IgnitED Newsletter July Edition
Sharing Innovative Approaches to Higher Education
Welcome to IgnitED by WGU. This month, we look at WGU’s Learner Care Dashboard and how it could improve student outcomes; WGU President Scott Pulsipher highlights how higher education spending has grown over the years; and WGU Labs discusses jobs AI will not replace in the future and how students can gain skills that will help them compete.
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Learner Care Dashboard Could Improve Student Success
WGU developed a Learner Care Dashboard that automatically alerts faculty members when a student may need individualized support, such as if they failed an assessment or haven’t logged into their coursework for a while.
Higher Ed Spending Problem Demands Attention No Matter Court’s Opinion
“Higher education, it turns out, has been engineered beyond what should be its primary objective of arming students with the knowledge and skills needed to build better lives and careers,” writes WGU President Scott Pulsipher and Forbes Senior Contributor Michael B. Horn.
WGU Receives Global Recognition for EdTech Leadership
Western Governors University earned a Power Learner Potential Organization Award from 1EdTech Consortium™ (1EdTech), the world-leading nonprofit, edtech collaborative, at the 2023 Learning Impact Conference.
The Jobs AI Won’t Replace
Doomsday headlines about robots coming for our jobs have been popping up for years now. But with the recent rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, those headlines are beginning to sound less like a far-fetched sci-fi novel and more like an unavoidable reality.
News We're Reading
HR Dive: Gen Z Values Education — But Doesn’t Think a Four-Year Degree is the Only Option
In 2023, 65% of surveyed students said they would need education beyond high school, compared to 59% pre-pandemic, the report said. But 59% said they could be successful if they don’t get a four-year degree.
University Business: Despite Concerns, Only 3% of Colleges Have Developed Student Policy on AI
The rate of administrators who believe AI generative writing tools would positively affect student learning shot up by 24% among those who used it compared to those who haven't, according to a recent survey.
WGU Student Story
Kimberly Sharp
B.S. Nursing (2021)
Indianapolis, Indiana
Kimberly Sharp founded a public education prevention program in Indianapolis in order to help address her county’s opioid crisis.
Kimberly taught a 90-minute workshop on the use of opioids, the role of prescription drugs in the crisis, Naloxone as the reversal agent for an opioid overdose, and how to administer it. She provided free Naloxone kits to participants thanks to funding from a grant she secured. From 2015 to 2019, she distributed nearly 1,000 doses of Naloxone and trained more than 500 people on life-saving measures. When the pandemic shut down the operation, she adapted and moved her program online, later resuming it in-person.
