The Rant Podcast

A bi-weekly podcast focused on pulling back the curtain on the American higher education system and breaking down the people, the policies and the politics. The podcast host, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, is a known innovator and leader in higher education. The podcast will not pull any punches as it delves into tough questions about the culture, politics and policies of our higher education system.

The Rant Podcast is a news podcast hosted by Eloy Ortiz Oakley, with 89 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley hosts The Rant Podcast, a news show with 89 episodes published.

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  Episode #20

  Stop Grading California With A 3-Hour Bubble Test

  Sep 9, 202619 minS4

  Send us Fan Mail The SAT is back in the Regents’ conversation at the University of California, and I’m not convinced we’re asking the right question. When a small group of faculty points to “math preparedness” and reaches for a high-stakes standardized test as the solution, it can sound reasonable on the surface. But UC is a public research university funded by Californians, built to create talent and knowledge for the state. That public mission changes what “merit” should mean and how UC admissions should work. I walk through what’s driving the new pressure, including the reality that many current students came through high school during COVID-era disruption, lost access to teachers and counselors, and faced a very different learning environment. Then I bring it back to the evidence: UC moved away from the SAT for a reason, and UC’s institutional data since 2020 shows diverse classes and stable (or slightly improved) outcomes in course completion, retention, and graduation. If student success isn’t falling, why are we racing toward a tool that mostly rations seats and fuels a test-prep marketplace? I also lay out what a real, modern alternative can look like: data-driven admissions that use multiple measures, smarter readiness signals, and serious collaboration with the K-12 pipeline to diagnose gaps instead of cutting students off at the door. If you care about college readiness, standardized testing, and the future of public higher education in California, listen through and tell me where you land. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

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  Episode #18

  Badges, Bots, And Busy Students at the University of Phoenix

  Aug 6, 202637 minS4

  Send us Fan Mail College was never meant to be the center of a working adult’s life and pretending otherwise is one reason so many learners stall out. We talk with Dr. John Wood, chief academic officer and provost of the University of Phoenix, as the university marks 50 years of building higher education around working learners who juggle full-time jobs, caregiving, and everything else life throws at them. We get specific about what learner-centered design actually means: mobile-friendly coursework, support that works outside 9 to 5, and faculty who are real-world practitioners. Then we dig into one of the biggest shifts in online education and workforce alignment right now: skills-based learning. John explains how Phoenix mapped its curriculum to job skills using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, industry advisory councils, programmatic accreditors, alumni feedback, and faculty expertise, then turned that work into visible skills profiles, micro-credentials, and digital badges that students can share with employers. We also cover how to measure economic mobility in ways that go beyond marketing, why transfer credit mobility matters for cost and time, and what partnership can look like with community colleges. From competency-based education to AI in higher education, we explore what changes when every graduate is expected to be AI fluent and when AI is used to improve service, efficiency, and learning outcomes without replacing human judgment. If you care about adult learners, workforce skills, credential transparency, and what the next version of higher ed should be, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the one change you think would make college work better for working adults.

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  Episode #18

  50 Years of Serving Working Learners at The University of Phoenix

  Jul 15, 202635 minS4

  Send us Fan Mail University of Phoenix has been a lightning rod in higher education for decades, but its 50-year milestone raises a more useful question than reputations: what does it look like to design a university around working adults who are balancing jobs, caregiving, and everything else life throws at them? I sit down with Dr. John Wood, Chief Academic Officer and Provost, to talk about what “working-learner first” means in day-to-day practice and why that mindset matters for every college staring down shifting demographics and rising expectations. We get specific about skills-based education and the push toward skills-based hiring. John walks through how Phoenix mapped its curriculum to workforce skills using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, industry advisory councils, programmatic accreditors, alumni feedback, and practitioner faculty experience. We also dig into micro-credentials and digital badges that let students communicate what they can do, not just what they completed, plus how skills profiles can connect learners to real job postings while they are still in school. From there, we hit the accountability questions: how to measure economic mobility, what outcomes data will look like under new regulations, and how alumni feedback can reveal whether programs deliver on the promise. We also talk transfer partnerships with community colleges, transfer-friendly degree design, competency-based education models that save time and money, and the growing need to teach durable human skills alongside technical skills. AI is the throughline, too: AI policy that must keep evolving, AI fluency embedded across programs, and AI tools that improve service and learning support without pretending there’s a single “silver bullet.” Subscribe, share this conversation with a colleague, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or your toughest question about skills, outcomes, or AI in higher education. Phoenix.edu eloy@4leggedmedia.com

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  Episode #17

  What If Every Student Had A 24/7 Relationship With Their College

  Jul 2, 202639 minS4

  Send us Fan Mail Three million calls a month is not a marketing flex. It’s a signal that higher education is moving into a new operating model, where AI can expand student support without pushing humans out of the picture. I sit down with Ruben Harris and Timor Maester, co-founders of Outrival (and previously Career Karma), to unpack what they mean by a “digital workforce” and why outbound AI agents are becoming a real tool for admissions, advising, retention, and re-enrollment. We get specific about how colleges and universities can deploy agentic AI in ways that are measurable and responsible. Ruben explains why treating AI like an intern with a job description and a clear objective helps leaders move past vague pilots and into outcomes you can track. Timor shares use cases that work on the ground, from proactively reaching stop-outs months after they’ve gone silent to re-engaging applicants who started the process and then disappeared, all while giving students the option to connect to the right human at the right time. We also talk about what most vendors gloss over: performance management, experimentation, and compliance. Dashboards, text-based feedback loops, call reviews, and even A/B testing voices and scripts can help teams improve the quality of conversations while respecting policies and outreach rules. We close with a five-year vision of real personalization at scale, where a student can text their college 24/7 and feel known, guided, and supported. Subscribe, share this episode, and leave a review so more higher ed leaders can learn what’s actually working with AI right now.

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  Episode #17

  What If Every Student Had 24/7 Support. Developing a Digital Workforce with Ruben Harris & Timur Meyster

  Jul 1, 202638 minS4

  <p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>AI in higher education is everywhere right now, but most of what schools hear is theory, hype, or another vendor promise. We wanted something more concrete, so I sat down with Ruben Harris and Timur Meyster, co-founders of Outrival (and previously Career Karma), to talk about what it looks like to deploy a real “digital workforce” that supports students at scale without pushing humans out of the loop.<br/><br/>We get specific about outbound AI agents that call and text proactively across the student lifecycle, from enrollment to retention and re-enrollment. Ruben and...

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