Simulating a real-world infectious disease outbreak is vital to education. By leveraging widely available technology, we can build and shape our insight into human behavior during outbreaks. Operation Outbreak (O2) is a learning platform that creates a real-time means of emotional and behavioral preparation that may illustrate how chaos, fear and conflicts alter the decision-making capabilities of humans in a demanding environment.
In 2014, during the largest Ebola outbreak in history, students from SMA Prep in Sarasota, Florida, began to show concern for not only the affected countries, but for themselves as well. As the outbreak dominated the headlines, there was a subtle unease that gave way to misinformation, which in turn began to fuel paranoia. Conversely, due to the lack of understanding of outbreak response, the students were confused as to how a pathogen could spread so quickly and wreak havoc amongst a population. Because of this, Dr. Todd Brown felt it necessary to take advantage of their curiosity and desire to learn more by creating an experiential learning simulation.
Initially, the campus-wide outbreak used a sticker-based system that mimicked a pathogen spread by human to human contact. This system caught the attention of Dr. Pardis Sabeti, a Harvard University professor and Broad Institute member, whose lab studies genome biology and infectious diseases. Through Dr. Sabeti’s guidance and collaboration with Dr. Brown, the simulation took hold as an annual event for teaching and learning about outbreak preparation and response. Later, Dr. Andres Colubri, a computational researcher at the Sabeti Lab, was introduced into the program. Dr. Colubri elevated the simulation’s realism even further with the introduction of a one-of-a-kind mobile app. His app was able to mimic an airborne pathogen that “spreads” using Bluetooth technology. The collaborative effort between the three doctors became an experiential learning module called Operation Outbreak (O2); a module with the goal of teaching students the mechanisms of outbreak response and containment from the perspective of public health and governance.
Experiential learning is not a new concept; one of its founders, John Dewey, introduced the idea as far back as 1938. Using the digital world to simulate an infectious disease pandemic isn’t uniquely new either. A memorable example of the latter is a ‘glitch’ in the online role-playing game The World of Warcraft. In 2005, players experienced a ‘glitch’ in the game, which inadvertently created an infectious disease outbreak scenario. This incident is known as Corrupted Blood. While unintentional, the consequences were considered useful, as players exhibited very similar behaviors as what is seen in a real outbreak scenario. These behaviors included players showing empathy for those infected, trying to help infected players and trying to isolate oneself from the spread of the pathogen.
What is novel about O2’s approach is combining didactic and experiential methods with readily available technology, bringing the digital world into reality. While there have been other efforts (such as the BBC Pandemic Project) O2 is novel in that it is not a retrospective algorithm-based simulation. O2 is grounded in real-time, human interactions based on an invisible threat; this distinction provides vital insight into how human behavior may affect an outbreak itself.
Through using mobile devices, which are utilized increasingly often within schools, O2 has created a novel approach to integrating technology into experiential learning. By creating an immersive, adventure-game environment, O2 allows for the digital world to become real, creating a real-time scenario in which a human population can step into a highly advanced technology-based simulation while remaining grounded in their day-to-day surroundings. O2 allows any student body, housing complex and workplace to prepare for a public health emergency, and also allows researchers and their target populations to better understand the sociological implications of an outbreak before stakes become life-threatening. In conducting such a digital simulation in the real world, O2 can offer a unique social and scientific experience that provides data generation and epidemiological modeling of real-life outbreaks. Rapid response and behavioral understanding of a real-life pandemic are vital, and the role of community awareness and preparedness is critical. Furthermore, as vaccinations have become a hot button political issue, O2 provides an adventure game-based alternative that allows for individuals to better understand related topics as herd-immunity in a more meaningful way.
Leading up to the simulation experience, students and teachers engaged in a two week unit that integrated both civics and science. This allowed students to understand biological sciences better as they pertain to infectious agents, as well as the roles of governments, non-government agencies, clinicians, military and media during a crisis. The O2 simulation was a culmination of the unit that was entirely student-driven, as students stepped into the roles mentioned above as well as the general population. During the simulation, students faced the possibility of infection while carrying out these roles. “Symptomatic” students presented in the triage room and shared their symptoms with the clinicians. The clinical team passed along this information to the student epidemiologists, who tried to identify the disease and attempted to stop it from spreading. The epidemiologists then relayed their conclusions to the government officials, so they can best decide what actions to take.
In providing simulations like O2, students can not only take on the roles of various organizations but also, and perhaps more importantly, prepare themselves emotionally and behaviorally for outbreak scenarios. They can gain first-hand knowledge of how emotions such as fear, paranoia, and self-service, can disrupt the decision-making process. As students have to self-report their systems and experiences, they can better understand how personal decisions can affect the group as a whole. Students’ behaviors reflect what has been seen in real outbreaks. For example, some students would “screenshot” the health emoji in order to conceal their sickness, making them able to stay in the simulation and spread the pathogen to others while not self-reporting. Another example of note was the videoing of government officials, who were captured trying to secure access to vaccine stocks before other students in the simulation, and were exposed by the media. One student described the experience as “probably the most real thing I have ever done. You are actually working against the clock while the virus is spreading.”
