REGISTER
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Colleges and universities have spent years adopting tools and otherwise figuring out how to respond to AI. Now comes the harder—and more exciting—part: Uncovering and shaping how AI is changing the underlying practices of teaching, learning and research.
From personalized learning that could fundamentally alter the faculty role to AI-assisted research that could reshape how disciplines generate and validate knowledge, new possibilities are emerging all the time.
Featuring data and expert insights, this live webcast discussion will examine what is actually happening at that frontier, and what institutions broadly will need to get there.
We’ll explore:
Where higher education is moving beyond teaching students to use AI toward developing new forms of disciplinary thinking and learning
Whether personalized AI could fundamentally change the faculty role—and what might be gained or lost in moving away from a focus on knowledge transfer
How AI is becoming part of the research process itself, from generating hypotheses to analyzing data and identifying new possibilities
Why compute, data and connectivity may become critical academic infrastructure—and what that means for institutions of all kinds
Can't attend the webcast? You should still register -- all registrants, including attendees and absentees, will receive a recording of the webcast and a copy of the presentation slides.
Wednesday, December 2, 2026 | 2 p.m. E.T.
Beyond Adoption: How AI Is Changing Learning and Discovery
SPEAKERS
Colleen Flaherty
Senior Editor for Special Content at Inside Higher Ed
Colleen Flaherty, Senior Editor for Special Content, previously served as Student Voice Editor for Inside Higher Ed. Prior to joining the publication in 2012, Colleen was military editor at the Killeen Daily Herald, outside Fort Hood, Texas. Before that, she covered government and land use issues for the Greenwich Time and Hersam Acorn Newspapers in her home state of Connecticut. After graduating from McGill University in Montreal with a degree in English literature, Colleen taught English and English as a second language in public schools in the Bronx, New York. She earned her M.S.Ed. from City University of New York Lehman College as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows program.
Sara Custer
Editor in Chief at Inside Higher Ed
Sara Custer became Inside Higher Ed's editor-in-chief in March 2024. Before joining Inside Higher Ed, she was editor of Times Higher Education's (THE) Campus, a collection of daily resources designed for higher education faculty and staff members to learn, share and connect with colleagues at universities and colleges worldwide. Prior to that, she shaped THE’s online presence as its digital editor, helping to launch THE’s newsletter strategy and overseeing daily, weekly and monthly publications. From 2012 to 2017, she served as editor and senior reporter at The PIE News, covering the international education industry. Sara grew up in Cushing, Okla., and earned a B.A. in English literature from Loyola University Chicago and an M.A. in international journalism from City, University of London.
Download and explore the leadership report, "AI and Research Infrastructure in the U.S." to get additional context ahead of the webcast.
Two more leadership reports will be released this fall, focused on teaching & learning and connectivity, offering further insights that will inform the webcast discussion.