Technology: The best teaching assistant the world has seen? - Nic Mitchell, University World News

Dr Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is forcing a paradigm shift in higher education from ‘what you know’ to ‘how you will be’, with knowledge no longer the foundation it has been in the past. “Knowledge is no longer scarce. It is just one prompt away on your phone,” he said. Just as it was when electricity was first invented and “people didn’t see its value and the potential it unleashed until it became part of the system”, and Henry Ford redesigned the factory into an assembly line, so too with AI. LeBlanc said the situation means asking questions like: How do we rethink learning? How do we rethink the student experience? and How do we rethink the business operation?

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230420160147195

Artificial Intelligence & Higher Ed: What Lies Ahead? - Bettyjo Bouchey, Higher Education Digest

Many of us in higher education have begun to imagine a world where some of the administrative tasks associated with teaching and learning could be accomplished (dare I say offloaded?) through the use of AI. One such task is wraparound student support. Intelligent agents added to data-informed student support models could identify at-risk student behaviors more quickly than a human with a data model could. This would free up advisors and other student support employees to intervene with individual students in thoughtful and informed ways. AI can help deliver data-driven insights into how courses (and students) are performing, and which topics should be focused on or revised. This data can be used by faculty and administrators to improve overall course quality and ensure students receive the best possible education.

https://www.highereducationdigest.com/artificial-intelligence-higher-ed-what-lies-ahead/

How to Begin a Career in Prompt Engineering - JOSE LUANSING JR., Make Use Of

With the recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI), many have considered starting a career in prompt engineering. Global tech leaders need professionals who’ll talk to machines. They invest billions into the AI race—skilled, innovative prompt engineers are paid handsomely. If you can efficiently convey instructions, you might thrive in this industry. Prompt engineering is still new, yet employers already understand its relevance. Bloomberg says the average prompt engineering salary ranges from $175,000 to $335,000 per annum. 

https://www.makeuseof.com/career-in-prompt-engineering/

Trains of Thought: Yet another frontier of AI is coming into view - Sentient Syllabus

The generative agents, that the Stanford/Google team has created, move about their world, perceive others, initiate interactions, remember past experience and form opinions. According to Park “By interacting with each other, generative agents in Smallville exchange information, form new relationships, and coordinate joint activities. […] these social behaviors are emergent rather than pre-programmed. (2023, 6)”. Strikingly, when one agent was seeded with the intent to plan a Valentine’s day party, that information spread through conversations, a number of agents decided to come, tasks were coordinated, and the party actually took place with a number of agents who congregated at the bar at the right time.

https://sentientsyllabus.substack.com/p/trains-of-thought

Supporting resilience and preventing burnout in nonprofits - Alistar Carmichael, Roland Dillon, Erin Ferraris, and Dr. Jemma King - McKinsey

The nonprofit sector attracts employees who want to make a difference in the world, who care deeply about others, and who want to create sustainable and inclusive growth. These are passionate and skilled workers who want to perform at their peak, feel as though their work is valued, and continue to serve their communities. Yet this hasn’t been an easy task: the COVID-19 pandemic has caused additional strain on employee mental health and well-being levels, with correlated levels of higher burnout.

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/supporting-resilience-and-preventing-burnout-in-nonprofits

Education data breaches hit record high in 2021 - Anna Merod, Higher Ed Dive

Since 2005, schools and colleges in the U.S. have incurred 2,691 data breaches, leading to leaks of at least 32 million individual records, according to an April report by Comparitech, a website that reviews and analyzes products improving cybersecurity and online privacy.  To date, 2021 has marked the biggest year for data breaches in education, impacting 771 institutions and nearly 2.6 million records, Comparitech said. The Illuminate Education data breach affecting at least 605 institutions made up a significant portion of the share. The next year, 2022, brought 96 breaches that exposed almost 1.4 million records, and so far 2023 has seen 11 breaches with over 3,500 impacted records. 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/2021-record-year-education-data-breaches/647241/

Exploring the 10 Types of e-Learning: Which One is Right for You? - The Fordham Ram

