College administrators have many things that can keep them awake at night. Artificial intelligence (AI) is without a doubt one of them.
Only 23% of administrators and faculty at four-year institutions say their schools are prepared for AI-related changes.
Coursera hopes to change these numbers – by educating university leaders on the basics of generative AI that are already being used by and impacting students and the workforce, and how the curriculum and university operations can adapt to the times. Exclusive to Fortune, the education platform is announcing a new, free learning opportunity, “Generative AI for College Leaders,” to do just that.
The course is taught by Jules White, professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University, and includes content from Coursera’s CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda.
Maggioncalda says schools need to adapt faster than they are now to avoid being left behind forever.
“AI may not replace teachers, but teachers who use AI can replace teachers who do not,” says Maggioncalda Fortune. “AI may not replace schools, but schools that use AI can replace schools that don’t.”
Why should university leaders pay more attention to AI?
The new course is structured in three modules and consists of a variety of videos, lectures and assignments. It also includes a lab manager who shows exactly how ChatGPT and other generative AI tools can be used as a thought partner when updating curriculum or establishing university policies and priorities. The course is intended for university leaders who are in a policy-making position, whether that is chancellor, president, dean, provost or department head.
Maggioncalda explains in two major themes why every school leader should pay more attention to generative AI:
- Students are already far ahead of administrators
- The business world expects graduates to have the skills that you are not teaching today
He pointed to the fact that 93% of students in India are actively engaged with generative AI technology, and over the summer, ChatGPT saw a slight dip in usage – which could indicate that students are indeed relying on it during school.
Additionally, 66% of business leaders say they would not hire someone with AI skills and 71% would rather hire someone with AI skills than a more experienced candidate without them, according to a Microsoft and LinkedIn survey.
Maggioncalda similarly released a course earlier this year aimed at teaching CEOs the ins and outs of generative AI.
Changing ChatGPT fears
When ChatGPT first exploded, one of the biggest concerns was that education would be changed forever because of the ability for students to cheat more easily, but White says this missed the point and underestimated the value of the technology. However, Maggioncalda notes that much of the fear has shifted from cheating to exactly how big the AI transformations will be.
“We’re going to have to change what our students are learning so that they have these new skills, but at the same time it’s going to impact faculty, and how this creates all these new great opportunities for how we’re going to create content,” White explains.
Embracing and understanding the use of AI is largely important, he adds. Hence, his other big rodeo when it comes to teaching on Coursera: White’s Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT course was the second most popular on all of Coursera in 2023.
White, who is also a senior advisor to the chancellor of Vanderbilt on generative AI in education, says most universities are still struggling to find a balance between acceptable AI use in the classroom, admissions processes and even research .
This could be seen as a red flag for higher education, based on the fact that a study by professors from Princeton, UPenn, and NYU found that 14 of the 20 professions most exposed to AI language modeling are all post-secondary teachers.
“No other job category has seen the incremental increase in impact than teachers. And they will have to teach everyone how to do all their work differently,” says Maggioncalda, adding that the world will look to educators to lead the rest of the world in tackling the AI transformation.
“Educators must take the lead,” he concludes.
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