The 5 college majors students are betting on right now — from linkedin.com by Taylor Border
On 08/10/2026,
in adjunct faculty, business, colleges, community colleges, computer science, drama/theater, faculty/staff, higher education, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, music, psychology, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 08/01/2026,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pathways, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, United States, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The vision that I’ve been tracking for well over a decade begins with this graphic:
.
Could LearnVector be this next-generation company/platform? Perhaps. Time will tell.
Per Matt Tower via The EdSheet Vol. 38 dated 7/31/26:
- Coursera bets $100M on its own co-founder: Andrew Ng’s new venture LearnVector lands one of the largest single checks in edtech this year — from Coursera, the company he founded 14 years ago.
.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/29/2026,
in colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, leadership, learning ecosystem, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, strategy, student-related, tools, United States, universities, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Below is an item on futures thinking. Don’t blow this off. This topic — and skill/strategy — is important not only to traditional institutions of higher education, but also to businesses and organizations of all sizes. In fact, even students can practice developing a list of potential scenarios and implement their plans of action if one of those scenarios occurs.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/29/2026,
in career development, change, colleges, community colleges, computer science, corporate / business world, engineering, faculty/staff, higher education, programming, student-related, United States, universities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Why Engineering Is No Longer A Sure Thing College Major When It Comes To Jobs — from forbes.com by Courtney Connley-Hampton; this article is behind a paywall
Exclusive LinkedIn data shows engineering majors have been hit hard in today’s weak, AI-affected job market. Here’s what specialties are hurting and what top schools are doing to respond.
While lots of recent college graduates are being battered by a weak hiring market, perhaps no group is more shocked by their current plight than those who majored in engineering, long considered among the safest, most secure, and highest-paying majors. Yes, engineering grads still make more than education and English majors.
Also relevant/see:
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/29/2026,
in colleges, community colleges, digital storytelling, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty/staff, faith, higher education, ideas, instructional design, Learning Experience Design, productivity / tips and tricks, story, storytelling, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
What’s the Story Your Syllabus Tells?: Setting the Stage for Learning — from facultyfocus.com by Dr. Daniel Andrés Rivera Rosado
But as I was reading Everyday Christian Teaching by Dr. David Smith, in the chapter titled Speaking, Hearing, Hospitality, in just the first paragraph he writes: “Teachers do not simply list course content for learners. They sequence it in ways that imply a story about what fits together and where it is headed.” (2025, p.73). Automatically I asked myself, what is the story my syllabus is telling students? To be completely honest, is it even telling a story at all?
“Is your syllabus helping your students at all?”
From DSC:
To that last sentence, I might add the words engaging, raising curiosity or wonder, or is it interesting to your students at all? Is there a “hook” that gets them interested? It might be a central question or two — and/or use some beneficial and relevant graphics. I’ve heard faculty use digital/interactive syllabi as well to engage their students.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/22/2026,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, lifelong learning, personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
AI & Accessibility: 5 Practical Ways to Use LLMs to Support Inclusive Learning — from learningguild.com by Dr. Athena Joyce Stanley (B.A., M.A.E., Ph.D.)
The following strategies focus on how instructional designers can design for accessibility by embedding or enabling AI-supported tools within learning experiences. These approaches move beyond access to content and begin to support access to understanding, expression, and participation.
…
Personalized Clarification Through AI Copilots
Learners often need additional explanation, but may hesitate to ask questions in live sessions or require more individualized support.
Instructional designers can integrate AI copilots, LLM-powered conversational interfaces, into learning environments to provide on-demand clarification. These tools can act as digital coaches, helping learners understand concepts through simplified explanations and relevant examples.
This approach supports learners who benefit from additional processing time and personalized guidance.
Sample Prompt (for IDs Configuring Copilot Behavior)
You are a workplace learning coach.
Explain the following concept in a clear, simple way:
-
- Use plain language
- Provide one practical, job-relevant example
- Avoid jargon unless necessary (and define it if used)
Then ask one follow-up question to check for understanding.
Teaching AI Literacy with Susan Ray — from intentionalteaching.buzzsprout.com by Derek Bruff and Susan Ray
Per Derek Bruff:
In my conversation with Susan, we talk about that syllabus activity, as well as the AI transparency journals she asks her students to keep during her courses. We also talk about how her personal background prepared her to navigate the challenges and opportunities that AI has posed to her teaching, how she approaches assessing student learning in this age of AI—especially in her online asynchronous courses—and much more.
Building the AI-Native University: Student Success and Lifelong Learning — from coursera.org
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Why building an AI-native campus requires a data-first foundation
- How to build an “achievement architecture” for lifelong success
- How faculty-built AI tutors cut one program’s course attrition from 40% to 10%
- What it means to be a lifelong learning companion
We’re Raising the First AI Generation. They’re Pushing Back. (Rebecca Winthrop, Brookings) — from humanistxyz.substack.com by Allison Dulin Salisbury
“Young people harbor real anger about AI because they’re already experiencing its consequences in their schools, relationships, job prospects, and feeds.”
