, it should always be an indication of learning. Don’t spend your first 45 or 85 minutes focused solely on exams, term paper deadlines, and attendance policies. That moves teaching toward an artificial transactional arrangement where students learn in exchange for points and grades.
From DSC:
I would highly recommend starting out with a major HOOK. Some question, some video, some recording/piece of audio, etc. that would provoke interest, curiosity, or even some emotion. On that first day, the following item MUST be addressed if you expect to engage your students:
Why is this class/topic relevant?
Start with that. Immediately. The other stuff can be introduced later on, as Todd mentions.
Michigan launches lifelong learning department with acting director — from mlive.com by Simon Schuster
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential, deemed MiLEAP, took its first steps Friday [12/1/23] as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer launched the department with an acting director in place to lead it.
The department will handle everything from child care licensing, formerly in the department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, to scholarship administration, which was previously handled by the Department of Treasury.
More than 300 state government employees from four different departments are being consolidated into MiLEAP. The department will have three offices: early childhood education, higher education and education partnerships.
Also re: Michigan, see:
Growing Michigan Together Council | Recommendation Report
November 28 Discussion Draft
Excerpt:
Growing Michigan Together Council Recommendation
Develop a lifelong education system for Michigan kids that prepares them to be successful in a 21st century economy.
01 Redesign the Michigan P–12 education system so that all students have a broad set of future ready skills and competencies to thrive in work and life, and guarantee up to a 13th year to ensure all students achieve this standard
02 Provide all students opportunities to gain up to two years of publicly funded college credits or postsecondary training once they are prepared to succeed
03 Align secondary, postsecondary, higher education, and skills training to create a seamless system of continuous learning so that all Michiganders can be prepared for and adapt to a changing workplace
Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc to Step Down after Transformative 20 Years of Leadership — from snhu.edu by Siobhan Lopez
LeBlanc will step down from his role as president in summer of 2024
Under LeBlanc’s direction, SNHU has transformed from a small regional university to an internationally known leader in higher education, having grown from 2,500 students to more than 225,000 learners, making SNHU the largest nonprofit provider of higher education in the country. With his vision to make higher education more accessible, more than 200,000 students have earned their degrees during LeBlanc’s tenure at SNHU. The university also ranks among the most innovative universities in the country and as a top employer nationwide.
One more item re: higher education for tonight:
The Review: Course evaluations are garbage science. — from chronicle.com by Len Gutkin
When the concept of student evaluations was first developed in the 1920s, by the psychologists Herman H. Remmers, at Purdue University, and Edwin R. Guthrie, at the University of Washington, administrators were never meant to have access to them. Remmers and Guthrie saw evaluations as modest tools for pedagogical improvement, not criteria of administrative judgment. In the 1950s, Guthrie warned about the misuse of evaluations. But no one listened. Instead, as Stroebe writes, they “soon became valued sources of information for university administrators, who used them as a basis for decisions about merit increases and promotion.” Is it too late to return to Remmers and Guthrie’s original conception?
More Chief Online Learning Officers Step Up to Senior Leadership Roles
In 2024, I think we will see more Chief Online Learning Officers (COLOs) take on more significant roles and projects at institutions.In recent years, we have seen many COLOs accept provost positions. The typical provost career path that runs up through the faculty ranks does not adequately prepare leaders for the digital transformation occurring in postsecondary education.
As we’ve seen with the professionalization of the COLO role, in general, these same leaders proved to be incredibly valuable during the pandemic due to their unique skills: part academic, part entrepreneur, part technologist, COLOs are unique in higher education. They sit at the epicenter of teaching, learning, technology, and sustainability. As institutions are evolving, look for more online and professional continuing leaders to take on more senior roles on campuses.
Julie Uranis, Senior Vice President, Online and Strategic Initiatives, UPCEA
