Bror's Blog

"Learning engineering" in action at Kaplan University - report by Ithaka

The higher education consulting firm Ithaka has done a whole series of case studies on innovative practices in higher education, providing food for thought for folks in the sector as they think about how to change.  I've had several conversations with Martin Kurzweil there about the kind of "learning engineering" work we're doing at Kaplan: applying learning science at scale by training up instructional designers on what cognitive science is finding about how expertise, learning, and various media work together, investing in developing valid and reliable probes of learning outcomes, and checking carefully (e.g., with randomized controlled trials) to see if expected improvements in learning outcomes are happening with our students in various programs. 

Ithaka was particularly interested in the work we've been doing at Kaplan University (KU), led by their President Betty Vandenbosch, to use randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as a systematic way to check "what works" (or doesn't) before deployment.  As you'll see in this case study by Ithaka, KU's Research Pipeline team has set up and run more than a hundred different RCTs in the last few years to look for impact.  As a consequence, they've had to build out good tools and processes to monitor these pilots along the way - it's far different to manage dozens of trials at once in various stages of development compared with doing an occasional trial or two.  

Ithaka thinks there's something to be learned from KU's experience for all higher education institutions.  I think so too! 

For White House Symposium on the Future of Education R&D and Digital Learning: Learning Engineers in Education

I wasn't able to attend this terrific meeting of minds last week about learning science, education R&D, and the interconnections with new technologies in education and big data learning analytics, unfortunately.  However, Katrina Stevens, one of the organizers, still suggested I contribute a piece about learning engineering, so (with her permission) here's the pre-reading piece I sent in.  The full range of pre-readings is fascinating - I hope the DoE releases them in final form, along with notes from what, by all accounts, was a fascinating day with terrific people! 

Transnational experience - a piece of long-term higher-ed goodness

Folks who look at my blog know how much I focus on applying evidence-based approaches to mastering well-defined learning outcomes - a key component of what I think learning environments need to become good at, as technology enhances and expands the types of learning experiences available, and the kind of learning evidence that can be used to judge progress.

However, there's more to learning than a narrow focus on key skills for individual productivity.  I frequently recall Dana Gioia's very good formulation of the purpose of education: to build "productive citizens for a free society." Yes, "productive citizens" comes first, but on its heels, we cannot forget "citizens for a free society."  One important component that contributes to both goals is exposure to global experience - learners, at many stages, getting experience with cultures, thinking, and meaning outside their home territory. 

On being aware of the quality of evidence

On the heels of a recent blog I did on evidence-based thinking in education worldwide, I thought it worth saying a bit more about another article in EdSurge that appeared recently. This article makes some great points about folks in education looking more carefully at claims about evidence to support efficacy of different interventions. It’s clearly not easy to make real-world decisions, given how tricky it can be to get good-enough real-world data. Hopefully, ed-tech itself, leavened with expertise, can help to improve the situation.

"Learning engineering" making its way in the world

I recently (re)stumbled across an interesting article in EdSurge about using educational impact to evaluate ed-tech companies and services. It seems an obvious thing, but as the article points out, it's not so simple to do. It reminded me of a range of efforts that are now popping up to assist us all with “learning engineering” work – applying good learning science and evidence-gathering at scale.