O2 and its iterations demonstrate that there are limitless possibilities to outbreak simulation technology. There are opportunities to develop more sophisticated models for small populations, as well as develop an economic model on top of the existing technology, which will increase the realism of the project and add the ability to explore individual and community resilience. Ultimately, we can incorporate an evolving pathogen, which can enable transmission tracking and potentially cause new traits and symptoms to emerge. We can also integrate data analytics into the system so that student epidemiologists can carry out visualization and modeling of the generated data with the app.
Using simulations that combine didactic methods with experiential learning, individuals can come to better understand the importance of evaluating their decisions in a time of need and crisis. These experiences may increase empathy for suffering areas, as students experience first-hand how challenging it is for a scientist fighting a disease, a healthcare worker aiding patients or a government official executing an effective response to an emergency. O2 not only provides a safe and realistic platform for teaching and learning at any level, but also drives interest within the STEM fields towards projects oriented towards public health and the wellbeing of the global society.
Authors:
Todd Brown is a teacher and winner of the Ignite Education Innovation Award, The Henry Ford Innovator Award, and is a US Congressional Teacher of the Year.
Andres Colubri is a computational researcher at the Sabeti Lab. He develops machine learning and visualization tools for biomedical data sets and contributes to Processing, a programming language for arts and design.
Pardis C. Sabeti is a professor at Harvard University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The Project Virtual patient learning (VPL) is an online simulation system, based on artificial intelligence and pre-recorded movies, in which the learner plays the role of a physician, pharmacist, nurse etc. who confronts a virtual patient. The interaction takes place in real-time and each decision taken by the learner instantly affects the reactions and emotions of the patient, just as it would in real life. The patient in the scenario is played by a professional actor who is trained to simulate variable moods, attitudes, and emotional responses through verbal and non-verbal communication. Feedback is given through the simulated patient’s comments.
echoV is a project targeting deaf and hearing-impaired students who are aiming to continue their education outside special centers and communicate normally with the societies who are not sign language educated. Common universities and colleges worldwide are not equipped with technological techniques that can assist them in their education, while few specialized universities are built for deaf students, sign language tutors or in-class television captioning are included for few majors only. echoV it will allow students to study in any educational institution without the need for any sign language tutors in the classroom and adapt easily with their colleagues.
2. At the virtual event landing page click “Start Event” and enter the email you used to register for the event (refer the picture below)
3. Password is your 7-digit ticket number (without #) as stated in your registration e-mail
NOTE: You may reset your password by entering your email in the “Email” field and clicking the “FORGOT PASSWORD” button.
Bridging Academia And Industry Through Project Based Experiential Learning
Organizations are looking to millennial and academia for innovative solutions and knowledge to address business challenges in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Conversely, academia and students need to be attuned to the various challenges and realities of industry to stay relevant. Singapore Management University (SMU) bridges these gaps between academia and industry by introducing SMU-X – an experiential learning programme where students, faculty and industry partners come together to devise solutions and provide perspectives to business, social and emerging challenges through real-world projects faced by the industry.
The Generation Y students who come into the pharmacy course are technology-savvy and digitally-focused. We identified their gaming habits and preferences for a pharmacy-related serious game. In general, students preferred a three-dimensional, post-apocalyptic game with a fantasy/medieval/mythic setting and an adventurer storyline, played in a collaborative manner. Thus, we developed a three-dimensional Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, in which students engage in a futuristic fantasy world to “save the world” from a plague, so as to learn about the 21st century competencies and skills (confidence, critical thinking, communication skills, responsible decision-making, self-directed learner) needed in their future clinical practices.
To facilitate more personalized learning, AI-powered educational software is increasingly being used in K-12 classrooms. Such software allows students to work at their own pace, while freeing up the teacher to spend more time working one-on-one with students who need it most. Yet orchestrating personalized learning can be challenging for teachers, as each student in the class may be working on a different activity at any given time. Working with K-12 teachers, we are co-designing Lumilo: a pair of smartglasses that enable teachers to more effectively personalize instruction, while keeping their heads up and their eyes focused on the classroom.
Green School exists to enable students to connect with nature and with communities, to develop holistically with skills and competencies for the world of today and the future, to learn entrepreneurial approaches to problem solving and to make a real difference, now. Our sustainability initiatives and entrepreneurial programs form part of an innovative skills-based educational model. GS delivers authentic, engaging learning, inspiring young leaders to be responsible global citizenship through a replicable, real-world case study with immense growth potential. GS is a sustainable and shareable model of learning that has captured the hearts and minds of millions worldwide.
Apps for Good is a charity aiming to grow a global generation of problem-solvers and tech entrepreneurs; young people that learn how to build, market and launch digital tools to solve real-world problems, positively impacting their communities and challenging the status quo. Partnering with schools and colleges across the world, Apps for Good trains educators to deliver our online product development programme to students aged 10 – 18 from a diverse range of socio-economic, ethnic and gender backgrounds, transforming the way technology is taught in schools and helping young people learn to turn bright ideas into real technology products.
