These Higher Ed Stories Resonated Most in 2024
As the new year begins, we rank the top EdTech higher education articles, based on clicks by readers like you.
We’ve been crunching the numbers, and your votes are in. Here’s the countdown of the top EdTech stories about the college world in 2024, based on readership.
Nearly half of the stories in our top 7 involve the impact that AI tools like ChatGPT are having on campuses. No surprise there, considering that just about every week brings new AI products, and students rushing to social media to share how they’re using them on assignments. But the No. 1 story was about how to provide adequate education to those who can’t view screens.
Many of the top stories raise fundamental questions about higher education. How much should college cost (and what are people really paying)? What resources should be offered (in places like the campus library)? How should teaching change for a group of students whose studies and social lives were disrupted by COVID-19 (and instructors who had a crash-course in online teaching)? And when did so many high school students start taking community college courses (and what does that mean for college access)?
The year ahead promises to raise plenty of surprising new questions. Whatever happens, we look forward to sharing what we learn with you. Thanks for reading!
7. Online Teaching Is Improving In-Person Instruction on Campus
Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced instructors around the world to try online education, something unexpected has happened: Professors have found that there are some online teaching methods that work better than what can be done in the limits of a physical classroom, argues Robert Ubell, a longtime leader of online education efforts.
6. Are Colleges Ready For an Online-Education World Without OPMs?
A longtime administrator of online programs at colleges says he has mixed feelings about the idea of shutting down a model that has helped many institutions start offering online degrees, but which gave support companies a large cut of online revenue. He says the question boils down to: Are colleges ready for a world without OPMs?
5. Do Shocking College Tuition Prices Reflect What Students Actually Pay?
More high schoolers say they’re unsure about college, in part because of the huge tuition price tags. But there’s a difference between the cost of attendance and what students actually pay on average, an EdTech analysis finds. Find out how students can get a more accurate estimate for tuition.
4. To Understand ChatGPT’s Impact on Higher Education, Think Like a Scientist
Two leaders from Columbia University argue that scientific research should be used to study the impact of ChatGPT and other AI tools on higher education — and they offer three research approaches to better understand how to use them.
3. A Technologist Spent Years Building an AI Chatbot Tutor. He Decided It Can’t Be Done.
Companies and technologists are rushing to apply the latest AI chatbots to fulfill the long-held dream of building a personalized digital tutor. But at least one longtime AI developer argues that it isn’t possible, and that the best use of AI is to assist human tutors and teachers, not replace them.
2. What Brings Gen Z to the Library?
Young people look to libraries to provide safe places to hang out and to access resources like free Wi-Fi, makerspaces and tech equipment — expectations they carry with them to college, according to people who work in and with academic libraries. Here’s how Gen Z is changing the campus library. Surprise: These digital natives still value print.
1. Professors Try ‘Restrained AI’ Approach to Help Teach Writing
Could AI help students improve their writing without totally taking over the process? Two English professors have outlined a vision of “restrained generative AI,” and they’ve built a software tool to test their idea for using technology to turn notes into prose.
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