Introduction
The biggest challenges in education need effective and scalable solutions. From removing barriers, to access for students from under-resourced communities, to streamlining the learn-work-learn cycle, stakeholders in higher education and workforce development need ways to redesign the current learning experience. The challenges are complex, sometimes contradictory, and ever-evolving. They are education’s wicked problems.
To design collaborative solutions to these complex problems, WGU Labs works with higher education leaders, faculty, students, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and other stakeholders. As the innovation arm of Western Governors University — an institution that reimagined the traditional university 25 years ago — we are driving practical ideas to action by remaining close to the student experience.
We use our unique position as an organization that is both part of and separate from higher education to drive systemic change. The leaders we collaborate with count on us to ask astute questions, thread disparate information into insights, and push bold, learner-centered ideas. Then, we investigate, test, and refine those concepts into workable solutions that support learner outcomes and advance equitable access.
Table of Contents
- WGU Labs by the Numbers
- 2025 Trends
- 2024 Themes
- Removing Barriers to Access
- Redesigning the Learning Experience
- Strengthening the Learn-Work-Learn Cycle
- Empowering Administrators, Faculty, and Students in the Digital Transformation of Education
- Conclusion
2025 Trends
Jason Levin, Executive Director, WGU Labs
“2025 will see the rise of small, specialized language models that will revolutionize higher education by enabling highly tailored applications for niche academic and administrative tasks. Unlike general-purpose large language models, these compact systems will leverage refined, domain-specific datasets to deliver precise, context-aware insights, driving innovations in personalized learning, adaptive assessment, and faculty research support. Their streamlined architecture will reduce computational costs and privacy concerns, making them an indispensable tool for digital-first universities seeking to optimize their operations and enhance student outcomes.”
Betheny Gross, Director of Research, WGU Labs
“AI applications in EdTech are going to get a lot messier before they get better. I anticipate raging debates about whether AI (and related technology) is worth it and if we're getting any real value from it. Eventually, things will settle and these tools will be institutionalized into education. But the extent to which these tools transform how we deliver instruction and support students — as opposed to simply retooling what education looks like today — is not a foregone conclusion and will not be resolved next year.”
Omid Fotuhi, Director of Learning Innovation, WGU Labs
As our CIN findings reveal, while AI and EdTech offer personalization and efficiency, they can also increase stress for faculty and students. The challenge for 2025 is navigating this tension, ensuring innovations enhance motivation and belonging without overwhelming users. Successful solutions will integrate the benefits of technology while safeguarding the well-being of those at the heart of education, striking a balance between advancing learning outcomes and supporting the human experience in increasingly complex learning environments.”
Natalie Berkey, Director of Communications, WGU Labs
“In 2025, colleges and universities will need well-defined guidelines for using ChatGPT and similar AI tools in communications to balance efficiency with authenticity. Clear policies will be essential to ensure transparency, maintain trust, and prevent potential missteps such as misinformation or impersonal interactions. Institutions that strategically integrate these tools while preserving a human touch will strengthen their connection with students, faculty, and stakeholders, leveraging AI responsibly to enhance engagement and streamline operations.”
Steve Tedjamulia, Director of New Venture Programs, WGU Labs
"AI's next chapter in education isn't about flashy tools — it’s about building smarter, connected systems that make life easier for schools and students alike. By focusing on seamless integration and ethical innovation, EdTech can tackle the big, hidden challenges behind the scenes, paving the way for a future where education is more accessible, efficient, and impactful for everyone."
2024 Themes
Like nearly every other industry, the rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has had a swift and far-reaching impact on higher education. At WGU Labs, AI’s potential — and limitations — impacted nearly every project and investment we made in 2024. To us, AI applications aren’t a trend or theme; It’s the work we need to do, the puzzle we need to solve across our portfolio. Our focus is on how we can leverage these tools to remove barriers to access, redesign the learning experiences, strengthen the learn-work-learn cycle, and empower administrators, faculty, and students in the digital transformation of higher education.
Removing Barriers to Access
Entry points to higher education unnecessarily limit access for individuals who do not match the historic student profile. We remove barriers to access for students who are furthest from opportunity and increase cost transparency to alleviate financial burdens.
In the workplace, many learners, especially those living with physical or cognitive disabilities, lack the resources they need to access or advance in their careers. We design and invest in solutions that support the diverse needs of today’s learners and workers.
Projects
Drowning in Debt: Student Loans Weigh Down Borrowers
In 2023, student loan debt in the U.S. totaled $1.76 trillion, nearly doubling in the last 12 years. Though college degrees remain a means to achieving greater earning potential, median income has not kept pace with rising tuition costs, requiring students to take out higher student loan balances — and take longer to pay them off. In partnership with our Accelerator client Savi, we captured the experience of over 3,000 student loan borrowers to learn how their debt impacts key personal, financial, and educational milestones. Our findings revealed a grim reality for borrowers — regardless of whether they had earned a credential. Student loans are impacting their mental health, delaying personal and financial milestones, and giving them pause in the value of higher education overall. These repercussions are especially true for African American and/or Black borrowers and Hispanic and/or LatinX borrowers.
