The Signal | February 2026


Where higher education transformation leaders get their intelligence



Circ: 62,214 .edu decision-makers via 3,933 institutions | Published by EdTech Connect


In partnership with Mackey Strategies


🎯 TLDR: THE BOTTOM LINE


Three Strategic Imperatives This Month:



  • Access over infrastructure: Digital transformation isn't about adding computer labs, it's about ensuring students can access what they need from their phone at 11pm.
  • Capacity before capability: New AI tools only work if your teams have time to plan their deployment. Reactive adoption means you're paying for shelfware, not transformation.
  • Intent over traffic: AI search is cutting your traffic by half, but the visitors who arrive convert 28% higher. Stop optimizing for volume. Start optimizing for intent.


🏛️ FEATURED PERSPECTIVES


When Shelf Space Stops Mattering

by Jeff Dillon, Founder of EdTech Connect


I remember walking across campus late one night when I was a university web director. I walked through a computer lab that used to be packed and found almost no one there. Years earlier, that room was a bottleneck.



That night, it was a clean, powered-on ghost, not because it was broken, but because students no longer needed the room to learn. This mirrors the shift in higher education today: as digital access reshapes learning, what matters is how students access learning, not where.


Read the Full Strategic Memo


"We're not losing students to technology. We're losing them when we can't meet them where they already are."



People, Tools, and the Promise of Choosing

by Pete Mackey, Ph.D., President & Executive Strategist, Mackey Strategies


New technologies promise efficiency, but overwhelmed teams can't adopt tools faster than they can think strategically. Before chasing the next platform, institutions must ask: What will this require of our people, will it boost real impact, and can we afford the attention it demands? Leadership means protecting capacity, not just adding capabilities.


Read the Full Perspective


"Overwhelmed teams can't adopt tools faster than they can think strategically."



💻 HOW DO THEY SEARCH?


Free webinar: 3 Ways to Optimize for AI Search and On-Site Search 


Presented by SearchStax


AI-driven discovery is shrinking website traffic, but the visitors who do arrive are more intentional—and far more likely to convert if your site is ready. 


Join Andy Crestodina, Jeff Dillon and Chris Pace from SearchStax on February 17 at 11am PT for practical strategies on why your site may be underperforming despite strong traffic, how AI has changed user behavior, and what to fix to capture high-intent users without a full redesign.


Register: Feb 17, 11am PT




🎙️ THE PODCAST: EDTECH CONNECT


Brought to you by Modo


Conversations with higher ed leaders doing the work, hosted by Jeff Dillon.


Ep. 73 - Ben Tasker | Former Dean of AI at Southern New Hampshire University

Why your AI strategy is failing: It's not the technology, it's the politics. Ben explains how he got skeptical faculty on board and when to stop feeding legacy systems that are bleeding your transformation budget.


Ep. 72 - Michelle Craig | Senior Director of Marketing at AppsAnywhere

Gen Alpha expects software access like they expect WiFi—instant and everywhere. Michelle shares why 90% still want your degree, but only if you stop making them choose between campus and their couch.


Ep. 71 - Jen Jenkins | Associate Director of Digital Experience at University of Utah Health

What happens when you design digital experience without 30 years of committee decisions? Jen shows how traditional campuses can steal the "clean sheet" approach to finally put students at the center.


Ep. 70 - Sharon Harrison | VP of Marketing at Ivy.ai

Your institutional website is losing to chatbots—not because it lacks content, but because students stopped looking for it there. Sharon explains why AI support is now your front door and what breaks if you ignore it.


📊 BY THE NUMBERS


92% of higher ed teams ignore “no-results” search terms, and 64% never review their top on-site search queries.



In 2025 research by the Chronicle of Higher Ed Studio and SearchStax, most colleges reported they are not analyzing the exact topics users try, and fail, to find on their websites.


For colleges, this signals missed enrollment opportunities, service gaps, and hidden content problems. “No-results” searches are often direct signals of student and stakeholder frustration, revealing high-intent needs that institutions could address quickly with better content, navigation, or search optimization.




📖 ESSENTIAL READING


Presented by Pantheon



Research and analysis that's shaping decisions at the institutional level.


AI in Intro Courses Chronicle of Higher Ed | Can AI bridge the "capacity gap" in foundational STEM? Early results from a new courseware project suggest AI tutoring is successfully boosting pass rates in high-enrollment classes where faculty bandwidth is most strained.


Noncredit Motivations Inside Higher Ed | The "stackable" surge is real. New data confirms that most noncredit learners are bypassing traditional degree paths in favor of immediate workforce mobility—redefining the ROI of alternative credentials.


The Cognitive Effect Listed Tech | New longitudinal studies reveal a widening "cognition gap." Researchers are finding stark differences in attention span and critical thinking retention between students in fully online environments versus high-engagement hybrid models.


When Bots Start Talking to Bots: What Moltbook Signals for AI Discovery 
EdTech Connect
| This used to be science fiction. Machines talking to each other. Software sharing ideas. Systems trading information without humans supervising every move. That was the kind of thing you expected in a late night movie scene where someone slowly realizes the computers are no longer just tools.




🛠️ COMPANIES WORTH WATCHING


Tech solving real operational problems, not just riding the hype cycle.


⭐ FEATURED: CopyLeaks | AI Content Authentication & Plagiarism Detection

As AI content evolves, CopyLeaks provides a sophisticated authentication layer to identify paraphrased plagiarism and AI-assisted text. It maintains academic rigor across multiple languages without adding manual oversight to the grading workflow.


Accudemia | Student Success & Retention Platform

By aggregating engagement data across tutoring and support services, Accudemia by Engineerica eliminates the "latency gap" in student success. It enables proactive, real-time intervention based on actual usage metrics rather than end-of-term reports.


CT Pathways | Career-Connected Curriculum Mapping

This platform maps academic programs directly to workforce outcomes and industry skills. It provides the "degree-to-career" transparency essential for meeting new accreditation standards and demonstrating ROI to prospective students.


Panopto | AI-Powered Video Management System

Beyond hosting, Panopto uses AI-driven indexing to turn lecture captures into searchable assets. This ensures video content is functionally accessible and useful for students across different time zones and learning needs.


Review 1,087 Software Listings


🤔 ASK THE SIGNAL


"How should we budget for AI tools when we don't know which will still exist in 2027?" — Anonymous CIO, Mid-Atlantic Public University



Jeff Dillon responds: Start with pilot budgets, not platform commitments. Allocate 15-20% of your innovation budget to 6-month trials with clear success metrics. If a tool doesn't prove ROI in one semester, move on. The vendors that survive will be the ones solving real problems.. Build your budget around outcomes (student retention, advising efficiency, faculty time saved) rather than specific tools.



📶 ABOUT THE SIGNAL


The Signal is the essential intelligence briefing for higher education's transformation leaders. Delivered monthly to 62,214 verified .edu decision-makers across 3,933 institutions, The Signal provides the strategic context, tactical insights, and technology intelligence needed to navigate the sector's most consequential period of change, the 2026 enrollment cliff and the AI-driven reimagination of the student experience.


🔔 ABOUT EDTECH CONNECT


EdTech Connect is a software comparison platform for higher education, powered by verified adoption data from 4,011 colleges and universities. The platform helps institutions research technology solutions backed by peer benchmarks and real-world deployment patterns. EdTech Connect publishes The Signal newsletter, produces EdTech Connect podcast, and hosts webinars that connect technology vendors with CIOs, digital directors, provosts, and marketing leaders navigating higher education's transformation.


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Stay signal. Cut the noise.


— Jeff Dillon, Founder