As Rebecca told me:
“Kids harbor real anger. They’re pissed about climate impacts. They’re upset about job prospects. They’re outraged about AI being used to plagiarize writing and produce counterfeit artwork. Their relationships are being affected, and they’re seeing deepfakes in their feeds.”
Our conversation explores what follows from taking those concerns seriously. We discuss cognitive stunting, the case for small, purpose-built AI models over frontier models in education, why students should spend far more time in explorer mode, and how schools can cultivate agency, curiosity, and independent thinking in an age of AI.
The interview ends with one of Rebecca’s most practical recommendations: every school should have a student AI council, not as a symbolic gesture, but with real influence over the tools their schools adopt, the ways they’re used, and the data students are asked to hand over.
Every generation of technology seems to relearn the same lesson: build with people, not for them. AI should be no exception.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/22/2026,
in business, career development, collaboration, credentialing, education, education reform, future, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, more voice more choice more control, pathways, policy, real-world assignments, skills, society, student-related, teachers, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Steward Stories: How Heart of Oregon Corps Turns Service into Careers — from gettingsmart.com by Karen Pittman and Merita Irby
Our “Steward Stories” series captures lessons learned from interviews with leaders of mature, purpose-built ecosystem intermediaries. An ecosystem steward is a boundary-spanning leader who goes beyond traditional out-of-school time (OST) system building to weave together the diverse people, places, and possibilities that shape a young person’s daily life. Rather than managing a single isolated network, stewards collaborate across K-12 schools, youth development programs, and workforce systems to build vibrant, equitable learning ecosystems. They drive systemic change from practice to policy by creating purpose-built intermediaries, developing scalable cross-system training tools, and championing “Future Features” of learning. These core priorities include promoting learner agency, institutionalizing “unwalled” schools that connect community resources to formal education, broadening the definition of educators to include informal mentors, and normalizing pathways for students to receive school credit or credentials for out-of-school learning.
The starting points, paths, and targets set by these stewards are as varied as the conditions and opportunities present within their communities. But they share similarities in vision and approach. Learn More Here.
Learning ecosystems may be found anywhere, but it takes careful stewardship to help them thrive.
— Shift, Remake Learning
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/16/2026,
in business, career development, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, education, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, innovation, K-12 related, learning, skills, society, student-related, teachers, United States, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Agilities — from agilities.org by the DeBruce Foundation; via Paul Fain
Help students build confidence and prepare for bright careers!
.
Also from Paul Fain, see:
Unlocking Opportunity: Progress on Moving More Students Toward Good Jobs — from highered.aspeninstitute.org
Released in partnership with the Community College Research Center (CCRC), Unlocking Opportunity: Progress on Moving More Students Toward Good Jobs highlights early outcomes from the first 10 colleges in the Unlocking Opportunity network. The report demonstrates that community colleges can rapidly increase enrollment in high-value workforce and transfer pathways while reducing enrollment in or improving programs with weaker labor market and bachelor’s degree outcomes.
.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/15/2026,
in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, corporate / business world, economics, student-related, United States, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
The economy is shutting young adults out of career-entry jobs, analysis finds — from hrdive.com by Laurel Kalser
Artificial intelligence matters, but in a “narrow, early and age-specific way,” researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said.
Dive Brief:
- The decline in overall job openings, exacerbated by a rising demand for artificial intelligence-related skills, is causing employment opportunities for young adults aged 18 to 24 to deteriorate, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
- Between April 2023 — when the U.S. labor market was at its strongest — and December 2025, the employment rate among 18- to 24-year-olds fell by more than 2 percentage points, researchers William Rodgers, III, and Alice Kassens reported in a June 30 post. The decrease appeared primarily as higher unemployment, rather than as labor force exits, “indicating that younger workers were still searching for jobs but with fewer opportunities available,” the authors noted.
- By contrast, there was no comparable slide for workers aged 25-64, whose employment outcomes remained largely stable, the researchers said.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/14/2026,
in education, education reform, future, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, more voice more choice more control, robotics, skills, STEAM-related, student-related, teachers,
by Daniel Christian
This is the Future of High School
The Tennessee School Rewriting the Rules of High School — from xqsuperschool.org
At Elizabethton High School, students wanted more from their education. So they helped rebuild it—class by class, project by project. Their idea: give students real, meaningful work, and they’ll rise to the challenge.
A cold case became a Prime Video series. A robotics club became an international competitor. And an ordinary high school became something else entirely. Elizabethton is reinventing high school—and showing what’s possible for the rest of the country.
