October 2025 Edition

This last month has brought a wave of AI announcements that actually matter, from Anthropic's new advisory board to OpenAI's Greek pilot to major tech partnerships reshaping campus strategy.

Meanwhile, enrollment data shows unexpected growth in community colleges and dual enrollment, and blockchain credentials are finally moving from pilot to practice. Here's what you need to know from a month that moved faster than most higher ed leaders could keep up with.

Brought to you by MackeyStrategies - strategic consultants helping educational institutions advance their missions through technology, communications, and fundraising.

A Month that Shook Higher Ed by Jeff Dillon

Higher education just lived through 30 days it won't forget.

A $100,000 H-1B visa fee blindsided universities mid-recruitment.

Anthology's bankruptcy left thousands of campuses wondering if their core systems would survive the semester.

And the Trump Higher Education Compact landed with policy changes so sweeping that MIT rejected it outright within hours.

The ground has shifted.

Leaders who understand what just happened, and why, will be the ones who navigate what comes next. Read the Stories on EdTech Connect to see what it means for the future of higher education.

Join Our Webinars

Connection First: Digital Engagement and AI Discovery for Today’s Campus

Today's students live in a digital-first world where their college journey begins long before they step on campus, it starts with a scroll, a search, or a click.

In this session, discover how to meet students where they are by connecting three essential pillars of the digital student experience: social media engagement, authentic digital leadership, and intelligent website search.

Dr. Josie Ahlquist and Jeff Dillon will show you how to transform fragmented digital touchpoints into a cohesive strategy that builds trust, reveals student needs, and creates pathways to belonging, both online and off.

In this webinar, you'll learn:

• How to create authentic digital leadership and purposeful engagement strategies that build trust and belonging with Gen Z students, moving beyond vanity metrics to meaningful connections both online and offline
  
• Why your website is your institution's "digital front door" and how AI-powered site search helps students find critical resources faster (from admissions deadlines to mental health support)
  
• How to turn search insights into strategic action across marketing, enrollment, and student affairs, using data to reveal what students truly need and respond with clarity, speed, and confidence

Oct 21st | 10:00 AM PT

From PDFs to eForms: One College's Money-Saving Transformation

Institutions rely on forms to run nearly every campus process, but when built on rigid fillable PDFs with manual workflows, they become liabilities rather than assets. Submission errors, manual follow-ups, and frustrated users can stall strategic goals and cost institutions thousands of dollars.

Join Sebastian Barron, Vice President of Technology at Paris Junior College, and Ricardo Rengifo, President of DBS Software & Services, moderated by Jeff Dillon, EdTech Connect Founder & CEO, as they share the real story of transforming inefficient, ad-hoc processes into modern seamless workflows with eForms .

Learn how PJC moved from submission errors and manual follow-ups to a centralized forms and workflows platform that empowers users with an intuitive experience, quick updates, campus-wide collaboration, and a fast ROI.

In this webinar, you'll learn to:

• Identify the true cost of inefficient PDFs and learn practical strategies to get processes back on track with measurable financial impact.
  
• Prove value quickly by digitizing the most complex workflows first—PJC transformed high-error forms into streamlined, error-free digital experiences that gained immediate campus-wide buy-in.
  
• Empower staff self-sufficiency through hands-on training using a "Forms as a Service" model, enabling teams to independently design new eForms while freeing scarce IT resources.



Nov 19th | 11:00 AM PT

It's time to move past AI buzzwords and see how universities are getting practical results.

EdTech Connects Founder, Jeff Dillon will co-present with Rhode Island School of Design's Brian Clark will show how they overhauled their search experience with AI-powered results that feel natural and intuitive.

From building cross-domain search across siloed subdomains to deploying smart answers with generative AI, this session reveals how RISD is improving digital experience without breaking the budget. You'll hear how AI serves as a thoughtful layer in RISD's redesigned website, giving students a seamless way to find answers.

You'll get a deep dive into implementation realities: what worked, what surprised them, and insights from the current admissions season. If you've struggled with governance, content silos, or ineffective search, this session is for you.

Join us for a practical discussion with takeaways for marketing, UX, admissions, and content teams on what matters: making it easier for students to get information when they need it.

2025 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference

Nashville, Tennessee Oct. 27-30

Stop by Wednesday afternoon and meet EdTech Connect Founder, Jeff Dillon as he will present new research from The Chronicle of Higher Education (2025) and SearchStax that highlights both the opportunities and the gaps facing higher education: limited marketing agility, uneven digital experiences, and varying levels of AI readiness.

This session explores how AI-powered site search can address these challenges by making content more discoverable, guiding students to critical resources, and supporting enrollment and retention goals. Expect to learn practical strategies that merge intelligent search, real-time analytics, and cross-team collaboration to create a more personalized and responsive student experience.