Is it possible to gain knowledge from any corner of the world just by sitting at home? Yes, E-learning comes into the limelight. While beginning the e-learning journey, learners might undergo challenges in choosing the e-learning platform. What should be considered to select the best e-learning platform? Always ensure the course duration, whether it is practical-oriented or not, and if the faculties have enough experience or not. Additionally, consider the feasible course options. Now, the internet revolves around different types of e-learning platforms. And it is a daunting task to select the best e-learning platform. In this blog, we will break down the top types of e-learning platforms that will help to boost knowledge in online mode.

https://fordhamram.com/2023/04/11/types-of-e-learning

ChatGPT: Who's using the AI tool and why? - Lance Whitney, ZD Net

First, here's a breakdown of the people who were surveyed. Among them, 57% were men, 39% were women, and 4% were nonbinary or gender non-conforming. Further, 7% were baby boomers, 22% were Gen X, 62% were millennials, and 9% were Gen Z. The experts questioned had anywhere from six months to more than five years of experience working with AI. Asked how often they use ChatGPT, a full 46% said they've used it only once or twice. Out of the rest, 10% use it several times a month, 20% use it once a week, 19% use it several times a week, and 5% use it every day. More than half of the number of people in each age group use ChatGPT regularly (at least several times a month) with baby boomers at 54%, Gen X at 51%, Millennials at 55%, and Gen Z at 61%.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/chatgpt-whos-using-the-ai-tool-and-why/

Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior - Joon Sung Park, Joseph C. O'Brien, Carrie J. Cai, Meredith Ringel Morris, Percy Liang, Michael S. Bernstein - arXiv

Believable proxies of human behavior can empower interactive applications ranging from immersive environments to rehearsal spaces for interpersonal communication to prototyping tools. In this paper, we introduce generative agents--computational software agents that simulate believable human behavior. Generative agents wake up, cook breakfast, and head to work; artists paint, while authors write; they form opinions, notice each other, and initiate conversations; they remember and reflect on days past as they plan the next day. To enable generative agents, we describe an architecture that extends a large language model to store a complete record of the agent's experiences using natural language, synthesize those memories over time into higher-level reflections, and retrieve them dynamically to plan behavior. 

https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03442

Cybersecurity trends: Looking over the horizon - McKinsey

Cybersecurity has always been a never-ending race, but the rate of change is accelerating. Companies are continuing to invest in technology to run their businesses. Now, they are layering more systems into their IT networks to support remote work, enhance the customer experience, and generate value, all of which creates potential new vulnerabilities. At the same time, adversaries—no longer limited to individual actors—include highly sophisticated organizations that leverage integrated tools and capabilities with artificial intelligence and machine learning. The scope of the threat is growing, and no organization is immune.

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-trends-looking-over-the-horizon\

Majority of Ivy Leagues will soon have women as presidents - Felecia Commodore, University World News

For the first time, a majority of Ivy League schools will soon be led by women. Starting on 1 July 2023, Claudine Gay will assume the role of president at Harvard University, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik at Columbia University and Sian Leah Beilock at Dartmouth College. They will join current female presidents at Brown University, Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania. While women make up about 60% of undergraduate as well as masters and doctoral students in the US, only about 32% of presidents of American colleges and universities are women.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230405095205179

University of Washington professors on using ChatGPT in the classroom - CHARLOTTE SCHUBERT, Geek Wire

“Our role is to help guide people to understand how these tools can operate, where we can be led astray and where they can support us,” said Brock Craft, an associate teaching professor in the UW Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering. Many schools districts and other K-12 institutions have banned ChatGPT, the popular tool from OpenAI that instantly produces content based on prompts. But the UW is adopting more flexible strategies, and issued guidance in January suggesting that instructors set clear course policies and communicate the importance of college learning, among other ideas. Higher education institutions elsewhere are also beginning to formulate policies.

