There will be “more victims than winners” as artificial intelligence disrupts universities, according to an online education pioneer, but institutions that use artificial intelligence appropriately will find new technology more humanizing learning. Online education pioneers say it will prove useful in making it more of a reality.
Paul LeBlanc, outgoing president of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), said at a University of London event that universities should learn from other industries facing existential threats, be “brave” and “play by different rules.” There is a need,” he said. “To survive.
Dr. LeBlanc cited Harvard University professor Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation (the theory that the emergence of new entrants fundamentally changes existing industries) and argued that universities can fully evolve through their own “internal change mechanisms.” Said he would never do it.
“Disruptive innovation is about changing the rules of the game, not the existing system itself,” he said during a discussion about online and in-person education. “You're destroying yourself in a sense. There are too many business interests.”
“This is a massively disruptive innovation, so some universities will go out of business. In my opinion, it will change everything,” he added.
“Some people may continue because it's not about education. So Harvard, for example, values that network just as much as being a Harvard graduate and belonging to a club. That's It’s still important, and AI won’t affect that.”
According to Dr. LeBlanc, who spent more than 20 years transforming SNHU from a small regional institution to a university that teaches online to 225,000 people around the world, a university with hope: , the university is said to be phasing out old ways of doing things. Replace them with innovation in the same way that telephone companies switched from offering landlines to offering broadband.
“If we're lucky and a lot of things go wrong, we'll start transitioning,” he says. “That's difficult. In the world of disruptive innovation, there are more victims than winners, but it's possible.
“University leaders have to be brave about this because in order to reinvent education, we need to conserve that space and create resources when they are scarce.
“Most of us are unencumbered by known competitors. We also think twice about learning from other industries because we get disrupted when something suddenly happens that we didn’t expect.” I have to.”
Amanda Spielman, former chief inspector at English schools regulator Ofsted, who sat on the same panel, warned that there were “hugely large parts of human and social development” that technology could not deliver.
He cited evidence that the switch to online learning during the pandemic is hampering the social development of the coronavirus generation, as well as the amount of time people spend alone without socializing and loneliness, as well as wider mental health issues. He said research shows there is a “very strong association” between
However, Dr LeBlanc said SNHU uses an advisory system to support its learners, most of whom are mature students juggling other obligations, and which also includes groups such as refugees and the homeless. He said that
The university uses the data stored in its systems to track students and understand, for example, if a student does not log on or do not perform as expected on an exam, and follow-up He said it would be an opportunity for him to make a phone call. .
“Those conversations can be what saves students and gets them across the finish line,” Dr. LeBlanc said, showing how technology can be deployed to support relationships in “powerful ways.”
Dr. LeBlanc, who is leaving SNHU to start a new AI education company, says the venture will build on these ideas and use devices that track heart rate to gain further insight into how students are doing. He said that it would be incorporated into education. For example, it could tell if someone is a light sleeper, so they could advise them to prioritize sleep over class, he said.
tom.williams@timehighereducation.com
