Getting Online Higher Education Right

...and Fitting AI into the Picture

​As 2025 winds down, I've taken a look back at some of the key research projects that I've been involved with over the past five years. Two major projects, in particular, have focused on the efficacy on online higher education programs, their benefits to learners, and how to support their success. One study (two papers) focused on the transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (Power & Kay, 2023; Power et al., 2024). The other examined the innovative accelerated online Bachelor of Education program launched at Cape Breton University in 2024 (Power et al., in press). As I was reflecting on these projects, a group of experts from Australia (Dollinger et al., 2025) released an Open Access briefing paper on getting assessment right in online higher education, which I felt dovetailed nicely with the findings of my own research. 

​I decided to drop my papers, and a copy of the Australian briefing paper, into Google's (2025) Notebook LM. I gave it the following prompt:

​Create a summary video that discusses how to support higher education online learning programs, the benefits to learners, effective practices, how to ensure effective assessment of learning, and how to measure program efficacy.

​Here's the summary video that it generated for me:

​Architechting Trust (Google, 2025)

​What I like about Notebook LM's video generator is that it draws its content only from whatever information sources I add to my project folder. I decided to create this video as a demonstration of how AI could be ethically used by instructors to create learning resources for their students. While AI is generating the multimedia content, it is still the instructor who carefully curates the information sources and crafts the prompt to meet their students' needs.

​If I were to use these papers as the focus of a unit or module for my own students, I would:

• Ask students to watch the AI-generated overview video.
• Read all of the original source documents.
• Respond to a discussion forum prompt (or in-class discussion prompt) that asks them "What did the AI-generated video tell you about this week's topic?" I would then ask students "From your own readings -- and any other sources you may have found -- what did the video get right? What did it miss?" 
• I might then ask my students to "Reflect on how tools like Notebook LM could be ethically used within your own studies, or to create learning resources for your own students."

​So... given the topic of the "Architecting Trust" video... how would you answer those discussion prompts?

References

Dollinger, M., Bassett, M., Dawson, P., Ellis, C., Fawns,  T., Liu, D., Lodge, J., Marrington, J., McClusky, T., Mirrahi, N., Murdoch, K., Tindale, J., & White, A. (2025). Assurance of Learning in Fully Online Credentialled Programs: A Briefing Paper for the Australian Higher Education Sector. [Briefing Paper]. https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/99021

Google (2025, December 16). Archtecting Trust. [AI-generated video]. Notebook LM [AI video generator]. https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/

Google (2025). Notebook LM [Large language model]. https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/

Power, R., Gimbert, B., Cristol, D., & Hambrock. H. (in-press). The Road Less Travelled: Alternative Pathways for Teacher Candidates. International Journal of E-Learning and Distance Education.

• Alternative Pathways Project Site

Power, R. & Kay, R. (2023). Higher Education Faculty Supports for the Transition to Online Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Educational Informatics, 4(1), 49-72. https://journalofeducationalinformatics.ca/index.php/JEI/article/view/191

Power, R., Kay, R., & Craig, C. (2023). The Effects of COVID-19 on Higher-Education Teaching Practices. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education, 38(2). https://www.ijede.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/1255/1899

• Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic Project Site