Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping higher education, necessitating a shift from traditional teaching and assessment methods to a focus on developing adaptable "master learners" equipped to navigate a rapidly evolving world.
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We decided to change everything. Change
culture, change design, change
intellectual structure, use technology,
move in new directions, and then we
began measuring learning outcomes.
>> For all the talk about changes in higher
ed, including just this [music] week
when the University of Virginia became
the first public college to agree to
Trump administration oversight, the
biggest cause for change, AI, doesn't
come up all that often in the political
debate. For nearly a quarter century,
Michael Crowe has led the university
that is by some measures the largest in
the United States. Few people have
thought as much about American higher
education while also having the ability
to influence it on such a large scale.
But when we first talked with him a
little over a year ago, we didn't cover
artificial intelligence. A lot has
changed since then. [music] AI will
leave a lot of white collar people behind.
behind.
>> Another uncomfortable [music] truth
linked to AI.
>> AI. AI. AI. >> AI.
>> AI.
>> It's not a bubble.
>> Obviously, the most disruptive
technology in the history of mankind.
>> Egalitarian access to knowledge is at
the highest level in the history of our
species. What we have is a walking,
talking, reference library on any
subject, and we never had anything like
that in our society before.
>> We wanted to know how artificial
intelligence is changing the American
college experience, what it means for
the teachers and students who have now
made it a regular part of their lives.
But we also asked Crowe about the
outcomes for recent graduates and how
his school is preparing students for an
economy that is moving very fast.
>> What does that do to teaching? I mean,
back in the olden days, we wrote essays.
We wrote blue books back when I was
there. How do you do things like essays
and evaluations?
>> Well, I think what has to happen, and
we've experienced this at ASU with our
6,000 faculty members, several thousand
of which are already AI trained, is you
have to up the game. Perhaps we were
learning too slowly, too incrementally,
too much in a regimented or industrial
way. With the AI tools that are
available now, you can up the game, uh,
enhance the question complexity, enhance
the answer complexity, expect more of
the students. We had somebody uh, give
their test out of the business school to
an AI system and get everything right
instantly. Well, then the test is too
easy. The test is too simple. So, you
need it's basically a way in our view to
accelerate learning, to broaden
learning, and to speed learning. So, you
have to look at it as a new way to
basically make the game more intensive.
The model's always changing. So Plato,
you know, was against the written word.
He thought everything should be uh
thought through uh verbally and
communicated verbally. There were
unbelievable forces against the
development of the printed book. And so
uh the internet in its development, the
web and its development all had people
that were against it. And so AI changes
the model in the sense that it speeds it
up and intensifies it. It personalized
the learner's experience, but it doesn't
teach those core things. There's no
values being taught. There's no values
being experienced. There's no lived
experiences being built. So what we
really have here now is we just have
this massive hypers speed calculator
capable of going to all of the digitized
information. You asking a question about
that information and getting the most
probable answer. It's all about the
questions that you're asking. It's not
about the answers. It's about the
questions. And that's what people need
to really figure out.
>> Does it change the notion of cheating?
>> I'll bet humans have cheated for quite a
while. It does change the nature of what
is your work. Now, if you're answering a
complex question and you're using a
reference library and an AI system to
answer that question, that seems
legitimate. If you're if you're using it
to produce your analytical response
that's supposed to be demonstrative of
your ability, well, then you're you're
you're cheating. Uh now, you have to
then build a system which recognizes the
ability to gain access to these tools.
Now, sometimes it's just going to be you
in there by yourself taking the test
because they've got to know that you
know how to ask the question, you know
how to derive the answer, that your
brain works in a certain way. Beyond
that, the AI systems are going to
enhance learning in every possible way
and that the idea of cheating will change.
change.
>> At this point, are there some things
that you can learn that AI cannot teach
to you?
>> Absolutely. I mean, uh, you know, an AI
system can't teach you to be innovative.
It can't teach you to be creative. It
cannot teach you grit. It cannot teach
you the discovery process. It cannot
teach you I mean, it's a machine. It's a
it's an advanced hypers speed
calculator. Uh, it can do things that
you can't do. It can think around
corners that you can't see. Uh uh but of
course so can a so can a dog. And so and
so it's it's it's a powerful analytical
tool to enhance our mental capabilities,
not to replace them.
>> In order to ensure that AI is a
springboard rather than a crutch, Crow
says students and teachers will have to
raise the bar. And one place he's
already seen signs of AI's ability to
supercharge progress is in the school's
research programs. It's almost
unbelievable. We have probably 50
research groups that are using advanced
AI to solve unsolvable problems to
figure out how to process materials or
manage the Mississippi River in a
different way in terms of the flow of
the water and the flow of the dirt and
other things that go down the river.
