Academic Innovation for the Public Good

Sharing ideas to enhance the impact of colleges and universities

Stanford Digital Education joins with partners to organize virtual conversations that explore how higher education can provide more meaningful opportunities for learners and contribute to the public good. Scholars and practitioners are interviewed by expert moderators via Zoom, with the discussions focused on academic innovations that can augment the impact of higher education. Audience members have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the discussion. 

From the launch of Academic Innovation for the Public Good in 2022 through December 2024, Stanford Digital Education and Trinity College hosted 22 conversations with authors of recently published books that analyze pressing issues facing universities and colleges. These discussions were co-sponsored by more than 20 colleges and universities. Videos of the events are available on our website, with transcripts for the more recent ones as well.

2025 events

April 14
Recentering Learning: Complexity, Resilience, and Adaptability in Higher Education

A conversation with Maggie Debelius, Eddie Maloney, and Joshua Kim

Please check back for a recording of this event.

What factors can support institutional resilience in times of disruption? The editors of the new book Recentering Learning: Complexity, Resilience, and Adaptability in Higher Education asked scholars and practitioners from a range of colleges and universities to answer that question. The resulting chapters explore challenges to higher education ranging from the pandemic to artificial intelligence, climate change, and social unrest.

Please join us for a conversation about Recentering Learning and bring your own questions, ideas and wonderings. Panelists include the book’s three editors: Maggie Debelius, senior director of faculty initiatives at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) and a professor in the English Department at Georgetown University; Joshua Kim, assistant provost for online learning strategy at Dartmouth College and a senior fellow at Georgetown; and Eddie Maloney, executive director of CNDLS, professor in the English Department, and professor and founding director of the Program in Learning, Design, and Technology at Georgetown.

The conversation will be facilitated by Patrice Torcivia Prusko, director of learning design, technology, and media at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

This event was organized by Harvesting Academic Innovation for Learners (HAIL) and co-sponsored by Stanford Digital Education. 

March 17
The Future of Learning: AI Agents and Human-Centered Education

A conversation with Alessandro Di Lullo, James Genone, and Matthew Rascoff

View the March 17 recording and transcript

Gen AI is evolving even more quickly than many experts anticipated. How are university faculty and students responding? What lies on the horizon with agentic AI? What could the arrival of autonomous agents mean for human-centered education? 

Panelists for this discussion about AI and the future of learning included Alessandro Di Lullo, chief executive officer of the Digital Education Council; James Genone, senior vice chancellor for learning strategy at Northeastern University; and Matthew Rascoff, vice provost for digital education at Stanford University.

The discussion was moderated by Suzanne Dove, assistant vice president for strategy and innovation and executive director of the Badavas Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Bentley University.

This event was organized by Harvesting Academic Innovation for Learners (HAIL) and co-sponsored by the Digital Education Council and Stanford Digital Education. 

2024 events

In 2024, our winter and spring book conversations explored how universities can lead and adapt, with two describing potential partnerships and new institutions — and one, a memoir, examining a surprising personal path to university leadership. Our fall event explored how digital education can support the resilience and vibrancy of our democracy. 

January 24 
The Synthetic University: How Higher Education Can Benefit from Shared Solutions and Save Itself 

A conversation with author James Shulman

 View the January 24 recording and transcript

How can the spiraling cost of college tuition be contained? In his book The Synthetic University, James Shulman, vice president and chief operating officer at the American Council of Learned Societies, argues that colleges and universities can address it by partnering with mission-driven, market-supported organizations. 

Shulman was interviewed by Mitchell Stevens, professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education.

March 20
Up Home: One Girl's Journey 

A conversation with author Ruth Simmons

View the March 20 recording and transcript

Ruth J. Simmons received her master’s and doctorate in Romance languages and literature from Harvard University and went on to serve as president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M University. Her memoir, Up Home: One Girl’s Journey, is an intimate, unsparing work of memory that conveys the transformative power of education.

The book begins with Simmons’ girlhood under Jim Crow in rural east Texas, as the twelfth child of sharecroppers. It continues in segregated Houston in the all-Black Fifth Ward, where her family moved before she started second grade. It ends with her experiences as a scholarship student at Dillard University and at Wellesley College, where she spent her junior year. 

Simmons was interviewed by James Campbell, professor of history at Stanford, who was on the faculty at Brown when Simmons was president. During that time, Simmons appointed Campbell to lead the committee that produced a groundbreaking report on the university’s historical ties to the slave trade and slavery. It was the first instance of a major university taking such a step to come to terms with its past.

May 15
The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century 

A conversation with authors Bryan Penprase and Noah Pickus

View the May 15 recording and transcript

In their book The New Global Universities, Bryan Penprase and Noah Pickus explore how eight new universities across the globe were planned, funded, and launched, offering lessons both for future founders and for existing universities seeking to create new opportunities. Penprase is a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and vice president for sponsored research and external academic relations, as well as professor of physics and astronomy, at Soka University. Pickus is associate provost at Duke University, with responsibilities in academic strategy, global initiatives, educational innovation, and policy engagement.

Penprase and Pickus were interviewed by Minu Ipe, managing director and vice chair of the University Design Institute at Arizona State University.

October 9
How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online 

A conversation with author Sam Wineburg

View the October 9 recording and transcript

Sam Wineburg and Mike Caulfield, co-authors of VERIFIED: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Wise Decisions about What to Believe Online, have developed strategies to ascertain the reliability of the latest stories circulating over the internet. In their book, they lay out practical, accessible steps everyone should take to assess the reliability of online information before they engage with it or amplify it. Digital literacy, they say, is essential for the civic health of a public that is increasingly online — not just to bank, shop, and find entertainment, but to socialize, discuss, become informed, and vote.

Wineburg is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education, Emeritus, at Stanford University, and the founder of the nonprofit Digital Inquiry Group (previously known as Stanford History Education Group). He was interviewed by Stanford Vice Provost for Digital Education Matthew Rascoff.

Thank you to our program partners (2022-24)

Badavas Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (Bentley University)
Brown University School of Professional Studies  
Dartmouth College
Mount Holyoke College
Notre Dame Learning
University of Pennsylvania Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Innovation
University of Michigan Center for Academic Innovation

Thank you to our co-sponsors (2022-24)

Carnegie Mellon University
Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
Cornell University
Duke Learning Innovation
Georgetown University Center for Design in Learning and Scholarship
Harvard Online
Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Davidson 
Johns Hopkins University
Minerva Project
McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University
MIT
North Dakota State University
Northwestern University Women's Center
Stanford Pathways Lab
University of Wyoming
Vanderbilt

Program partners and sponsors contributed to promoting these events. Program partners also provided financial support.

For additional information about Academic Information for the Public Good and Stanford Digital Education events, please contact digitaleducation@stanford.edu.

Banner photo (top): The interiors of the Lathrop Library and East Asia Library. Photo credit: Linda A. Cicero.