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/university-of-washington-professors-on-using-chatgpt-in-the-classroom/

Not your parents' Google: Why universities should embrace, not fear, ChatGPT and AI - Michael Fitts, USA Today

ChatGPT in academics is a complex issue. It's not your parents’ Google, and educational leaders should carefully consider the intersections between the age-old mission of teaching and learning and this new technology. The first intersection is speed. Google made it possible to find an answer in a matter of keystrokes. ChatGPT further accelerates this by not merely finding an answer but also presenting that answer in a finished product.  If ChatGPT eliminates rote work, freeing academic minds to pursue new possibilities and apply their time and energy to solve novel problems, it could multiply academic potential and lead to more breakthroughs more quickly. In fields such as biomedical research, the result could be lifesaving.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/04/07/colleges-should-embrace-chatgpt-ai-academic-potential/11569735002/

AI could automate 25% of all jobs. Here's which are most (and least) at risk - Jada Jones, ZD Net

According to the investment bank, about 300 million jobs could be lost to AI, signaling that the technology can and will upend work as we know it. Like past technological revolutions, AI can help companies decrease costs by automating specific processes, freeing companies to grow their businesses.  A global economics research report from Goldman Sachs says that AI could automate 25% of the entire labor market but can automate 46% of tasks in administrative jobs, 44% of legal jobs, and 37% of architecture and engineering professions. Of course, AI is the least threatening to labor-intensive careers like construction (6%), installation and repair (4%), and maintenance (1%).

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-could-automate-25-of-all-jobs-heres-which-are-most-and-least-at-risk/

Report: Ransomware Attacks Up 627% - David Nagel, Campus Technology

According to the latest Internet Security Report from data security provider WatchGuard, ransomware at the endpoint level has surged 627% — despite an observed decrease at the network level of detected malware last quarter. What's the explanation? Some 93% of malware is hiding behind encryption, WatchGuard said, and about 80% of the company's customers have not enabled https decryption in their firewalls, so the malware is going largely undetected until it reaches endpoints, where detections increased 22% overall.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2023/03/31/report-ransomware-attacks-up-627.aspx

Study examines how working moms in distance education navigate distractions and achieve academic success - Anne Fensie & Casey Kelley, U Maine News

A significant percentage of college students in the United States are parents. According to studies, about 20 percent of undergraduate students and more than a third of graduate students are raising children under the age of 18, with mothers accounting for more than half of both populations. To get a better understanding of the experiences of these students, researchers at the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development published an article featuring case studies of six academically high-achieving working moms enrolled in distance education courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their findings suggest that effective course design, making use of prior knowledge, scaffolding instruction and encouraging social presence can mitigate distractions and reduce the cognitive load of working mothers who are college students.

https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2023/04/06/study-examines-how-working-moms-in-distance-education-navigate-distractions-and-achieve-academic-success/

A second chance for women through online learning: Ten lessons learned from the Second Chance Education Programme - UN Women

UN Women’s Second Chance Education (SCE) Programme (2018–2023) provides women who have missed out on education with a second chance to access learning and training opportunities and find pathways to personal and economic empowerment.  E-learning has been a core component of SCE from the start, offered either in tandem with face-to-face training in the hubs and other locations through a blended learning approach or through a wholly online modality. Thousands of women have been introduced to e-learning for the first time, in no small part due to the localized and creative solutions to the barriers facing women learning online: lack of digital devices, connectivity and skills; lack of confidence; and lack of relevant, relatable and contextualized content. This brief draws on the experiences across all six countries and outlines the top 10 lessons learned.

https://reliefweb.int/report/world/second-chance-women-through-online-learning-ten-lessons-learned-second-chance-education-programme

How Online Learning Is Transforming Higher Education - Stephanie Maris, Eye on Annapolis

Online learning has emerged as a transformative force in higher education, providing unprecedented educational opportunities for millions of learners worldwide. This mode of education has revolutionized the traditional education system by breaking down geographical barriers, offering greater flexibility, and improving the quality of learning experiences. Also, due to digital technologies, many educational institutions have adopted online learning, as now they offer courses and degree programs. Online education has many benefits for educators, students, and administrators alike. Here is how online learning is transforming higher education.