International and national assessments show that too many U.S. students struggle with understanding nonfiction text. In a competitive global economy, ignoring the root causes of the problem and simply “watering down” content for students who struggle, just widens the achievement gap and is a great disservice to these students. Readorium’s mission is to help all students become confident, competent, and motivated readers who are passionate about science. Readorium’s online programs meet this challenge by teaching 3rd-8th grade students transferable strategies and word-learning skills needed to comprehend all nonfiction and by providing text and supports that automatically adapt to their needs.
An ambitious, student-centred renewable energy project, Green School’s Operation Rain or Shine (OROS) represents integrated and purposeful learning at its best. Encouraging responsible global citizenship and learning around sustainability – for Green School and the surrounding community, students develop holistically with skills and competencies critical for the world of today and tomorrow. Applying systems thinking, scientific inquiry, analysis, design, physical challenge, team-work, communication and more, OROS aims to be a showcase to the world of renewable energy and student Green Leadership. An inspiring example of how through entrepreneurial problem solving, children can make a real difference in the world now.
Stu Brew is Europe’s first ever microbrewery to be managed by and for students, with the sales profits being invested back into training and development for students and overall long-term sustainability of the enterprise. The brewery was set up as a Student Community Action Newcastle (SCAN) scheme, which has been supported to establish sustainability projects as a part of the National Union of Students (NUS) Student Green Fund. Reflecting the strong focus on student entrepreneurship at Newcastle, Stu Brew is run as a social enterprise to support student development and help improve their employability skills.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is committed to foster sustainable development through education and research. Service-Learning(SL) combines formal academic study and community service to enhance students’ sustainable learning and social responsibility. Since 2013, a 3-credit Service-Learning subject entitled “Promotion of Children and Adolescent Development” has been offered to 981 PolyU students from different disciplines. Through this subject, students have served more than 3,000 migrant children in mainland China(Video 1 and 2) and 6,400 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Evaluation findings suggest that the subject significantly contributes to sustainable development of university students, their service targets and the communities.
In January 2015, the graduating class of Green School (GS) conceived the idea of a “Bio Bus” as their legacy service project. In less than a year, Bio Bus evolved from a student-brainstorming project into a social enterprise, empowering students to take action on solving environmental problems. Bio Bus addresses transportation and waste problems in Bali through education and community mobilisation. It’s mission to provide sustainable transport services to GS students and staff, engage with the broader community by offering solutions to health and waste problems around used cooking oil (UCO), and deliver real world, integrated learning to the youth.
Next Tech Lab is a leading student-run cross-disciplinary research lab in India. The lab was founded by students who spent a semester at MIT, Cambridge on a scholarship. They were intrigued by the anti-disciplinary research culture of the MIT Media Lab, where they interned. While Next Tech doesn’t just ape the Media Lab framework like in Richard Feynman’s anecdotes about “Cargo-Cult Science”, its policies are built to foster innovation and disruptive thinking. Researchers work on Deep Learning, Computational Biology, Electrical Systems, Mixed Reality, Blockchains/Decentralization & Internet of Things. The lab has advisors from MIT, CMU, Cambridge University and silicon-valley start-ups.
GameLab is a web platform of Business and Management Simulators. A business laboratory were students must take an active role in their learning and the teacher one of facilitator. Thus, the attention of the participants is 100% centered in the experience of learning, trying, failing and succeeding. We are making the most out of the gamification trend, in order to revolutionize business and management schools, providing experiences and real scenarios were students can make and try their decisions. GameLab will become the new standard approach for business teaching. Simulators are the XXIst century evolution of the business cases.
Our unique methodology consists of 3 steps in one academic year: 1. IDEA: children from elementary/kindergarten schools invent their own ‘Dream Machine’. Anything goes. The main criterion is that it’s relevant for the child who really, really wants it. 2. CONCEPT: higher education students (e.g. product design, game design students, engineers, architect students, art students) propose one or more solutions to design those machines. 3. WORKING PROTOTYPE: technical secondary Schools pupils build real working prototypes of those machines. Throughout this whole process all students collaborate as peers and can use the expertise and support of a wide range of organisations.
The goal is to improve the teaching-learning process of mathematics by increasing spatial visualization skills using augmented reality, virtual environments and 3D impressions. A new way of teaching important mathematical concepts is presented by adding the senses of touch and sight to the learning process, showing the student a way of describing reality through mathematical language in a natural way and achieving a meaningful learning of mathematics. The results indicate an increase in motivation and increased learning, in addition to developing skills of mathematical visualization and interpretation of concepts in students.
The focus of the submission is the University of Exeter’s substantial investment and long-term commitment to the concept of delivering a progressive Employability and Professional Pathway (EPP) programmes for all its students throughout their time at Exeter and provide solid foundation to build their professional careers beyond graduation. Its success however would not be possible without the influence and impact of other key elements of the employability ecosystem and is an aspect of its strategic inclusion is also a significant innovation. The overarching strategic context is provided within this section.
