Category: Nuventive Blog

Nuventive’s AI recap continues with a look at the second webinar in our 10-part series, exploring artificial intelligence in higher education through an accreditor’s lens.

Webinar Details: An Accreditor’s View of AI in Higher Education

Watch the full replay HERE. 
Date Recorded: December 16, 2023
Featured Speakers: Dr. David Raney, CEO, Nuventive; Dr. Belle Wheelan, President, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC)

---

Each week, we’ll distill key takeaways and share short clips from our conversations with presidents, provosts, and leaders in institutional research, assessment, and technology—turning big ideas into practical steps for improvement. This week, we look at An Accreditor’s View of AI in Higher Education.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer an abstract concept on the horizon—it is reshaping higher education. From classrooms to accreditation offices, institutions are navigating its promises, pitfalls, and implications for governance.

The central question is not if AI will impact higher education, but how institutions will adapt.

As Dr. Belle Wheelan, President, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) emphasized:

“AI is not going away. Our role is to figure out how to make it work for us, not against us.”

Accreditation standards remain unchanged, but the ways institutions demonstrate compliance and effectiveness may evolve. Dr. David Raney, CEO, Nuventive framed it this way:

“At Nuventive, we ask whether AI makes things better for individuals, groups, and institutions. If it doesn’t improve outcomes, it’s just noise.”

This webinar explored AI through the lens of accreditation and continuous improvement—placing the human element at the center of the discussion.

• Students are using AI to write papers.
• Admissions offices are exploring AI to support application reviews.
• Presidents’ offices are considering AI for planning and decision-making.
• Faculty are experimenting with AI in instruction and research

• Are institutional reports written with integrity if AI is used?
• Are faculty trained to recognize and guide AI use in classrooms?
• Are plagiarism and misuse policies up to date?
• Are students being taught to ask better questions of AI tools?

View the video clip HERE. (1 minutes 56 seconds)

• Instructional enhancement: Supporting research, personalized learning, and instructional design.
• Operational efficiency: Turning large datasets into actionable insights for planning and accreditation.
• Student engagement: Helping students learn how to evaluate sources, select better algorithms, and personalize pathways.

• Finance and reporting: Errors in budgets or compliance reports could create major issues.
• Data interpretation: Incorrect results from AI-driven analytics.
• Student well-being: Risk of isolation as students lean on technology rather than human interaction.

As Dr. Raney discussed, “AI can deepen our personal connection with technology, but we can’t let it replace the human relationships at the core of education.”

1. AI is embedded in higher education – from admissions to instruction to presidential strategy. “AI is here to stay. We can’t pretend it’s a passing fad.” – Dr. Wheelan
2. Accreditation standards remain constant – policies, outcomes, and integrity are the focus – whether AI is involved or not. “It’s not about creating new rules—it’s about applying the same ones consistently.” – Dr. Wheelan
3. Promise and caution must be balanced – AI can improve efficiency and learning, but financial misuse, poor governance, and student well-being risks are real.
4. Institutions should learn from one another – sharing successes and failures will accelerate adoption and confidence.
5. Human oversight remains central – accreditation and improvement must remain people-driven, with AI as a support tool, not a replacement.

“AI should help us improve, not decide for us.” – Dr. Raney

From Congress to Campus: Discussions on the Impact of AI on Higher Education – Dr. José-Marie Griffiths, President, Dakota State University; and Dr. Michael J. Jabbour, Chief Innovation Officer, Microsoft Education.  Moderated by Dr. Jim Moran, Advisor to Nuventive.  Recorded December 5, 2023.  View the replay now.

Interested in learning more about the Nuventive Improvement Platform?

EDUCAUSE recently presented their annual 2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10: Restoring Trust. This publication outlines the priorities CIOs must address to restore trust in higher education.

2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10: Restoring Trust

Read the EDUCAUSE publication HERE. 

Introductory excerpt from EDUCAUSE

“Higher education has a trust problem. In the past ten years, the share of Americans who are confident in higher education has dropped from 57 percent to 36 percent.

Colleges and universities need to show that they understand and care about students, faculty, staff, and community members, AND they need to work efficiently and effectively.”

---

This post demonstrates how the Nuventive Improvement Platform can be a valuable asset for CIOs as they address these imperatives:

At its core, the Nuventive Improvement Platform empowers institutions to use data to deliver improvement, creating a culture of data-informed improvement. We also support leaders’ ability to effectively tell their improvement stories with credible evidence.

Aligning planning across academic and administrative units breaks down information and business process silos, which in turn leads to better outcomes, better communication, and better visibility. Nuventive brings all relevant information into the Information Panel regardless of where it originated, in context of the problem being solved. In the assessment office, many institutions are still using spreadsheet-based reporting processes, which Nuventive completely transforms.

Customers use Nuventive to manage student success generally, including both academic and non-academic areas. Nuventive is used extensively to improve learning outcomes from the course level up through the entire institutional strategy. The Nuventive Improvement Platform can connect student success initiatives to any other strategic improvement initiatives at the institution, providing unprecedented visibility, supported by a wide array of student success data. By enabling institutions to manage improvement from the course level on up, Nuventive empowers them to see what’s working and what isn’t, so they can make high-impact changes.

