Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured John Woods, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at University of Phoenix; Susan Winslow, CEO at Macmillan Learning; Lisa Marsh Ryerson, President and CEO at Southern New Hampshire University; Sean D'Arcy, Chief Solutions Officer at Kahoot!; and Ann Kirschner, President and CEO at Comma Communications.

The speakers began with a hard truth: many students arrived with real literacy and numeracy gaps, and institutions were serving learners with an unprecedented range of preparation and ability. They explored how the question was no longer whether these deficits existed, but how higher education responded at scale and without lowering expectations.

Panelists examined how institutions, curriculum developers, and edtech organizations were combining clear-eyed diagnosis with new approaches to teaching and support, moving beyond one-size-fits-all remediation toward learning environments that delivered continuous feedback, targeted practice, and early intervention. The session highlighted how AI-enabled tools were reshaping large lectures and gateway courses by surfacing misunderstandings in real time and helping faculty address gaps before they became barriers.

Rather than debating readiness, this conversation focused on responsibility: how learning environments could be designed to confront skill gaps directly, strengthen core competencies, and make progress visible. In an era of heightened scrutiny and declining trust, the speakers emphasized that honest and effective responses to literacy and numeracy would matter more than ever.