https://www.eyeonannapolis.net/2023/03/how-online-learning-is-transforming-higher-education/

Should educators worry about ChatGPT? - JODI HECKEL, Illinois

Some students are using models to help write their papers and do homework, and yes, that is something to worry about. We want students to learn, and if they’re just pasting an assignment into a box and hitting return, they’re not learning much.  But that’s a small part of a bigger issue, which is that the students now entering college are likely to graduate into a world transformed by artificial intelligence. Models like ChatGPT are already being integrated into word processing software and search engines. In 10 years, they will be as familiar as autocomplete is to us now. So, telling students “just say no to AI” is not going to be a sufficient way to prepare them for the 2030s. Students will be using these models, and will need to understand them.

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/49261563

What It Takes to Roll Out Digital Microcredentials - Bryan Blakeley, Evolllution

Microcredentials are only gaining more traction in the higher education space, but implementing them well requires identifying key skills in the job market, homing in on the learning required to earn these skills and creating the language to articulate these skills to employers. Microcredentials aren’t going away, so it’s critical for higher education to create and implement them in efficiently—and it will take more strategy than some may think. 

https://evolllution.com/programming/credentials/what-it-takes-to-roll-out-digital-microcredentials/

Higher education for sustainability in a post-digital world - Patrick Blesssiger, et al; University World News

The pandemic showed that we live in an increasingly hyper-connected and interdependent world and there is no turning back. The pandemic also showed the power of humanity’s resourcefulness and intelligence to respond quickly to a deadly disease. To cope with the ravaging pandemic, humanity had to create new drugs very quickly and people had to adapt to new lifestyles as a result of the global lockdown. The pandemic showed that humanity has the capacity to respond cooperatively when faced with global threats. Whether in the digital world or in the physical world, viruses can spread quickly and create a lot of disruption. Like the air we breathe, digital technology has become so pervasive and deeply ingrained in every aspect of life that we take its presence for granted.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230325073852586

Can AI-Generated Text be Reliably Detected? - Vinu Sankar Sadasivan, Aounon Kumar, Sriram Balasubramanian, Wenxiao Wang, Soheil Feizi, arXiv Forum

Empirically, we show that paraphrasing attacks, where a light paraphraser is applied on top of the generative text model, can break a whole range of detectors, including the ones using the watermarking schemes as well as neural network-based detectors and zero-shot classifiers. We then provide a theoretical impossibility result indicating that for a sufficiently good language model, even the best-possible detector can only perform marginally better than a random classifier. Finally, we show that even LLMs protected by watermarking schemes can be vulnerable against spoofing attacks where adversarial humans can infer hidden watermarking signatures and add them to their generated text to be detected as text generated by the LLMs, potentially causing reputational damages to their developers. We believe these results can open an honest conversation in the community regarding the ethical and reliable use of AI-generated text.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.11156?ref=emergentmind

Artificial intelligence has advanced despite having few resources dedicated to its development – now investments have increased substantially - Max Roser, Our World in Data

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has steadily become more powerful over the course of the last decades and in recent years it has entered our world in many different domains. In a companion article – the brief history of artificial intelligence – I document this development. This was achieved despite having relatively few resources. Until recently, investments in terms of capital and scientific efforts were small. In this article I highlight that this has very much changed in recent years. Corporate investment has increased and the scientific field has grown in size. Given how rapidly AI developed in the past, despite the limited resources, this should make us expect AI technology to continue to become more powerful in the coming decades. 

https://ourworldindata.org/ai-investments

Comparing Google Bard with OpenAI’s ChatGPT on political bias, facts, and morality - Darrell M. West, Brookings

My specific inquiries were about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a TikTok ban, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. In the tables below, I compare how each algorithm handled these topics with an eye towards how AI curation might affect civic discourse and public understanding. I should note that Bard operates differently than ChatGPT in providing three different answers, but I used only its first answer in this analysis. Generally, the comparisons are interesting in that there are discernible differences in the kinds of materials and judgments that each tool provides. For example, when asked about the Russian invasion, Bard unequivocally condemned the invasion and called it a mistake, while ChatGPT said it was not appropriate to express an opinion or take sides on that issue

