EP 37 - Agentic AI is here. What does it mean for Online Education? A conversation with Anna Mills.

In EP 37, John and Jason sit down with Anna Mills to discuss the reality of "agentic AI"—browsers that don't just assist students but can potentially become the student. We move past the panic to discuss advocacy, "humanizing" strategies, and how we can respond without giving up on online learning.

See complete notes and transcripts at www.onlinelearningpodcast.com

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Guest Bio:

Anna Mills is a leading voice in the responsible integration of AI in education, drawing on nearly two decades of teaching experience and a deep commitment to open educational resources. Her expertise spans AI literacy, academic integrity, and the critical use of AI in higher education, work informed in part by her role as the sole education specialist invited to test GPT-4 pre-release for OpenAI. She is widely recognized for her influential resource curation, national and international faculty development sessions, and published contributions in major higher-ed outlets. Mills also authors the widely adopted OER How Arguments Work and advises multiple AI-focused initiatives—you can find Anna Mills here on LinkedIn.

Resources:

• Anna’s Substack (great summary of Agentic AI and Education / lots of links and resources) https://annamills.substack.com/p/the-time-to-reckon-with-ai-agents
• John’s LinkedIn post on how Comet Browser can impersonate a student in an online course
• John’s YouTube video showing Comet impersonating a student
• Anna’s LinkedIn post about Yun Moh’s request of Canvas.
• Annotated reading conversation
  • Perusall
  • Hypothe.sis
• Forbes’ Article “Colleges and Schools Must Block Agentic AI Browsers Now, Here’s Why” https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivalegatt/2025/09/25/colleges-and-schools-must-block-agentic-ai-browsers-now-heres-why/ (not mentioned but a good one!)

Theme Music: Pumped by RoccoW is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Transcript

We use a combination of computer-generated transcriptions and human editing. Please check with the recorded file before quoting anything. Please check with us if you have any questions or can help with any corrections!

EP 37 Anna Mills - Oct 28, 2025

[00:00:00] John Nash: Hey. Quick pause we're collecting listener testimonials, and so if this show has influenced your thinking or your practice in any way, you can share that with us at onlinelearningpodcast.com. There's a link at the top of that page. You can't miss it. Just click that it takes just a second and we'd love your testimonial.

[00:00:19] Jason: That's right, just right at the top in kind of obnoxious yellow font, to be honest. But it's a black background and so it's accessible, but still, you should see it at the top.

We'd love your feedback.

[00:00:31] John Nash: And if this conversation is useful. Take a moment to follow the show so you don't miss any new episodes in Apple Podcasts.

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[00:00:44] Jason: Also, if you like this podcast, we'd love your rating. It helps us in the algorithms kind of bump to the top. So, in Apple Podcasts, you scroll all the way down and find the stars and put the stars in. In Spotify, you hit the three-button menu and then rate this podcast. We'd appreciate.

[00:01:03] John Nash: So many steps, but I tell you it's worth it. Alright, to the episode.

[00:01:08] Jason: To the episode.

[00:01:09] John Nash: I'm John Nash here with Jason Johnston.

[00:01:11] Jason: John. Hey everyone. And this is Online Learning in the second half the Online Learning