TeachConnect is an innovative approach that uses an online platform and engagement strategy to connect preservice teachers with an interdisciplinary professional learning community of experienced teachers and discipline experts. Embedded in and available after their university studies, TeachConnect nurtures employability and attainment by providing the space for preservice teachers to develop networks, knowledge and skills, shape career aspirations and expectations, build confidence, and meet professional standards prior to entering the classroom. Collaboratively developed by eight universities over four years since launching in September 2015, TeachConnect has reached over 1,000 preservice teachers across Queensland, Australia.
Global Virtual Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is an innovative pedagogical model for developing graduates’ global competency and virtual, global teamwork skills that reflects real-world business practice. Global Virtual WIL brings students from multiple countries and time zones together online to solve a real-life business problem for a multi-national client. Students’ use a range of online business technologies to collaboratively develop a solution according to requirements set by the client. Global team members have the additional option to come together in the host country to present their solutions directly to the client and receive authentic feedback.
The WOW room is IE’s solution for remote synchronous teaching in a collaborative and engaging fashion. It includes an immersive hardware installation (similar to a recording studio with a 3x15m U-shaped video-wall) and a software. Thanks to the WOW room, up to 60 students at once can connect and participate live (with audio and video) in a discussion, which the professor can facilitate seeing all the students at once and being able to walk around – like in a physical classroom. Students can also engage through polls, collaborative whiteboard, or videos and can work in groups in the breakout rooms.
The Negotiations Course for the World is completely open source and free, and specifically tailored for instructors in emerging markets. This course in a box includes lecture slides, exercises, readings, assessments, assignments, videos, and teaching notes. Materials are translated into hundreds of languages, including underserved local languages so high-quality education can reach the corners of the world that need this most. Course materials are further customised to local settings to provide a global, non US-centric education experience. This is the first in a series of courses to create business education for those who need it most.
Trinity College Dublin has embarked on a renewal of its undergraduate programmes through the Trinity Education Project (TEP). The official impetus was a recognition that the curriculum must continue to evolve in the light of advances in disciplinary knowledge, pedagogy, and that the context in which graduates participate is rapidly changing. The Trinity Assessment Framework is a core element of TEP and is an ambitious institutional pedagogical reform initiative. By reimagining our approaches to assessment, this framework aims to deepen students’ learning, increase their employability, and thus support the complexity of learning needed for the 21st Century graduate.
Mindprint bridges the gap between neurocognitive assessment and classroom achievement with a low-cost, evidence-based solution for all students. Mindprint identifies the root cause of learning struggles using an online screener of executive functions, memory, reasoning and speed. The battery, developed at Penn Medicine, is group administered in one class period . Results are used to automatically generate personalized learning plans for every student in math, reading, writing, and study skills that include the most effective, evidence-based strategies based on that student’s unique strengths and needs. Integrating cognitive data with traditional achievement data enables teachers to best meet every learner’s needs.
Instructional time is precious. Learners are inundated with assessments that crowd out instructional time. Carnegie Learning’s MATHia intelligent tutors already understand what students know through their work on real-world, complex problems, so why ask students to sit for anxiety-provoking tests of low-level skills? The Every Student Succeeds Act enables us to reimagine high-stakes assessments, replacing them with competency-based mastery. Embedding assessment into the learning process and monitoring progress with our Adaptive Personalized Learning Score (APLSE) supports personalized learning without taking away instructional time. This project further refines and tests APLSE, driving development of a replacement for high-stakes and formative assessments.
The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is a non-profit research organization at Carnegie Mellon University. OLI offers openly licensed, adaptive online courses that can be used by instructors or independent learners. OLI offers an exemplar of CMU’s learning engineering approach, integrating learning science with the design of innovative, instrumented learning activities, and using the data from these activities to improve instruction while advancing our understanding of human learning. The result: courseware that that combines instructional material, continuous feedback and evidence-based research, improving outcomes while lowering costs. Numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of OLI’s work, showing improved learning in reduced time.
A/B/C-TEACH explores the ways effective teaching is enhanced by when bridging the fields of affective(a)-, blended(b)- and collaborative(c)-learning into a hybrid, Learning Management System (LMS)-based, enhanced instructional environment. Progressing from a Pilot implementation through to a large-scale one (5000 LMS users, 300 b-learning courses in 6 academic years), A/B/C/-TEACH already proposes a unique architecture/methodology, which incorporates hybrid and innovative processing techniques of fuzzy-set theory, neuro-fuzzy modelling, intuitionistic-fuzzy systems, dynamic nonlinear analysis, and affective computing. New guidelines about the enhancement of LMS-based teaching/learning processes will finally be delivered, contributing to the enrichment of the HEI services and re-examination of educational policies/practices.
Founded in 2009 by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics is reinventing civic education through edu-gaming. Through our games, young people learn how our government works, and why it works. They allow students to experience civics directly. Teachers are quickly signing up with iCivics: they have access to high-quality, free, and non-partisan materials. We are raising student achievement through inventive and impactful ideas.