Rethinking Financial Aid Amid a Changing Higher Ed Landscape
Across the three waves of Higher Education Emergy Relief Funding (HEERF) during the pandemic, WGU Labs was able to test the impact of aid on WGU student success. Based on our findings — an 11.2% increase in graduation rates and stronger feelings of belonging — we have proof that just-in-time funds can promote academic success, especially for working adult learners. And based on student feedback, we know that financial crises are a significant barrier to persistence, particularly for learners with fewer financial resources.
Investments
Making Space addresses disabled worker unemployment by providing free, employer-backed courses tailored to industry needs, coupled with advanced technology to match talent with careers. Learn more about their work and our partnership in the press release.
WGU Labs Invests in Daivergent to Enhance Workforce Opportunities for Individuals with Disabilities
Daivergent is the first fully remote, Medicaid-approved job coaching platform for individuals living with physical or cognitive disabilities. Daivergent is poised to significantly impact the 27% of the adult population with disabilities by providing a more direct path to upskilling and higher-quality employment. Our investment underscores the importance of inclusive education and employment and highlights the economic benefits of fully utilizing the skills and talents of all Americans.
Redesigning the Learning Experience
Higher education, in practice, too often fails to harness what is known about the science of learning. We’re dedicated to finding solutions that drive a greater presence of effective learning principles in every student's learning experience.
Projects
Balancing Innovation and Efficacy in Generative AI Exploration
In the first contribution to our [work in] Progress series — an effort to share our preliminary findings on the impact of artificial intelligence in higher education to help the field move at the pace of technology — we examine the push-pull between the need for innovative advancement and proof of efficacy.
Harnessing AI to Expand Access to Success in Computer Science
We provided free access to ChatGPT Team to a select group of students enrolled in the Introduction to Programming in Python course within WGU’s School of Technology to study the impact on their learning. We found that students' use of AI is goal-directed and oriented toward learning; students use AI as a reference, teacher, and coach; and, anecdotally, students reported improved learning and experience with AI.
Custom GPTs are capable of simulating a variety of realistic scenarios, including those in classroom, healthcare, and business settings. This approach enables preservice teachers, healthcare professionals, and business students to engage with a broad spectrum of challenges they may face in their careers. At WGU Labs, we wanted to find out whether these scenarios could help learners practice handling diverse scenarios while developing a well-rounded skill set. This includes not only technical knowledge but also critical P21 or durable skills such as communication, empathy, ethical decision-making, and critical thinking. To achieve this, we created custom GPTs to help learners practice these skills in three specific areas: parent-teacher conferences, customer service, and instructional design.
Belonging in Online Environments Research Brief
Despite the rise of online learning — most college students are taking at least one class online — little has been done to study student belonging in an online environment. Research continually demonstrates that belonging is a critical component of student success at in-person institutions, increasing rates of retention and graduation. Our question is: Does belonging hold the same weight in online learning spaces? In this research brief, we highlight that the need to belong is universal — but people seek and find belonging in different ways. Online learners, for example, are less interested in peer connections in their learning but keenly tuned to the relationships and support they receive from faculty.
Learning to Learn: Setting Students Up for Success in Online Environments
Institutions of higher education are increasingly investing in online learning courses and programs. Students, too, are requesting more flexible and convenient options to continue their education and develop their career skills. But this shift has raised an important question: Do students have the skills necessary to succeed in online environments? This blog post features insights from the project-based learning modules we developed for Headlamp — and explores why learning how to learn is critical for student success in online environments.
Improving Career Coaching in Higher Education
A whopping three in ten (31%) of students say they’ve never interacted with their college or university career center, according to The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). To better understand the lack of participation and what motivates students to take full advantage of these services, we partnered with a private, nonprofit online university to explore students’ and faculty’s understanding, perspectives, and use of career coaching in a higher education setting. Discover our findings and strategies for higher education institutions and EdTech companies to improve career coaching delivery in this research brief.
Wise Intervention Design and Evaluation in Education
In this research brief, we identify the role that psychological barriers play in undermining performance and persistence, especially among those from underrepresented groups. At the same time, research has shown promise for psychological interventions that offer more adaptive attributions in the face of common challenges and setbacks.
