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California Compete’s study recommends a series of specific, actionable steps that colleges can implement right away—without a lot of excessive planning or budget resources—to encourage such comebackers to re-enroll. The report organizes these recommendations into four main categories: adapt to meet the needs of today’s students, conduct strategic outreach, remove re-enrollment barriers, and provide ongoing support.

The BLS’s Occupational Outlook Handbook contains a list of the 20 jobs with the highest projected growth in openings between 2018 and 2028, including ten fields which can be prepared for online. What follows is a discussion of each career’s expected growth, salary ranges, and examples of accredited online programs to train for these dynamic fields.

These great apps can help even the most resourceful online student stay organized, write papers, prepare presentations, and network.

As the “next iteration of the internet,” the Metaverse remains a hot topic across industries. While some educators remain skeptical of the security risks and ramifications of teaching in the Metaverse, other educators are excited to trailblaze and work out the knots of providing learning opportunities in the platform.

Non-degree credentials can be an option for many who don’t have the resources or inclination to complete a college degree. They can take on many forms, including certificates, certifications, badges, professional licensing, or even an apprenticeship.

In addition to working to expand edtech learning opportunities in Asia and Africa, developing Latin American countries, such as the Dominican Republic, are also working closely with multilateral organizations to improve learning opportunities through emerging edtech tools such as adaptive technology—tools that deliver customized learning experiences to and address the unique needs of individual students through various learning options as compared to traditional one-size-fits-all learning experiences.

Adaptive learning is the use of software platforms to allow college and university students to not only learn from the comfort of their own homes, but to learn in a way that makes sense for them. Adaptive learning is not simply the technology that allows for students to watch lectures after work or to post online messages to their classmates, it is technology that learns about students as they learn and then presents the best version of a course for that individual, thereby adapting the process to his or her needs.

Probably no challenge hinders the adoption of generative artificial intelligence in online education like the now well-known defect of “hallucinations.” This fault repeatedly results in AI platforms’ lying about facts with unwavering confidence, as we’ve explained in several recent reports here on OnlineEducaiton.com.

Big Tech’s increasing role in AI-driven education, such as Google’s recent integration of Gemini into classrooms, signals a larger shift in the learning landscape. We spoke with digital anthropologist David Davies to learn more about the influence of AI on teaching, student learning, and broader society.

AI technology, still in its nascent stages, is rapidly evolving and finding its footing in various sectors, including digital education. Its potential and exploratory applications are particularly promising, offering personalized learning paths, adaptive teaching methods, and interactive learning environments. But this pioneering phase of AI is marked by a blend of enthusiasm and caution, as stakeholders seek to understand and optimize its capabilities while addressing ethical, privacy, and equity concerns.

According to a recent McKinsey survey, teachers are working an average of 50 hours a week, and further research estimates that 20 to 40 percent of those hours are spent on activities that could be automated using existing technology.

Nobody seems to understand completely why AllHere—a high-profile artificial intelligence startup with $12 million in venture capital and a $6 million contract from one of the nation’s largest school districts—suddenly went out of business in June 2024. Then, in an ominous turn of events during the following September, prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice served a grand jury subpoena on the trustee managing AllHere’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

Amazon’s investment in universities, while beneficial, presents a delicate balance between fostering innovation and ensuring that academic research remains independent from corporate interests.

In May 2023, the U.S. Department of Education released a highly-anticipated set of proposed rules designed to protect student loan borrowers. Any potential online student who plans to pay for their program through student loans must know how these changes will affect them. The draft protections center around a new gainful employment rule, accompanied by related regulations to ensure that potential students accurately understand their financial obligations when enrolling in particular programs.

Online education firm Chegg’s stock crashed by almost 50 percent on May 2 after the firm said Open AI’s ChatGPT was hurting its business. Overnight, Chegg lost $1 billion in market capitalization after acknowledging that increasing numbers of students are using free chatbots to help with homework instead of paying for its study aids.

In June 2023, a controversial new survey appeared that’s likely to have significant repercussions for online education. Unlike other recent polls, this study focuses scrutiny on several sharp differences of opinion between college students and their professors.

Traffic to the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT’s website and downloads of its mobile app plummeted in June for the first time since the platform’s explosive November 2022 launch. That surprising news about the fastest-growing technology platform in history is based on shocking new data released in July by several internet marketing research firms.

San Francisco 49ers’ chief executive Jed York stands accused of insider trading and violating federal securities laws in two lawsuits against the leadership of a Silicon Valley online education firm. Defendants include the officers and board of directors of Chegg Inc., where York has served as a director since 2013.

In February 2023, the University of California stopped enabling undergraduates to earn 100 percent, completely online degrees. We covered that story in March 2023. But only a year later, the university lifted that ban in a landmark endorsement of online education. Since then, the nine undergraduate UC campuses have been free to begin developing fully online degree programs.

The new results may herald a substantial shift in students’ preferences for personal academic support. Eighty-five percent of the college and high school respondents reported that ChatGPT’s tutoring was more effective than learning from their tutors. And among parents of elementary school children, almost all of them—96 percent—reported that working with a tutor was less effective for their children than studying with ChatGPT.

One of 2023’s hottest stories in online education has continued to develop: the University of Arkansas System’s Board of Trustees struck down a controversial resolution favoring a takeover of the for-profit University of Phoenix. After a contentious three-hour debate days before a preliminary session, on April 24, the board narrowly rejected an endorsement of the acquisition’s agreement by a five-to-four margin.

The University of Phoenix’s acquisition by the State of Idaho may be a step farther away following a surprising legal action by Idaho’s attorney general. The Idaho State Board of Education—the board of regents for the University of Idaho—met in three closed executive sessions to discuss the Phoenix deal.

The University of Idaho will acquire the University of Phoenix for $550 million in a deal that the Idaho State Board of Education approved on May 18. The unanimous vote occurred only weeks after a similar University of Arkansas proposal collapsed, following a divisive debate where one trustee complained that the for-profit Phoenix has a “terrible reputation.”

Previously, it was thought that K-12 teachers across America were mainly using artificial intelligence tools to save time and effort on administrative tasks and lesson plans. But a controversial June 2024 report suggests that automated AI software could actually be assigning grades for writing assignments completed by a growing segment of California’s elementary, junior high, middle, and high school students.

New survey data recently appeared about the adoption rates of generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT by college students and faculty. Although many of these findings released by Tyton Partners aligned with expectations, some of these data will certainly leave analysts and observers scratching their heads.