The Triple E Framework, developed in 2011 by Professor Kolb, is an assessment tool that K-12 educators use to measure how effectively a lesson integrates technology to positively impact student learning goals. The Triple E Framework is informed by decades of valid research which provided guidelines on effective and ineffective practices for technology tools to elicit learning growth in students. The TripleEPLN developed in 2017, is a social networking tool supporting K-12 educators to evaluate their lesson plans with the Triple E Framework and collaborate with other teachers on designing lessons to integrate technology informed by research.
Every spring, approximately 2.5 million students are admitted to college in the US. By September, approximately fourteen percent of those — 350,000 students — who intend to enroll fail to matriculate. Students who “melt” over the summer or dropout disproportionately come from underserved communities, which frequently lack the supportive resources to help students navigate challenging financial, academic, and social situations. AdmitHub’s AI chatbots help colleges scale personalized text-based advising with a vast audience. Through a series of automated reminders, tips, and tutorials these virtual advisors guide each student on a personalized path to successfully enrolling in college.
Deakin Genie is a transformational agent for student service, learning support and success. An artificial intelligence-enabled, personalised digital assistant for students, Genie proactively engages and guides students through study and life at Deakin University and beyond. It prepares graduates for a ‘post-digital’ future where chat bots and virtual smart assistants will augment most professions. Deakin Genie addresses the mega trends of the digital age – mobility, hyper-personalisation and ambient, zero-friction interactions. Genie also represents Deakin’s new digital foundation for building a new model of education that embraces the behaviours, needs and expectations of a digital generation of staff and students.
The Online Orchestra is a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). We’re asking how we can use the internet to give children and amateur musicians who live in remote communities around the country the same opportunities to play in an orchestra as those who live in larger towns and cities. We’re designing an online orchestra that will allow people who live hundreds of miles apart to make music together for the first time.
Smart Sparrow empowers instructors to reimagine how they teach. We specialize in crafting powerful, award-winning learning experiences. Our online platform enables anyone to easily create, deploy, analyze, and share visually-rich, interactive, and adaptive courseware. Educators can design personalized lessons, providing specific feedback and pathways that target misconceptions in real time. We give instructors full control, utilizing rules-based adaptivity instead of blackbox algorithms. Built-in analytics provide insights that enable quick intervention to help at-risk students and reflection on teaching efficacy. Smart Sparrow delivers everything from classroom activities to fully-online university courses, and LMS technology integration provides single sign-on and gradebook sync.
At Lab4U we are democratizing science and changing the way science is taught with a Lab in your pocket by transforming mobile devices into scientific instruments to improve the experience of science education.
Imagine if students could gain relevant real-world experience in their field of study without having to leave campus. Agriculture students at University of Illinois are collaborating with Unilever to chart a path towards growing nutritious food at scale. Management students at University of Delaware are teaming up with eBay to devise service models for the future of eCommerce. Environmental science students at Vanderbilt are advising the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute on how to position green product labels in retail environments. All of this is happening today through ImpactEd, the bridge that connects the classroom to the real world.
The proposed Open Innovation Laboratory has three major pillars: specific Learning Techniques to enhance education; Design Methodologies to guide the design process, and a Rapid Product Realization Platform, that includes emergent technologies for product development. Using this Open Innovation Laboratory, it is possible to demonstrate students apply technical skills and experiences during the development of innovative and sustainable products. The laboratory promotes interactive collaboration between internal and external actors during the innovation process to develop Sensing, Smart, and Sustainable products and services. It also supports the maker movement to stimulate an entrepreneurship culture and foster companies incubation and economic development.
The Bilingual Education hybrid course project aims to train teachers in the bilingual perspective (Brazilian Sign Language/Portuguese Language) considering linguistic and cultural particularities of deaf people. Course implementation will be in 13 universities spread all over Brazil, training 390 bilingual teachers per year. Developing the first virtual environment totally in sign language and innovative methodology to bilingual teaching materials construction, we intend to include deaf community in Brazil’s teaching systems. Moreover, we make the commitment of developing a digital database to preserve and disseminate several educational materials related to deafness.
Giving Voice to Values (GVV) is an innovative approach to values-driven leadership pioneered by Dr. Mary Gentile. GVV is based at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, having been launched by Aspen Institute with Yale School of Management, then supported at Babson College 2009-2016. Drawing on actual experience and scholarship, GVV fills a long-standing critical gap in the development of values-centered leaders. Rather than focusing on ethical analysis, GVV focuses on ethical implementation, asking the questions: “What if I were going to act on my values? What would I say and do? How could I be most effective?”
To promote ethical leadership and holistic development in university students, a subject entitled “Tomorrow’s Leaders” has been developed and implemented at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for all undergraduates since 2012/13. The subject aims to enable students to learn concepts and theories about essential qualities of ethical leaders, to reflect on their development in both intrapersonal and interpersonal domains, and to apply evidence-based pedagogies to cultivate their morality, integrity and leadership qualities. A variety of teaching approaches have been adopted to facilitate students’ learning and reflection. The findings of different evaluative methods converged to support the impact of the subject.
