Welcome to The Education Exchange, a monthly newsletter exploring the ideas, questions and conversations shaping education across K-20 and lifelong learning.
Each month, we’ll share a reflection on a timely topic, highlight a few conversations we’re following, revisit insights from the archive and point you toward resources you may have missed. Our goal is not to cover everything happening in education. Instead, we aim to surface thought-provoking ideas, emerging trends, and practical perspectives that can help inform your work and spark new conversations.
Conversations we’re following.
Across education, these are some of the ideas sparking discussion and debate.
The public value question reaches a new low.
According to Gallup data released this month, only 31% of Americans say a college education is “very important.” That’s the lowest share since the organization began asking in 1978, and down from 70% as recently as 2013. Over the same period, the share calling college “not too important” climbed from 6% to 29%.
The picture is more complicated than the headline. Gallup links part of the decline to rising concerns about cost. Yet a separate Lumina Foundation-Gallup study found that 73% of workers without a degree, and 69% of graduates, say earning one is at least as important as it was two decades ago.
Why it matters: The gap between how people view university or college in the abstract and how they experience its value at work is where institutions have room to act. Making the value of learning visible, through outcomes, relationships and the everyday student experience, may matter as much as any messaging campaign.
AI governance moves from policy to practice.
Many institutions have moved past asking whether AI needs governance. The questions now are who owns it, how decisions get made and when they get revisited.
New research from D2L, WCET and Opened Culture suggests many campuses already hold more of what effective governance requires than they realize. Drawing on a survey and interviews with academic leaders on six continents, the study found that institutions making progress started from their mission and values, extended the policies and committees they already had, named an owner for the work and set dates to revisit each decision. The research also points to governance as a way to build AI literacies among the people responsible for it.
This resulting guide, Governing AI from Strength: An Action Guide on AI Governance Strategy and AI Literacies Development for Academic Leaders, pairs eight findings with role-based actions, a leadership roadmap and practical worksheets.
Why it matters: Across education, institutions are being asked to make decisions about technologies, policies and practices that are evolving faster than ever. The challenge is not starting from scratch. It’s building readiness from the people, structures and values already in place.
What does readiness look like in a time of rapid change?
For a long time, the learning management system was treated like a de facto filing cabinet. It held the syllabus, collected assignments, and recorded grades. The teaching happened somewhere else.
That is no longer true. For many institutions, the LMS is the center of the learning itself, in online and in-person courses alike. The line between the physical classroom and the digital one has blurred, and work moves freely between them. Students arrive expecting learning experiences as interactive and well designed as the rest of their digital lives.
When a system becomes that central, choosing it stops being purely a technology purchase. As Dr. M. Francyne Huckaby, Assistant Provost at Texas Christian University, shared in a recent conversation about LMS selection, in choosing the software, “you’re building the institution.” Today’s technology choices shape what faculty and students can do for years to come.
That changes what readiness means. If technology choices help shape the future of an institution, then readiness cannot be measured by functionality alone. It also depends on the relationships, perspectives, and educational goals surrounding the decision. Questions like these become just as important as any checklist:
- Whose voices shaped the decision? Faculty and students, the people who live with a system every day, notice things committees miss. Bringing them in takes more time and effort, but it builds trust in the outcome.
- Are we starting from learning or from the tool? It’s tempting to let a platform’s capabilities define the experience. The stronger approach starts with the learning an institution wants to make possible, then asks who can help build it.
- Is this a vendor or a partner? A vendor sells a product. A partner listens before it pitches and stays invested once the contract is signed. How a provider behaves during selection is often the clearest preview of how it will behave afterward.
AI sharpens all of this. Much like the mass-printed book, which pushed educators to rethink curriculum, sequencing and assessment, AI raises a more fundamental question: what is the role of the human in education, and what should stay in human hands? For now, many institutions are answering with choice and oversight: tools faculty can opt into, and a person reviewing AI-generated material before it reaches students.
Perhaps readiness isn’t about predicting what will come next. Instead, it may be about choosing the systems, processes, and partners that let an institution keep asking good questions as the answers keep changing.
This reflection draws on Beyond Features: A Modern Framework for LMS Selection, a webinar featuring leaders from TCU and MIT xPRO. Watch it on demand and download our companion guide to modern LMS evaluation.
ICYMI
A few recent resources from D2L you may have missed.
D2L launch week: Intelligent By Design, now on demand
If you missed our latest launch week, all three sessions are available to watch. See the latest Q3 releases across D2L Lumi and Createspace for higher education, K-12, corporate learning and associations, and catch a virtual roundtable on what leaders need from their technology partners to design, govern, and embed AI with confidence.
The student success strategy we’re still overlooking, with Peter Felten
The season 5 premiere of D2L’s Teach & Learn podcast. Peter Felten of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning joins Dr. Cristi Ford to talk about relationship-rich education, the idea of “relentless welcome” and how institutions can build cultures where students feel seen and supported.
Research Minute: reducing cognitive load through course design
Dr. Jessica S. Kruger of the University at Buffalo explored what happens when courses share a consistent structure. Students described well-organized courses as easier to navigate, less stressful, and more supportive of their learning. The findings highlight how small, predictable design choices can have an outsized impact on the learner experience.
LTI 1.1 is retiring: what D2L Brightspace admins need to know now
LMS providers across the industry are retiring LTI 1.1 in favor of the more secure LTI 1.3. For Brightspace, the change is phased through October 2027. This piece covers the key dates, migration steps, and the AI governance questions that come next.
Your assignment
Consider the following question:
If your institution were making a major technology decision today, what factor would carry more weight than it did five years ago?
Share your thoughts with us on LinkedIn.
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