I attended the Future of Higher Ed AI yesterday evening. The conversations were thought-provoking, and several quotes stuck with me long after the sessions ended.

“Simulations used to be faberge eggs, now they are real eggs.”

What was once rare, expensive, and carefully curated is now accessible and practical because of AI. One of the panelists spoke about a post-partum hemorrhage simulation with a chatbot that tests communication skills, complete with an AI debriefer. Faculty can see transcripts, track performance, and provide targeted feedback.

“I’m scared that education will be taken by Google U or Anthropic U.”

It’s a legitimate fear. As AI becomes more sophisticated, what’s stopping tech giants from creating their own educational institutions? What happens to traditional higher ed when anyone can access world-class AI tutors?

“Those grade reports … don’t feed into a continual improvement loop.”

“Grades do not provide meaningful feedback that lead to learning.”

“When you go to a doctor they don’t tell you pass/fail, they give you an overview of where your health is.”

We’ve built an entire system around pass/fail, A-F grades, but do they actually help students learn? Or do they just sort them into categories? Where is the feedback loop?

Other Highlights

Duet / SNHU showed how they’re using Google Meet transcripts with custom Gems to analyze student context, background, and mindset shifts. They’re connecting with systems like Salesforce to track student performance throughout the term.

Instructors are building their own AI agents since he can’t integrate them into Moodle or Canvas. They are also developing their own content because they can’t find suitable AI content elsewhere.