Summer Reading: How emerging technology is reshaping higher ed

Pressure is growing for colleges to improve student outcomes, but sliding enrollment and tighter budgets threaten their ability to do so. In response, they are deploying technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics that promise to help them do more with less.  Some colleges are using those tools to improve how they recruit and retain students. Others are using them to bring more accessibility into the classroom or to create personalized learning plans. But effective implementation is key, as the wrong move could negatively impact the student experience and even push learners away. In the five stories below, we examine how colleges are putting such technologies to work and what higher education leaders need to know to implement them effectively. In 2014, leaders from 11 prominent public research universities teamed up to study how they could use predictive analytics to enroll and graduate more underserved students. At the time, few colleges were collaboratively using their data that way. "There were a lot of people doing a lot of very interesting work, but those ideas often weren't being shared, and everyone was going through the same trial and error," said Bridget Burns, executive director of the group those colleges formed, the University Innovation Alliance.