Monmouth College Embraces AI to Transform Education

By: Forgottonia Times™ Report

Monmouth College is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative force in higher education, with President Patricia Draves calling it part of a broader “digital transformation” initiative. “Technology expands your capabilities, and AI is moving faster than other forms of technology,” said Draves, who chose AI as her academic focus for the spring semester. “How can we use it to expand our educational capabilities and our students’ learning?”

Draves and faculty members are preparing to train staff and students on AI tools in the upcoming year. “This is going to be fast,” she said. “It’s not like the internet, which took 10 to 15 years to really evolve on campuses.”

Dean of the Faculty Mark Willhardt underscored the urgency: “AI is a disrupter,” he said. Comparing it to the printing press and the internet, he added, “It’s changing things, and it’s going to keep changing things.”

Both Draves and Willhardt are exploring AI’s educational potential. Draves sees opportunities for personalized learning and diagnostics in tutoring. Willhardt, meanwhile, noted changes in research and information literacy: “It’s not about books and texts anymore. It’s about YouTube videos, TikToks, websites, podcasts.” AI summarizes it all.

Still, concerns remain. English professor David Wright warned, “We’re going to skip the soul development,” and noted rising academic dishonesty tied to generative AI.

Draves and others advocate for ethical, thoughtful use. “To use AI effectively as a tool, you still have to be a good thinker,” she said.

Phil Ice, chief data scientist at Campus Works, demonstrated how AI cut a 90-hour project down to five, calling it “human skill augmentation.” But he noted, AI cannot “conduct experiments, make observations and derive insights from real-world experiences—at least not yet.”

As Draves put it, “It’s about looking at the data to help point out gaps where you can focus your time.”