After Transforming a College With Online Offerings, a President Steps Down to Tackle AI

EdSurge

December 19, 2023

This article is part of the guide: The EdSurge Podcast.

When Paul LeBlanc began as president of Southern New Hampshire University more than 20 years ago, the institution taught about 2,500 students on its residential campus — and its future looked uncertain. But LeBlanc, who was enthusiastic about technology and had worked in edtech, made a bet that was unusual at the time: He decided to grow the university’s online offerings.

That growth ended up exploding as the acceptance of online learning grew, then got an unexpected boost from the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the university boasts one of the largest student populations in the country, thanks to online programs that have grown to more than 200,000 students.

This month LeBlanc announced that he would step down from the presidency after this academic year. But he’s not done trying to bring big changes to higher education. He plans to focus on a new effort at Southern New Hampshire to explore how to reshape college teaching through the use of new generative AI tools like ChatGPT.

EdSurge connected with LeBlanc to talk about how the university made its unusually big move to online education; how he responds to critics who worry that the university has borrowed too much from for-profit universities; and about how big an impact he thinks AI will have on higher education.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, or use the player on this page. Or read a partial transcript, edited for clarity, below.

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