ALU was founded in 2015 with the mission to educate 3 million leaders for the African continent and the world by 2060. Through a unique and innovative learning model leveraging peer-to-peer learning, technology, linkages to employers, real world project-based learning and a focus on leadership and skills development, ALU has created a reinvented learning experience that is relevant to today’s fast changing world. With ~300 students from 40 nationalities at its Flagship campus in Mauritius, ALU just opened its 2nd campus in Rwanda, and aspires to build 25 campuses across Africa and beyond in the next 2 decades.
InferCabulary is a digital vocabulary learning application for students, teachers, and learning specialists based around a new form of vocabulary instruction called Semantic Reasoning. By using InferCabulary teachers can help quickly expand students’ vocabularies – and in turn helping students overall reading skills. Teachers that use InferCabulary will have access to tools and knowledge that would take years of dedicated practice. InferCabulary was designed by renowned speech pathologists who have a desire to help improve reading globally.
To find out more visit: https://infercabulary.com/
SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! are evidence-based mobile applications for speech and language learning in autism and developmental disabilities. About 50% of these learners remain minimally-verbal even after years of treatment. New intervention technologies are needed to help and reduce the cost to schools, parents, and insurance estimated at $268 billion annually in the US. SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! enable early language learning, facilitate natural speech development, enhance generalization skills, and expand social circles as students learn. These solutions grow with the learner, enabling better participation in school and community, thus reducing the lifetime cost of care while enhancing chances for classroom success.
codeSpark Academy with The Foos is the only resource for kids 4-9 that combines curriculum backed exercises and puzzles with powerful creative tools. A word-free interface makes the game accessible to kids in all countries. So far, over 20 million in 219 countries have played. The app includes: – Puzzles that teach children key computer science concepts such as sequencing, loops, conditionals and variables. – Game Kits where kids learn to code seriously cool games with paint-by-numbers tutorials. – Minigames that teach concepts related to computer science like boolean logic, automation, and stacks and queues.
Education is poor in the place where it is needed most – developing countries. This is largely an infrastructural and funding problem. Building new schools and training teachers to deliver high-quality education is beyond the means of most private individuals or public institutions. When it is available, it is not within the financial means of parents. However, the gains of new forms of learning such as online education cannot reach most users in places like Africa because of hardware and internet connection issues. We solve this problem by figuring out a way to encode videos in 1/100th of the file-size.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an important educational strategy, adopted and contextualized in many medical colleges. A problem is usually presented to students in paper form or in a digital format. This format of delivery, lacks the authenticity of a patient encounter. The Project Virtual patient learning (VPL) is an online simulation system, based on artificial intelligence and pre-recorded movies, in which the learner plays the role of a physician who confronts a (simulated) patient. The interaction takes place in real time and each decision taken by the learner instantly affects the reactions of the patient, just as it would in real life. The patient in the scenario is played by a professional actor who is trained to simulate variable moods, attitudes, and emotional responses through verbal and non-verbal communication (body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice). Feedback is given through the simulated patient’s comments. Virtual patient learning can be used in two modes: a ‘learning’ mode and an ‘evaluation’ mode. VPL has been used on a trial basis in Qatar, Lebanon, the UAE, Italy, and France. Outcomes We believe that VPL will gradually replace the traditional less authentic forms of PBL.
Edify Technologies’ mission is to give every child in the world a chance to make their own music. The goal of this project is to produce software that makes it easy for people with special needs, especially those on the autism spectrum, to compose their own music. People with disabilities ought to be able to easily interact with an accessible touch interface to write their own music, and interactive music lessons can help promote self expression and socio-emotional intelligence by guiding users to write happy, excited, sad, and angry songs, depending on their mood.
Story Shares is a literacy hub dedicated to struggling readers in middle school, high school, and beyond. If a 13-year-old reads on a first grade level, she shouldn’t have to practice reading with books like Curious George. But the books written for her age group are too challenging. At Story Shares, we are building a new collection of books specifically created to be both compelling and approachable for the millions of teens and young adults who lack literacy skills. Through writing contests, we crowd source these Relevant Reads: providing writers with incentives and tools to publish books for this overlooked audience.
To learn more visit: https://www.storyshares.org/
Inanimate Alice is a work of electronic literature, a digital text that uses game-like backdrops and techniques to engage students in reading and stimulate their creativity. Uniquely, it is a work of progressive complexity that mirrors the protagonist’s age and the skills she has acquired in pursuing her dream of one day becoming a game designer. It is a tale of the ups and downs of life, of eventual success against all odds. Twelve years in production and still incomplete, Inanimate Alice provides a compelling narrative thread for K20 education and academic research the world over.
HELM Open is a collection of over 250 free, open, multimedia learning resources. Many of these have been developed by patients, health practitioners and carers, meaning that they provide unique insights for healthcare students and others around the world on subjects as diverse as dementia, adolescent mental health, end of life care and childhood development. The team has developed a distinctive process and tools to empower communities in resource creation. The resources are having a global impact and are currently being accessed by approximately 1.5 million users in over 50 countries. Research and evaluation shows clear impact for these learners.
