Blog
July 1, 2026
A Recap of the Lifelong Learning Symposium
Last week, Attain Partners had the privilege of co-hosting the Lifelong Learning Symposium with Harvard Division of Continuing Education, bringing together leaders from Harvard, Yale, Boston University, Harvard Business School Online, Salesforce, and institutions across higher education to discuss the future of lifelong learning.
What struck me most was how Harvard Division of Continuing Education Dean Nancy Coleman began the day.
Rather than looking ahead, she looked back, tracing the history of continuing education and reminding us that universities have always evolved to meet the changing needs of society. Every era has brought new learners, new technologies, and new challenges. Today’s moment is no different.
As I listened throughout the day, I kept coming back to one thought:
Disruptive moments invite us to revisit our mission and reimagine our impact.
As I looked back over my notes after the symposium, I noticed three words I had scribbled in the margin:
Foundations. Data. People.
Those three ideas surfaced in nearly every session, whether the conversation was about AI, student experience, technology modernization, or organizational change.
Modern foundations give institutions the flexibility to evolve. Trusted data enables better decisions and more personalized learner experiences. And ultimately, people, faculty, staff, technologists, and institutional leaders determine whether transformation succeeds.
Here are seven ideas I’ll be thinking about long after the symposium ended.
1. Put the student at the center, not the org chart.
Harvard Division of Continuing Education
The idea that resonated most throughout the day came from Harvard Division of Continuing Education Dean Nancy Coleman: Student at the Center (SATC).
Students don’t experience our organizational charts. They experience the journey we create for them.
Too often, learners move between admissions, advising, registration, continuing education, executive education, alumni engagement, and technology services without a truly connected experience. While each function may work well independently, the handoffs between them often create unnecessary friction.
The challenge for higher education isn’t simply improving individual offices. It’s designing an end-to-end learner journey that feels seamless, regardless of how the institution is organized internally. That mindset should shape every technology decision, process improvement, and institutional investment.
2. Lifelong learning requires lifelong institutions.
Harvard DCE Salesforce Ambassador Program
One of my favorite stories from the symposium came during our opening session.
Anne Dwojeski shared how Harvard’s Salesforce Ambassador Program invested in business users who wanted to better understand the technology supporting their work. Without a technical background, Anne developed the skills to understand data models, create entity relationship diagrams, and contribute meaningful improvements to Salesforce, all while partnering closely with central IT.
It’s a powerful example of investing in people.
If we expect our students to be lifelong learners, our institutions should embrace that mindset as well.
The strongest organizations aren’t simply adopting new technology. They’re building new capabilities across their teams and creating stronger partnerships between IT and the business units they support.
3. AI is creating new opportunities across the entire learner experience.
Boston University & Harvard Business School Online
The AI conversations throughout the day were refreshingly practical.
Boston University demonstrated how AI can support faculty by performing an initial review of online assignment submissions, allowing instructors to spend more time providing meaningful feedback and engaging with students. The emphasis wasn’t on replacing people. It was on augmenting human expertise.
Harvard Business School Online shared its vision for a new Learner Hub that uses learner data to create more personalized experiences, recommend next learning opportunities, and foster ongoing engagement well beyond a single course.
Together, these examples reinforced an exciting shift.
AI is no longer limited to administrative efficiency. It’s becoming part of how institutions teach, coach, engage, and support learners throughout their educational journey.
4. Change management is a leadership discipline.
Several conversations throughout the day reinforced that successful transformation begins long before a new platform goes live.
Participants talked about aligning around the “why” behind change, building trust between IT and academic and administrative units, and ensuring governance enables innovation rather than slowing it down.
Harvard DCE described what it called the governance paradox: institutions expect continuing education units to move with the speed of the market while operating within governance structures that can make rapid change difficult.
The institutions making the most progress aren’t choosing between agility and governance. They’re creating cultures where IT and the business work together around a shared vision for student success.
5. Modern platforms create room for continuous innovation.
Harvard DCE, Yale School of Management & Salesforce
Salesforce’s Vanessa Wright shared an impressive Education Cloud roadmap that reflects the company’s continued investment in higher education.
It was encouraging to hear how institutions including Harvard Division of Continuing Education and Yale School of Management are modernizing from legacy environments to Education Cloud, not simply to replace technology, but to reduce technical debt, align with product roadmaps, and create flexible foundations that can evolve alongside changing learner and institutional needs.
The platform itself isn’t the destination. It’s the foundation that makes continuous innovation possible.
6. Better data leads to better decisions.
Data surfaced in nearly every discussion, whether the topic was AI, advising, learner engagement, or student success.
Institutions are recognizing that trusted, connected data isn’t just a technical asset. It’s a strategic one. Better data enables more personalized learner experiences, smarter investments, stronger decision making, and more meaningful ways to measure success.
As AI becomes increasingly embedded across higher education, strong data foundations will only become more important.
7. Measure success beyond the classroom.
One of the simplest ideas from the day may have been one of the most impactful.
Yale shared how surveying learners three and six months after program completion provides a much better understanding of educational impact than relying solely on end-of-course evaluations.
For institutions focused on lifelong learning, that’s an important shift.
Success isn’t measured by course completion alone. It’s measured by career advancement, new opportunities, continued engagement, and the lasting value learners receive long after the class has ended.
Looking Ahead
Harvard’s opening presentation reminded us that continuing education has never been static. It has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of learners and society.
That’s an important perspective as we navigate today’s AI-driven transformation. Our history shouldn’t hold us back. It should give us confidence.
Innovation doesn’t require abandoning our mission. It asks us to fulfill it in new ways.
The future of lifelong learning won’t be defined by any single technology or initiative. It will be shaped by institutions willing to strengthen their foundations, invest in data, empower their people, and keep students at the center of every decision.
I’m grateful to our colleagues at Harvard Division of Continuing Education for co-hosting such a thoughtful event, and to the many leaders from Boston University, Harvard Business School Online, Yale School of Management, Salesforce, and institutions across higher education who shared their experiences so openly.
If these conversations are any indication, the future of lifelong learning is incredibly bright, and I’m excited to see where it leads.
Continue the Conversation
If you’ll be at EDUCAUSE, I hope you’ll join us at Attain Partners’ Higher Education Leadership Symposium: Built to Last: Looking Back to Lead Forward.
Together, we’ll explore a timely question: What lessons from prior transformations still apply, and what assumptions no longer hold?
Jason Belland serves as Higher Education Executive in Residence at Attain Partners, committed to serving the industry with a focus on envisioning outcome-driven solutions that care for the student journey over a lifetime of learning. Jason has spent over two decades working at public and private higher education institutions in roles ranging from online learning and instructional design to marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing together innovative ideas with new technologies to support student success.
In addition to his roles in higher education, Jason served an eight-year tenure at Salesforce, ascending to Vice President of Go-To-Market for Education Cloud, leading teams to create solutions that would empower colleges and universities to engage, retain, and support every learner over the course of a lifetime of learning. The products and solutions created under Jason’s tenure at Salesforce have been implemented by thousands of colleges and universities globally and set the foundation for today’s Salesforce Education Cloud. Jason received his bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature/Letters from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and holds an Executive Education Certificate in Business Excellence from Columbia Business School.