How EdTech Founders Are Driving Startup Success in a Funding Drought
Following a boom in EdTech investment in 2020 and 2021, the past few years have seen a dramatic fall in EdTech funding. In response to this significant decrease, EdTech founders have had to adapt to new dynamics in EdTech investments and a new environment for building their EdTech startups. At WGU Labs, we were keen to explore how these changes affected EdTech founders and the startups they've established. To gather their perspectives, WGU Labs surveyed EdTech founders to learn more about the current EdTech landscape and their startup experiences. Our survey confirms that capital allocation fell dramatically in the EdTech vertical. In the face of reduced capital, surveyed founders are finding alternate funding sources, such as personal networks. In contrast to the popular startup founder mythology that features a lone male founder, our data revealed that current founders are functioning within communities of support. Responding founders were older, more educated, and had built a community of co-founders, mentors, and investors around themselves. They are running their startups lean and efficient. They are also maintaining a small staff for long periods of time while handling a growing number of clients.
Investments
WGU Labs is partnering with the Learning Design Alliance, a nonprofit that develops technology solutions for learning design, to co-create and refine an AI-centered design tool for developing learning content. This partnership represents a step forward in reimagining learning experiences, helping educators and learning experience designers (LXDs) generate high-quality content that is grounded in the subject matter expertise of designers and educators.
Strengthening the Learn-Work-Learn Cycle
The transition from learning to work is often opaque to students and employers. We build systems of lifelong learning that support successful careers.
Projects
Analyzing the Path of Rising Talent
We analyzed over 20 years of longitudinal data to better understand the unique characteristics of Rising Talent — working adults with limited postsecondary education and low career resiliency. By unlocking Rising Talent’s hidden potential, we can help millions of individuals advance into better-paying, more fulfilling careers and fuel economic growth. Because of the circumstances in which this population exists — unstable work, challenging home responsibilities, poor health, and an often negative relationship with the educational system — this underutilized talent pool requires us to think differently to help them acquire the skills needed to seize new opportunities. We can’t rely on existing solutions to serve them; we have to rethink career pathways and education systems. And doing so requires a concerted effort from policymakers, educational institutions, employers, and technology providers to create an inclusive and supportive environment for Rising Talent.
Overcoming the Demand Cliff with Competency-Based Education
There is no “typical” college student anymore. More and more 18-year-olds are bypassing college and entering the workforce immediately after high school. Meanwhile, more adult learners are enrolling in postsecondary education for the first time or resuming their studies after stopping out. In this white paper, we explore these trends — and why it’s imperative for higher education institutions to adapt now to better serve post-traditional learners. It’s clear that both young adults and working adults value affordability, flexibility, and relevancy — all hallmarks of competency-based education (CBE) — when it comes to their education.
4 Strategies to Develop Successful Micro-Credential Programs | Research Brief
From 2021 to 2023, the WGU Labs team collaborated with three leading micro-credential companies to delve deep into the efficacy and outcomes of their offerings. Through this exploration, we’ve uncovered various challenges associated with micro-credentials — and strategies to mitigate them. In this research brief, we share insights that can empower micro-credential organizations to differentiate themselves and attract new learners.
WGU Java Developer and Front End Web Development Certificates
We partnered with WGU Academy to develop two new certificate programs for WGU designed to equip learners with the skills needed to excel in today’s tech industry. Pricing starts at just $499, making these rewarding career paths much more accessible to learners. We also integrated CodeSignal’s coding assessments, which are trusted by industry leaders like Meta and Zoom to validate job readiness, directly into the programs. Plus, personalized learning paths and AI-powered tutors enable individuals to learn at their own pace and style.
Partnerships
WGU Labs Partners with CodeSignal to Bridge Employment Gaps
CodeSignal enables teams and individuals to discover and develop essential skills by assessing skill gaps and creating personalized learning pathways. Its platform offers learning paths in a variety of topics related to career readiness, including coding, preparing for job interviews, and AI and machine learning. The platform also features a built-in AI tutor that gives users one-on-one guidance to provide a more interactive and adaptive learning environment.
Empowering Administrators, Faculty, and Students in the Digital Transformation of Education
The learning experience is being continually reshaped by new technology, and today’s students, faculty, and administrators are adapting in real time. In the final year of funding for the College Innovation Network (CIN) at WGU Labs, we published several new reports on the unique perspectives of students, faculty, and administrators as they grapple with the digital transformation of higher education through our EdTech Survey Series.
Projects
Leading Through Change: Inaugural Administrator EdTech Survey
Headlines throughout 2024 revealed no shortage of struggles for enrollment, relevance, and financial stability for many higher education institutions. Amid these struggles, institutions are now grappling with a rapidly shifting technology environment, and administrators sit squarely in the middle of these shifting demands. To gain insights into how administrators perceive and experience these challenges — and complement the insights obtained from our student and faculty surveys — we launched our first Administrator EdTech Survey. Key findings include that administrators lack confidence in their ability to make EdTech purchasing decisions and have mixed perceptions of AI in higher education. Read the report to learn more about how administrators perceive and make decisions about educational technology, how they view the future of higher education, and how their institutions are approaching new generative AI technologies.