The project is driven by the need for the wicked and pressing challenges of sustainability and the solutions to be more ‘meaningful’ and ‘accessible’ in education. While also in education we need to ‘leave no one behind’ (Sustainable Development Goals), current teaching methods generally lack the crucial social and cultural context and prioritise auditory and reading/writing learning styles. In response, this project embraced situated experiential education and virtual reality technology to both immerse learners in a meaningful case study and to cater to visual and kinesthetic learning styles. The project takes hundreds of students annually to Fiji and Peru.
Only 16% of Australian doctoral students with academic career intentions report having participated in any teaching development during their candidature, leaving them underprepared for academic life. To improve employability, QUT developed and implemented Teaching Advantage Global (TA): a competency-based teaching development program that engages doctoral students in a community of inquiry with peers and experts across disciplines and institutions, underpinned by a cognitive apprenticeship framework. Learners experience significantly increased teaching self-efficacy, an enhanced capacity for reflexivity, improved employment outcomes, global connections, and external recognition of their commitment to learning and teaching through the UK Higher Education Academy’s Fellowship scheme.
In the United States, 82% percent of low-income youth are not proficient in math by the eight grade, with many suffering from declining engagement in STEM throughout middle school. The NBA Math Hoops program addresses this core challenge by integrating a student passion point into classroom learning. The experience leverages a basketball board game, curriculum, and mobile app, prompting students to complete a basketball season in the classroom with the stats of their favorite NBA and WNBA players. To date, the program has reached over 150,000 students and accomplished significant academic and social-emotional gains for students underrepresented in STEM.
Mitx Micromasters Program In Supply Chain Management
Business-based approaches hold tremendous power to alleviate poverty. Yet there is very little real understanding of how business-related skills and know-how can take on this challenge, and a dearth of good educational models for developing the capacity to do so. The Subsistence Marketplace Initiative (SMI) at its core addresses this educational need. Our curricular innovations challenge students to confront global problems and envision a better world, adopting a conception of business that focuses on finding win-wins between different dimensions of sustainability while acknowledging tradeoffs and emphasizing a pragmatic focus on sustainability.
Augmented Baseplate Shoulder Simulation And Patient Specific Planning
This project is part of immersive medical education using VR to simulate the successful placement and checkpoints of using an Augmented Baseplate to reconstruct the glenoid. The aim of this module is to perform immersive virtual surgery on an actual patient to obtain exposure and reconstruct an abnormal glenoid commonly seen in shoulder replacement. The goal of this VR module is to permit deliberate practice and combine cognitive and technical decision making throughout to provide the greatest impact in surgical education.
AI-Based Virtual Patient provides an enhanced learning experience to students, immersing them in the complexities of the human body, and allowing them to view and analyze medical sciences in new ways. This will help them to understand important concepts better, boosting their interest and curiosity in the field of medicine and health sciences. GMU is adapting tomorrow’s technology today in the hopes of creating medical professionals with futuristic outlook and skills. They are the first University in the Arab region to introduce Virtual Patient Learning (VPL) technology. VPL is a problem-based learning (PBL) application involving critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and communication skills.
Empower Generations Consortium (EGC) is an educational framework of life sciences and healthcare. It has been established in collaboration with 11 national business partners and recently with 3 international partners. It aims to enhance regional capacities in life sciences and healthcare careers through a structured educational framework that is composed of 5 competency pillars: career education and application; innovation; externship; advanced externship and research publications; scholarship and sponsorship. Through the project, a comprehensive database for the participants is built, analyzed and utilized by the authorities. EGC involves three projects: SEHHA, QSBD & GPM.
Al-Bairaq seeks to embed curiosity in a student through a six step programme: Stimulating curiosity; Providing hands-on experience; Creating mock design projects; Inspiring students to think independently; Evaluating student designs by community leaders.
CLIPS: Curiosity Leading Innovation For People And Sustainability
CLIPS is a Brazilian initiative that aims to promote socially sustainable innovation within STEM by stimulating curiosity in young university students. This initiative has been taking shape for five years, with 883 engineering, science and technology undergraduates taking part. More than 4 dozen professors, researchers and theme ambassadors have participated in the CLIPS project.
Hands-On Experience With Star Wars Robotics
The first semesters of an engineering curricula focus on developing a solid theoretical basis before becoming immersed in practical projects. Therefore, first-year engineering students usually struggle to visualize the practical applications of their studies. Advancing towards an educational model based on competencies, an interactive workshop was designed and implemented in an introductory engineering course where students were able to understand how a Star Wars BB8 commercial prototype droid is built and how it works. More than 600 freshmen took this workshop, which resulted in students engagement, curiosity, and interest in understanding what was inside the famous robot.