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2023/03/23/comparing-google-bard-with-openais-chatgpt-on-political-bias-facts-and-morality/

11 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level - David Nield, Wired

ChatGPT and tools like it have made AI available to the masses. We can now get all sorts of responses back on almost any topic imaginable. These bots can come up with sonnets, code, philosophy, and more. However, while you can just type anything you like into ChatGPT and get it to understand you, there are ways of getting more interesting and useful results out of the bot. This “prompt engineering” is becoming a specialized skill of its own.

https://www.wired.com/story/11-tips-better-chatgpt-prompts/

Systematic Reviews of Research on Online Learning: An Introductory Look and Review - Florence Martin, Vanessa P. Dennen, Curtis J. Bonk, Online Learning Journal Vol. 27 No. 1

 This special issue features seven systematic reviews and two scoping reviews.To foster a better understanding of the state of online learning research, we have structured the issue by focus area: (1) systems level; (2) pedagogical level; and (3) people level (see Figure 1). The first and third sections each contain two articles, while the middle section contains five. At the systems level, the issue includes reviews focusing on research trends during COVID-19 and examining the features of high-quality online learning. At the pedagogical level, reviews on engagement and assessment are featured, including collaboration, help-seeking, invisible participation,intersubjectivity,and online learner assessment.The people level contains a review of the research on the role of moderators in an asynchronous online discussion and a review of the research on online learning for minoritized and first-generation students.

https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/issue/view/126

11 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level - David Nield, Wired

ChatGPT and tools like it have made AI available to the masses. We can now get all sorts of responses back on almost any topic imaginable. These bots can come up with sonnets, code, philosophy, and more. However, while you can just type anything you like into ChatGPT and get it to understand you, there are ways of getting more interesting and useful results out of the bot. This “prompt engineering” is becoming a specialized skill of its own.

https://www.wired.com/story/11-tips-better-chatgpt-prompts/

What Students Want (and Don’t) From Their Professors - Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

The latest Student Voice survey reveals perceived barriers to academic success and the top actions students think professors should take. Mixing up teaching styles and being more flexible rank high. Relatedly, half of students want professors to experiment with different teaching styles. This was the No. 2 response to a separate survey question about which faculty actions students believe would promote their academic success. Only more flexible deadlines was more popular. Relatedly, half of students want professors to experiment with different teaching styles. This was the No. 2 response to a separate survey question about which faculty actions students believe would promote their academic success. Only more flexible deadlines was more popular.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/03/24/survey-faculty-teaching-style-impedes-academic-success-students-say

Microsoft 365 Copilot Infuses Generative AI Into Every Office App - ERIC HAL SCHWARTZ, Voicebot

Microsoft has unleashed a flood of new generative AI features called Microsoft 365 Copilot for its suite of productivity software. Copilot encompasses AI assistance for all of the applications, including Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams. The AI’s integration with Microsoft’s services allows it to turn raw data into Excel graphs, design and animate a PowerPoint presentation, and translate a meeting transcription into a long-term strategic plan for a company. The natural language prompts only require a vague description of the user’s goal and a connection to the relevant documents or meeting transcriptions to gather the data.

https://voicebot.ai/2023/03/16/microsoft-365-copilot-infuses-generative-ai-into-every-office-app/

College tuition and fees up 4.7 percent since February 2020 - Bureau of Labor Statistics

Decision time! It’s Spring and, if you’re a student, you may be deciding where to go to school next year. If you’re a parent, you may be helping your kids with that decision or picking a day care or preschool for your children. For many, cost plays an important role in these decisions. Prices for college tuition and fees increased 4.7 percent from February 2020 to February 2023. This increase was less than the increase of 15.7 percent in prices for all items over the same period. From February 2020 to February 2023, prices for technical and business school tuition and fees rose 5.2 percent.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2023/college-tuition-and-fees-up-4-7-percent-since-february-2020.htm