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. They say you'll find it useful in making it something more.
Paul LeBlanc, outgoing president of Southern New Hampshire University, said at a University of London event that universities should learn from other industries facing existential threats and that to survive they must be “brave” and “play by different rules.” “I need to do it,” he said. .
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), saying that universities can evolve sufficiently through their own “internal change mechanisms.” He said that would never happen.
“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 way. There are too many business interests.”
“This is a massively disruptive innovation that, in my view, will change everything, so some universities will go out of business,” he added.
“Some people may continue because education is not the goal. So, for example, at Harvard, the value of that network is just as important as being a Harvard graduate and belonging to a club. That's still important. and AI has no impact on 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, hopeful universities are those that phase out old ways of doing things and replace them with new ones. It is said to be an alternative university. They introduced new innovations 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 not disrupted by known competitors. We are going to be disrupted by sudden events that we didn’t expect, so we also think seriously about learning from other industries.” 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 hindering the social development of the coronavirus generation, as well as a link between the amount of time people spend alone without socializing and loneliness and widespread mental health problems. He said the study showed 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 can leverage data stored in its systems to track students and understand, for example, when students are not logged on or do not perform as expected on exams. A follow-up call will be made, he said. .
“That conversation can be the thing that saves students and gets them across the finish line,” Dr. LeBlanc said, adding that it showed how technology can be deployed to support relationships in “powerful ways.” Stated.
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. will be incorporated into education. For example, it could tell if someone had a bad night's sleep, he said, so they could advise them to prioritize sleep over class.
tom.williams@timehighereducation.com