Student AI Use Grows, but They Aren't Ready to Replace Professors with Bots
Researchers have recently begun to examine student adoption and utilization of AI tools in education but, to date, have spent little time examining students' views on AI across diverse perspectives. To examine student perspectives on these issues, we asked 2,365 students across six institutions about their perceptions of and experiences with AI. Although AI awareness has grown in the last year, we found clear user group gaps. Most students responding to our survey aren’t confident in their ability to use the tools, and many aren't sure it will ultimately have a positive impact on their learning experience.
Faculty Prioritize Student Belonging
Among the more disturbing trends to accelerate during and persist beyond the pandemic is the decline in student well-being. According to many studies, students have become more stressed and less socially engaged. However, researchers have identified a sense of belonging as a key protective factor against the stressors caused by the pandemic. This year, we surveyed 359 faculty members from six institutions to find out the faculty perspective on belonging in the classroom.
EdTech and the Evolving Role of Faculty
Our latest CIN Faculty EdTech report has revealed that only 33% of faculty think higher education is heading in the right direction. Higher education has witnessed rapid change in recent years with the rise of EdTech and the shift to more flexible, remote, and asynchronous learning environments. As a result, the role of faculty has also undergone rapid evolution. Faculty must adjust to an increasingly tech-enabled learning environment while maintaining a productive, accessible, and engaging learning experience.
Students Want Increased Online Options Without Sacrificing Relationships with Peers and Professors
While learners appreciate the flexibility and individual focus that online programs offer, they still highly value human engagement and interaction. So, how can higher education be designed to meet both of these needs and offer high-quality, human-centered learning experiences across learning modalities? To better understand these trends, we asked 2,365 students across six institutions of higher education about their perceptions of and experiences with online and tech-enabled learning. Overall, most students are enthusiastic about the expansion of online, tech-enabled, and non-traditional learning in the future. But we also found other mixed feelings: their interactions with peers and professors drive perceptions of quality learning experiences; personalization of learning experiences is low across all learning modalities; and many students continue to experience technology fatigue. These results highlight the importance of creating learning experiences that leverage technology alongside interpersonal interaction to ensure that students have high-quality learning experiences in all modalities.
Institutional Support Matters When It Comes to Belonging | Research Brief
Gathering in person, taking classes together, participating in sports teams, and other hallmarks of campus life are thought to foster a sense of belonging among students. However, these experiences are generally lacking in online institutions. Given the demonstrable connection between belonging and student success, we believe that uncovering how online students look for and find a sense of belonging is critical to supporting positive outcomes for these learners. To better understand how students experience belonging in the evolving higher education landscape, the College Innovation Network (CIN) at WGU Labs surveyed over 2,000 students enrolled at primarily online institutions, four-year universities, and community colleges. Among other findings, our results revealed that online students gain their sense of belonging from institutional interactions with faculty, mentors, etc. — instead of from their peers or other place-based mechanisms.
College Innovation Network End of Funding Report: Big Impact, Lasting Legacy
As CIN ends its funding period after four fruitful years, our vision remains unwavering. In this report, we contemplate our achievements and the influence we've exerted across multiple domains, aiming for our collective insights — a treasury of inventive approaches, strong partnerships, and thorough research — to guide educational communities within WGU Labs and beyond.
Investments
WGU Labs Invests in Doowii to Accelerate AI-Driven Insights in Education
Doowii’s AI-powered data integration platform aims to democratize higher education data. By integrating data from various EdTech platforms, Doowi empowers non-technical users to access, analyze, and act on insights quickly and effectively, leading to more precise and proactive interventions.
Conclusion
2024 has been a year of transformative impact and innovation at WGU Labs. Guided by our commitment to reimagining the learning experience, we’ve tackled some of higher education’s most pressing challenges with collaborative solutions that expand access, improve equity, and empower lifelong learning. Through groundbreaking research, strategic investments, and cutting-edge projects, we’ve delivered actionable insights and scalable solutions to drive systemic change.
As we look to the future, we remain resolute in our mission to support learners, educators, and institutions navigating the complexities of digital transformation. This year's lessons and successes provide a strong foundation for continuing to shape the future of education, ensuring it is more inclusive, effective, and learner-centered than ever before. Thank you for being part of this journey, and we look forward to an even greater impact in 2025.
WGU Labs is the nonprofit EdTech consulting, incubation, research, and design arm of Western Governors University, where our mission is to identify and support scalable solutions that address the biggest challenges in education today. Learn more about our services by following us on LinkedIn.