We've got people doing advanced
chemistry now. We're using AI systems to
think beyond the way that we normally
think to create more revolutionary
opportunity. uh there was a a study
recently done by some of our faculty at
the speed with which you could complete
the work equivalent to a dissertation in
in uh genetics 14 days. What that means
then is that the PhD that normally takes
four or five years to set up the
experiments, do the experiments, do the
work, be evaluated. Maybe the PhD
student of the future will do the
equivalent of 20 PhDs. That will speed
up the cures for cancer. That will speed
up the analytical tools that will help
restore sight in human beings. that will
that will speed up the techniques that
use electromagnetic current to affect
people with Alzheimer's disease and
other neurodeenerative diseases all of
which are computationally limited
>> certainly the world has changed
enormously since I came out of college a
long time ago now but my sense is the
rate of change has really increased
maybe even geometrically how fast it's
changing how do you prepare graduates
today for a world 20 30 40 years down
the road that I can't even imagine
>> so there's there's no way to prepare
someone for something you don't know
what it will be except one thing. What
we call we're we're attempting to take
all the people that are coming to our
university, 120,000 degree seeeking
students, 700,000 other learners who are
just taking courses with us digitally
and otherwise. Can we help create you to
be a master learner? Can we help you to
be a person capable of learning
anything, adjusting to anything,
adapting to anything? It's really that
because we don't know what all of the
adaptations that will be required are.
We do know that you should be grounded
in, you know, American history and
economics and the role of democracy and
and certain subjects in math and science
and so forth and so on. And then after
that, we find a learning path for you to
take where you learn to learn. We don't
care what your major is. You can I met a
kid the other day was majoring in opera
and physics. Great. Fine. Fantastic.
That's how that kid learns. And so and
so that's what we're after. How do you
how do you create universal learners
capable of learning anything? And that's
the pathway.
>> We hear at 40,000 ft about a shifting
employment situation for recent college
graduates because of AI. Are you seeing
any of that in the real world?
>> We're not we're not seeing that in our
graduates. Now, the problem with people
talking about all college graduates,
there's more than 20 million people in
college. A couple million go to what you
think of as sleepaway colleges. You
know, they go they go to places where
you're, you know, you're living on
campus. The other 18 million go to
college in some other way, community
college, online, some kind of other
course, and so forth. So we're not
seeing any change. Uh you know we're
seeing the same level of anxiety. We're
seeing the same level of the process.
We're you know more than 95% of our
students that graduate as undergraduates
are employed or in graduate school
within the first year. Uh almost all
within the second year. Uh so we're
we're still you know seeing good ROIs.
But what we are seeing is students you
know who are quite savvy you know
adjusting their trend. So we're seeing a
slightly downward trend in computer
science and a slightly slightly upward
trend in double majoring and triple
majoring. Uh uh more uh people moving
into analytics and supply chain and all
kinds of other things. And so the market
for learning is also adjusting. [cheering and applause]
[cheering and applause]
>> We measure our success based on who we include.
include.
Crow hopes the size and scope of ASU
will help with that adjustment, allowing
students to react quickly and build new
skills for the changing world. [music]
And in a school made famous for opening
its doors rather than being exclusive,
he thinks the most important skills of
all can come from unlikely places.
>> We've even got ways now that we're using
advanced AI enhanced robots to help
people that aren't qualified to get into
a particular college to do what they
want to do to get them qualified. Guess
what? When we get them qualified, they
have more grit and determination than
anyone else who sort of walked into it
from high school and they outperform everyone.
everyone.
>> There's a theme going on right now that
maybe college has been overrated,
oversold. What do you say to parents?
>> What we have is a way for your your
child, your student to learn on the path
that's going to enhance their ability to
be most adaptive throughout their life.
So, don't worry about their major. So,
we get these parents that say, "Well, my
kid needs to major in accounting so they
can get a job, or they need to major in
anything other than political science or
history or English, where they'll never
get a job." That's actually not true.
Some of the hottest things that we have
that we're producing right now are
English majors that can code. And so,
they have a broader perspective and they
can code. And so, we provide free coding
classes to everyone in the institution.
We provide other ways in which you can
double major, triple major, take other
kinds of things. And so what we say to
parents is
let's find the way where your kid is
going to smile while learning, while
preparing themselves to be a master
learner, and you'll have to worry about
them less. If they take a fixed thing in
a fixed way, on a fixed pathway, uh they
could find themselves in an alley and no
way out. We're trying to make sure that
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