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The Rant PodcastAuthor: Eloy Ortiz Oakley
A bi-weekly podcast focused on pulling back the curtain on the American higher education system and breaking down the people, the policies and the politics. The podcast host, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, is a known innovator and leader in higher education. The podcast will not pull any punches as it delves into tough questions about the culture, politics and policies of our higher education system. Language: en-us Genres: Education, News, News Commentary Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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How University Of Phoenix Is Redefining Online Learning For Working Learners
Episode 9
Tuesday, 17 February, 2026
Send a textForget the clichés about online college. We take a clear-eyed look at the University of Phoenix with CIO Jamie Smith and unpack how how the university is rebuilding around a simple rule: design for working learners by assuming school is the third priority after family and work. That shift changes everything—from the reliability of the tech stack to the tone of a nudge—and it’s driving a wave of practical innovation that blends human care with AI “bionics.”Jamie shares how Phoenix differentiates through a clean, multi-petabyte data foundation, long-honed risk models, and a relentless focus on reducing friction outside the classroom. We explore why generic AI often fails without trustworthy data, how to set legal and ethical guardrails in a regulated space, and what it means to “build it in, not bolt it on.” You’ll hear concrete examples, from celebratory confetti that actually boosts motivation to skills-mapped coursework that flags when a learner is job-ready—then points to local openings.Culture is the other headline. Phoenix carved out weekly “AI leverage time” so engineers could experiment, document, and demo progress, while also opening safe on-ramps for non-technical teams to build useful tools without creating security headaches. Looking ahead, Jamie sketches a near future of zero-UI experiences and personal GPT copilots that know a student’s goals and rhythms, escalating to human advisors when nuance matters. We close with pragmatic advice for traditional universities under enrollment pressure: strengthen data, clarify ambitions, avoid vendor sprawl, and move IT from back-office to strategic co-leadership.If this conversation reshaped how you see online learning, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review to tell us what you want explored next.https://www.phoenix.edu/eloy@4leggedmedia.com