While Nuventive isn’t directly involved here, we support this by being SOC 2 Type II compliant and supporting user-based access to information held in Nuventive.

Success starts with culture, not technology. Leaders should make sure faculty, staff, and students feel included rather than having AI initiatives “done to them.” Consensus is built through dialogue and trust. 

As with any other improvement initiative, Nuventive can manage digital strategy projects to capture progress and effective practices. Additionally, a strength of Nuventive’s is capturing institutional memory, capturing the “what we did and why” information that leaders need as they step into new roles.

Nuventive supports building institutional capacity to adapt to changing conditions, speeding up the path to decisions by gathering contextual information for consideration. Nuventive users can identify whether something is improving or not, as well as what actions/strategies led to the improvement.  They can also see what is working, at scale, across aligned strategic initiatives. By sharing effective practices throughout the institution, leaders can facilitate creating a culture of adaptive learning and agility.

As noted above, Nuventive streamlines inefficient processes and increases decision-making agility. Nuventive gives visibility into both the information ecosystem and the business-process ecosystem in a way that allows users to identify what is and isn’t working and what strategies are associated with success.

This is yet another example of an improvement process that can me managed in Nuventive.

Likewise, this is an improvement process that can be managed in Nuventive to track and demonstrate increased effectiveness.

Interested in learning more about Nuventive?

Want more information about the Nuventive Improvement Platform?

Nuventive’s recap of “The Human Factor of AI in Higher Education,” a 10-part webinar series, starts with a review of takeaways from our first event.

Webinar Details: AI’s Impact on Higher Education Improvement: Exploring the Human Element

Watch the full replay HERE. 
Date Recorded: October 17, 2023 
Featured Speakers: Dr. David Raney: CEO, Nuventive;  Rob Curtin: Director, Data and AI, Edtech Ecosystem, Microsoft; Moderated by Dr. Brent Ruben: Senior Advisor, Nuventive; Distinguished Professor of Communication; Founder/Senior Fellow, Center for Organizational Leadership, Rutgers University 

---

Each week, we’ll distill key takeaways and share short clips from our conversations with presidents, provosts, and leaders in institutional research, assessment, and technology—turning big ideas into practical steps for improvement. We begin with “AI’s Impact on Higher Education Improvement: Exploring the Human Element.”  

AI has burst into higher education with a mix of excitement, hesitation, and opportunities. Institutions are working to find AI applications that have actual impact and go beyond flashy demonstrations. Many early conversations have centered on instruction, assessment, plagiarism, and academic integrity. Administrative uses of AI are growing. 

Rob Curtin, Director, Data and AI, Edtech Ecosystem, Microsoft, described AI as a skills imperative rather than just a threat to academic integrity. 

Focus areas include: 

Safety and Security. AI is being deployed to detect and defend against cyber threats, a critical issue since higher education is one of the most frequently attacked industries. 

Personalization and Experience. Tools like Microsoft Copilot are designed to save time, improve efficiency, and create better outcomes for both faculty and students. 

Community and Access. AI has the potential to re-engage adult learners, bring back students who have stopped out, and open doors for entirely new audiences. 

Self-Actualization. AI can support discovery, research, and personalized learning pathways that align with each learner’s goals. 

The bottom line is clear:

AI succeeds only when it is tied to the institutional mission. Deployments fail when AI is adopted “for AI’s sake” without governance or a clear purpose. 

View the video clip HERE. (1 minute) 

Dr. David Raney, CEO, Nuventive, looked at AI through the lens of human impact: does it make things better for individuals, groups, and institutions? 

Dr. Raney emphasized three human factors: 

1. AI increasingly feels “human,” and it will deepen our personal connections with technology. 
2. People want to be understood, and this can create powerful emotional ties with AI.
3. It is critical to keep AI grounded in outcomes and improvement rather than letting fear or hype drive decisions. 

View the video clip HERE. (2 minutes 44 seconds)

It’s essential for institutions to learn from one another. Sharing both successes and opportunities for growth across campuses, states, and associations helps everyone move faster with intention. 

The call to action is to experiment, document what works, and spread those lessons in ways that build value and confidence across the community. 

Success starts with culture, not technology. Leaders should make sure faculty, staff, and students feel included rather than having AI initiatives “done to them.” Consensus is built through dialogue and trust. 

Two strategies emerged: 

Walk, Then Run. Start with small, purposeful pilots that have measurable outcomes, and scale once there’s proof of value. 

Run Wild in Parallel. Encourage exploration and innovation while maintaining guardrails to ensure projects stay aligned with the mission. 

The human factor must remain central. AI should always support improvement, inclusion, and equity, not replace human decision-making. Governance, transparency, and policy guardrails are critical to align innovation with the institutional mission. AI is transformative, but it will only deliver long-term value if it is used ethically and intentionally. 

Check back next Wednesday for a look back at our second webinar in the series, “An Accreditor’s View of AI in Higher Education” featuring Dr. Belle Wheelan, President, SACSCOC, Ret.; interviewed by Dr. David Raney, CEO, Nuventive. Recorded December 16, 2023.  View the replay now. 

Interested in learning more about the Nuventive Improvement Platform?