When Old Dominion University launched Teletechnet in the late 20th century — the pioneering distancelearning initiative that would become ҴýGlobal — it was an early bet on technology’s potential in higher education. The program aspired to address mounting pressures, such as rising costs, an evolving enrollment landscape and the needs of nontraditional students.
“Old Dominion has solved problems other people have yet to see,” said the president of Olympic College in a 1998 Virginian-Pilot story highlighting the program’s expansion into Washington state. “We couldn’t find a better partner.”
Thousands of students earned their University degrees from over 60 remote sites in five states through satellite-enabled video connections before it gave way to a burgeoning technology called “the internet.”
New challenges loom in the 21st century, but today’s student is still seeking a flexible education that delivers unparalleled value. In late 2021, Old Dominion University began a multi-year strategic planning process, sustained faculty involvement and data-driven decision-making aligned with national best practices and student needs.
The result of this collective University-wide plan, once again, calls upon the University’s legacy of innovation and technology to develop a path forward. Embracing artificial intelligence (AI) amid its increasing impact on learning, research, workforce development and the world at large is what’s next.
“We are making the choice to be relentless in pursuing innovation and focusing on excellence,” Old Dominion University President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D., said in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education last September. “That’s something that has served us well thus far, and I think it will serve us well into the future.”
Old Dominion University’s AI journey began in earnest in September 2023 when President Hemphill hosted a symposium, “Striking the Balance: AI Automation and Human Interaction in Teaching and Learning.” The event featured Old Dominion University experts highlighting the University’s commitment to utilizing AI to enhance education and operational efficiency.
Following the symposium, the University formally aligned years of strategic transformation work under Forward-Focused Digital Transformation — a bold, future-defining repositioning of Old Dominion University designed to advance its role as a national leader in academic innovation, AI enablement, digital learning, research infrastructure and operational transformation.
“As AI continues to develop, it will play an increasing role in the future of education,” President Hemphill said during an event held in February 2025, where he outlined the vision. “From smart tutoring systems that provide personalized learning paths to AI grading systems, technology will allow universities to tailor the educational experience to each student’s needs.”
Part of that effort included significant institutional investments in AI research infrastructure, cloud computing and interdisciplinary innovation ecosystems designed to support applied AI research, scalable experimentation and real-world problem solving across the University. An AI Research Working Group was established that brought together faculty experts across disciplines to advance collaborative AI initiatives with broad institutional and community impact. An inaugural cohort of AI Teaching Fellows helped integrate AI across disciplines — as content, context and tool — while advancing AI literacy, responsible AI practices and AI-enhanced teaching and learning experiences across the curriculum.
In addition, the University committed to hiring more than two dozen AI experts in areas across a wide range of disciplines.
Student-Centric Innovations
In the September 2025 interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, President Hemphill addressed the headwinds facing higher education today — a demographic-driven enrollment cliff, a competitive credentialing landscape and perceived value of higher education, as well as changes to the funding model.
“For a long time, our industry has really focused solely on retention and graduation rates,” President Hemphill said. “While those are and will always be important factors, I think that we have to begin to pivot and look at how we’re preparing and upskilling our students to be successful in the workforce.”
Soon after his arrival at the University in 2021, President Hemphill focused his attention on how to future-proof the University. The University-wide effort developed and implemented a strategic plan that has guided progress.
The University is investing in innovative and immersive learning environments, including a $30 million multi-year investment to modernize more than 180 classrooms and learning spaces across campus. AI-enabled classroom technologies are being deployed across multiple academic environments throughout the University, with additional spaces continuing to be developed as part of the broader digital transformation effort.
Several advanced AI-enabled classrooms, including a faculty innovation environment in Albert Brooks Gornto, Jr. Hall that serves as a testing, demonstration and training space for emerging instructional technologies, feature interactive high-definition digital displays, AI-enabled captioning and instructional support tools, real-time student feedback and engagement capabilities, AI-assisted recognition of key concepts and recurring questions, and formative feedback mechanisms that help instructors better assess student understanding and interaction during class sessions.
President Hemphill compared advancing AI to the dawn of the internet age in the 1980s. “Think about how we’ve integrated the internet into our classrooms, into our laboratories and into our operations,” he said during The Chronicle of Higher Education interview.
MonarchMind
In February 2025, the University launched MonarchMind, a generative AI platform designed specifically for faculty and staff and integrating multiple large language models. Through a unified platform, users could generate text, analyze data and process images or files in a closed system without exposing data or information to public AI models.
“This platform empowers our faculty and staff with secure, cutting-edge AI tools that streamline workflows, enhance productivity and enrich the academic experience,” said Nina Rodriguez Gonser, vice president for Digital Transformation and Technology, when the University’s flagship AI initiative launched last year.
As of this publication, MonarchMind was evolving from a standalone AI tool into a broader, more scalable AI access portal, according to Chrysoula Malogianni, Ph.D. (Ph.D. ’19), the University’s senior associate vice president for digital innovation and chief digital experience officer. “The original version served as an important foundation, but as enterprise capabilities have matured — particularly with tools like Google Gemini and NotebookLM — it has become clear that a more integrated and flexible approach is needed,” she said.
The updated MonarchMind has become a centralized, secure “front door” to AI, Fproviding streamlined access to approved enterprise tools alongside University-developed applications. “This allows us to preserve the strong brand recognition and trust that MonarchMind has built, while significantly expanding its capabilities and aligning it with our broader AI ecosystem,” Dr. Malogianni said.
MonarchSphere
In late October 2025, the University took another bold step with the debut of MonarchSphere, a first-of-its-kind AI innovation and enablement ecosystem for higher education powered by Google Cloud. Through a centralized and scalable platform, faculty, researchers, students and institutional teams can access advanced AI capabilities, cloud infrastructure and collaborative innovation environments designed to support teaching and learning, research enablement, workforce development, operational transformation and applied AI experimentation across disciplines.
MonarchSphere emerged from a multi-year strategic effort to build a secure and scalable institutional AI ecosystem for faculty, researchers and the University’s Digital Transformation and Technology team. It is part of the University’s partnership with Google Cloud — a collaboration that has accelerated the University’s vision to become a hub for research innovation, workforce preparation and digital transformation.
“At its core, our digital transformation effort is about people — empowering our Monarch community with the resources and partnerships that allow ideas to grow, solutions to scale and impact to reach far beyond our campus,” said Vice President Rodriguez Gonser at an October 2025 event announcing the partnership
with Google.
Matthew Schneider, Google’s managing director of National, U.S. State, Local and Education, called the launch of MonarchSphere a defining moment in higher education.“ The new standard we are launching today is a groundbreaking model — an intelligent university of the future,” he said.
The collaboration also introduced Google Career Certificates to the University’s degree and continuing education programs by expanding access to on-demand credentials and equipping students with both academic knowledge and career-ready skills that meet the evolving needs of Virginia’s workforce.
And, while the development of MonarchSphere was sparked by an internal need to provide researchers with access to advanced AI tools, it is also providing an entry point for outside partnerships, workforce development and regional impact that benefit from University expertise, according to Dr. Malogianni.
Dr. Malogianni said the University’s digital transformation is well underway, with the launch of MonarchSphere, the evolution of MonarchMind and the many other technological advancements occurring across campus.
“Now, the real work begins.”