What Could MIT’s Rejection of Trump’s Proposed

‘Compact’ Mean for the Rest of Higher Ed?

The Chronicle
As the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Friday that it “cannot support” the Trump administration’s compact for higher education, academics largely celebrated the rejection of what they saw as proposed government intrusion, though some were apprehensive about what could come next. Meanwhile, national observers hoped that MIT’s response would serve as a template for other universities.

Sam Altman-Backed Campus Acquires AI Learning Platform Sizzle AI

Inside Higher Ed
Campus, an online two-year college backed by Sam Altman and Shaquille O'Neal, has acquired AI learning platform Sizzle AI. The acquisition brings AI-generated interactive content to Campus's instruction and accelerates development by two to three years. Former Meta AI chief Jerome Pesenti joins as chief technology officer.


Anthology's Chapter 11 Filing: Breaking up to Refocus

Listedtech
September 2025 marked a major turning point for Anthology, the owner of Blackboard and several other higher education technology platforms. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. after efforts to sell itself or parts of its business outside of court failed.


UNC System Hires First Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer
EdTech Innovation Hub

The University of North Carolina System is hiring its first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer to lead strategy across all 17 campuses. The role will coordinate academic and operational AI integration, align policy across institutions, and advise senior leadership, signaling that U.S. universities are formalizing AI leadership at the executive level.


Undergraduate Enrollment Shows Growth Driven by Community Colleges
Education Dynamics

Spring 2024 saw a 2.5% increase in undergraduate enrollment, particularly within community colleges and public institutions. Dual enrollment programs increased over 10% in the past year, adding approximately 100,000 students and accounting for nearly 28% of undergraduate enrollment increases, demonstrating growing demand for flexible learning pathways.

Our Latest Podcast Episodes

Elevating MIT's Digital Presence
Jenny Li Fowler, Director of Social Media Strategy at MIT and author of "Organic Social Media," discusses managing over 6.5 million followers across MIT's channels and building authentic digital communities. She emphasizes treating social media as a sophisticated strategic function rather than just a megaphone, exploring how institutions can create meaningful engagement with global audiences while maintaining MIT's reputation for innovation and excellence.

Budget-Friendly UX Strategies for Higher Ed
Melanie Lindahl, Senior UX Designer at UT Austin and Red Stapler Award winner, dismantles the myth that effective user experience requires expensive tools or large budgets. She shares practical, no-cost tactics like user interviews and "donut diplomacy," explaining how institutions can make digital experiences more intuitive through empathy and understanding user pain points—proving that skipping UX crumbles user trust.

From Dean to Deloitte: Tech Strategy and Student Success
Joshua Meredith, Client Relationship Executive at Deloitte Consulting, shares his journey from Associate Dean at Georgetown University to consulting with institutions on technology and strategy challenges. With over twelve years in higher education, Joshua discusses how his classroom teaching and student advising background inform his approach to helping institutions overcome complex technology implementations and strategic transformations.

Why 76% of Students Want to Study Abroad:
David Nelson explores the growing demand for international education and the transformative impact of study abroad programs on student development. He discusses how institutions can expand access to global learning opportunities, overcome participation barriers, and leverage technology to support students throughout their international experiences while ensuring quality and accessibility.

Highlighting EdTech Connect's trending innovative technology companies transforming the higher education landscape...

Ready Education (Student Engagement)

Provides a comprehensive student engagement platform and mobile app that centralizes all aspects of campus life—from academic resources and course management to clubs, events, campus directory, and chat—creating a unified digital hub where students can connect, engage, and thrive while institutions gain actionable insights to drive retention and student success across their entire community.

Intelligent Video Solutions (Clinical Training & Simulation)

Provides powerful video capture and management software (VALT) designed for healthcare education and clinical skills training, enabling nursing programs, medical simulation labs, and allied health departments to easily record, observe, debrief, and assess student performance with secure, scalable, browser-based technology that enhances learning outcomes without requiring extensive IT support.

ImageX (Web Development & Digital Experience)

Provides enterprise-level Drupal website development and digital strategy services specifically tailored for higher education institutions, delivering scalable, open-source web solutions with features like content syndication, responsive design, and seamless system integrations that empower universities to create compelling, accessible digital experiences while maintaining flexibility and institutional identity.

Potato AI (AI Research Assistant)

Provides an AI-powered research assistant designed to accelerate scientific discovery in higher education, helping faculty and students move from hypothesis to experiment faster by generating, analyzing, and improving research protocols using large language models and scientific literature—streamlining tasks like literature reviews, method design, and data interpretation while enhancing lab productivity, improving experiment quality, and training students in AI-assisted research methods that bridge traditional academic inquiry with smart lab automation.



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