Watch the Elizabethton+XQ story
Ten years, one school, and a redesign still unfolding. It took courage to break with tradition—and that risk is paying off for an entire community.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/14/2026,
in business, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, curriculum, faculty/staff, health, higher education, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, skills, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Why recruiters can’t find workers and new grads can’t find jobs (it’s not AI) — from washingtonpost.com by Jon Marcus
Experts say a major labor shortage looms because of population shifts and a mismatch between new graduates’ skills and employers’ needs.
Recent college graduates complain they can’t find entry-level jobs because artificial intelligence is taking over.
Yet, tech recruiter Matt Walsh and other experts say the growth of AI and the struggle to find entry-level work mask a bigger problem: The United States is facing what’s projected to become the largest labor shortage in its history.
In sectors such as semiconductor production, the problem isn’t AI or too few jobs, said Walsh, CEO of the Phoenix-based search firm Blue Signal.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “There just aren’t enough people.”
Economists warn that the worsening labor problem, due in part to a skills shortage and population shifts, will be vast and reach beyond tech.
Among the trends that have been leading to this moment: a mismatch between the careers college graduates are pursuing and the jobs employers are struggling to fill. Far fewer students are majoring in health care fields than are needed to meet demand, for instance.
“We have pumped so many young people into business and finance” when what’s really in demand are graduates in other fields, Hetrick said. “It’s like a factory producing these workers like widgets, even though society is saying, ‘We really don’t need them.’ And the factory just keeps pumping them out.”
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/14/2026,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, curriculum, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, higher education, leadership, Learning Experience Design, parents/guardians, pathways, policy, project-based learning, skills, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, trends, United States, universities, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
“Teachers ban it. Employers demand it.”
Also relevant/see:
The Shifting Career Ladder — from nafez.substack.com by Nafez Dakkak
AI is changing how work works and quietly removing the pathways through which young people learn to become experts.
AI is reshaping how people build skills, enter professions, and move along the career ladder and through the labour market.
In this conversation, I sit down with Matt Sigelmen founder of LightCast and now the President of Burning Glass Institute. Matt has dedicated his career to understanding the labor market and helping society improve the connections within in it.
Matt and I explore why people and opportunities are often only “a few skills apart,” why entry-level work may be losing its traditional role as the first rung of expertise, and why schools, universities, and employers now need to rethink the pathways that turn potential into mastery.
Educators need to be deeply aligned with what these changes are, and they need to shift the AI discourse from “how” questions to “what” questions. What do we need to teach? What do we need to keep in the curriculum?
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/07/2026,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, human-computer interaction (HCI), media/film, online media, parents/guardians, policy, privacy, psychology, social learning / networks, social media, society, student-related, the downsides of how people use tech, youth,
by Daniel Christian
A Comprehensive Report on Teens, Tweens, and AI — from commonsensemedia.org
To find out what that actually looks like day-to-day, we surveyed more than a thousand 9- to 17-year-olds across the country. We asked them how they use AI, how often, and for what.
The Common Sense Media Census: AI Use by Tweens and Teens (2026) is the first in a series we’ll repeat every year to learn how this generation’s relationship with AI evolves over time.
A few things stood out:
- Kids are using AI for many things. It’s not just a homework helper anymore. For some kids, AI has become a confidant, even though our research is clear that AI companionship is not safe for anyone under 18.
- Guardrails are thin to nonexistent. Schools are talking about rules more than safety. Three-quarters of kids say their school has discussed what they can and cannot use AI for, but just over half have been taught how to use AI safely.
- Just like we saw with smartphones and social media, the conversation is once again lagging behind the technology. Nearly half of kids have never had a conversation with their parents about AI safety.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/07/2026,
in blended learning, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital learning, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, hybrid learning, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning theories, research, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Flipped Classrooms and Academic Achievement — from learningscientists.org by Megan Sumeracki
There are actually many, many ways to design a flipped classroom, and it has been fascinating to learn about the ways my colleague typically structures her hybrid, flipped-classroom courses. As a result, we’ve been able to engage in really interesting conversations about the best approach for this particular course, and why. As a result of some of these discussions, I came across a few recent meta-analyses related to the effects of flipped classrooms, the results of which I thought were worth sharing here (1, 2, 3).
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
On 07/07/2026,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, innovation, instructional design, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, skills, society, student-related, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Higher Education Can’t Wait for the Future to Arrive (Lev Gonick, Arizona State University) — from humanistxyz.substack.com by Allison Dulin Salisbury
“The biggest risk we face as a sector is assuming we can wait out AI.”
We have an opportunity right now to reorient the university around student experience—not as an aspiration, but as a necessity. I’m calling this shift TechEd, which I explore in detail in my LinkedIn series The TechEd Revolution.
AI poses a fundamental shift in how technology might empower students to own their discovery and educational journey, and to drastically reduce the friction that makes college so unappealing to so many.
To that end, we need to urgently redesign systems and opportunities around skills and competencies. That work should be far more advanced than it currently is. And one of the hardest challenges is rethinking how we operate as a workforce in academia.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!