Reimagine Math Education
This project addresses critical challenges in teaching math to online students with diverse cultural and academic backgrounds at the Business School of a Latin American university. To address this problem, Universidad de Palermo – Argentina designed a system to teaching math online based on the principles of adaptive learning, state-of-the-art research in math education and multimedia learning, contextualized math, and continual monitoring feedback. Results from implementing this system with the Calculus course showed significant learning gains, active use of math, and increased student engagement over regular online courses.
LEGO® Education delivers innovative, hands-on learning experiences that bring subjects to life in the classroom, make learning engaging, and develop confidence as well as 21st century skills. The LEGO Education continuum of solutions begins the process of familiarizing students with concepts like coding and robotics as early as preschool and kindergarten. As their understanding grows and they progress through grades, LEGO Education’s offerings and capabilities grow with them, allowing them to build on their knowledge, expand their skills, and develop real confidence in STEAM concepts.
Qridi is a Finnish learning analytics and formative assessment toolset for students, teachers and administrators. It was developed with Finnish students, teachers, and researchers. With Qridi a student can learn to take an active role in his or her own learning process and become a self-regulated learner. Qridi makes the learning process visible and provides analytics where the actual learning takes place. Qridi is used by more than 10% of the students in Finland, making its impact on the learning and pedagogy is huge.
This project explores the feasibility of combining Worldreader’s big data on reading and voice-recognition technology with the goal of developing an automated, cost-effective, and scalable oral reading fluency assessment tool for teachers and educators in the Global South. The measurements are based on Worldreader’s proprietary data science models that calculate users’ reading speed as a basic indicator of reading fluency. We assume that, together with the voice recognition technology, Worldreader’s BookSmart product will be able to record students reading aloud, process that data to text, and enable teachers and others to evaluate the number of correct words read.
Bridging Academia And Industry Through Project Based Experiential Learning
Organizations are looking to millennials and academia for the innovative solutions needed to address business challenges in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Conversely, academia and students need to be attuned to the various challenges and realities of industry to stay relevant. Singapore Management University (SMU) bridges these gaps between academia and industry by introducing SMU-X – an experiential learning program where students, faculty, and industry partners come together to devise solutions and provide perspectives to business, social and emerging challenges through real-world projects faced by the industry.
The i-Space is a Digital Makerspace and vibrant community at the library of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It aims to lower the barriers of entry for students to try out and explore new digital devices and creative use of technologies regardless of their disciplines and family background. Abreast of technology, i-Space is unique in terms of our emphasis on 1) equal opportunity to access digital equipment, 2) facilitating students’ creative work, 3) the archival and dissemination of the maker’s knowledge, and 4) embrace Tech Culture concept. By self-guided exploration or competitions, i-Space helped students gone through significant transformations.
International Changemaker Olympiad (ICO) is a program for children from 6th-12th grade in schools; it hopes to give them a platform to identify social or environmental problems around them and launch change initiatives to solve them. The objective is to help children develop into empathetic, conscious citizens with an action-oriented mindset. In ICO, students participate in teams of 2-4, identify a real-world problem, and develop, implement and scale their solution over 4-5 months under the guidance of an assigned ICO mentor. More than 5,100+ students have participated and launched 1,520+ initiatives, solving diverse problems from water conservation to food shortage.
Imagine Scholar catalyzes untapped human potential. Imagine Scholar has developed a world-class, cognition-based curriculum to cultivate a sense of curiosity and robust critical thinking skills among Grade 8-12 learners in the Nkomazi region of South Africa, where education and opportunity are scarce. Imagine Scholar emphasizes culture and community while equipping students with the necessary tools to be agile learners in the 21st-Century. Students explore cognitive bias, sensory perception, and understand how their lifestyle habits inhibit or enable their learning processes.
Snapplify is at the forefront of edtech solutions in Africa, and specialises in enabling digital learning for individuals and institutions by establishing a marketplace for digital education content, related educational services, and devices. As a pan-African edtech company, Snapplify strives for radical inclusion to level the playing field and equip individuals across emerging markets with the world-class tools they need to collaborate, innovate and thrive. Since its establishment in 2012, the company has grown and expanded into new markets in Africa and the United States, with offices across South Africa, as well as in Nairobi, Amsterdam and New Jersey.
Good Work Foundation has developed a digital learning campus model out of a rural town in South Africa called Hazyview. The “Hazyview Cluster” is made up of five digital learning campuses in mid-Mpumalanga province, providing various levels of skills and training. In an area where youth unemployment is estimated at 65%, the demand is great. The cluster functions on an ecosystem of learning and working – young adults learn necessary skills to enter the workplace or further studies, and are offered the opportunity to work as interns in various industries to gain the work experience.
Social Innovation Capstone Project
This project set about trying to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yonsei University invited students and faculties of 22 Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) in five different continents. The participants created values for solving social problems by developing business solutions based on IoT products and services. To equip students with a working knowledge of the IoT hardware and software, Design Factory Korea (DFK) made videos for training students with IoT hardware and software as well as distributed them to the participants in DFGN. DFK also facilitated the participants to share their solutions inspiring each other.
The hospitality industry demands new skills, such as emotional intelligence and the ability to excite a guest’s emotions. At the multisensory restaurant Elysium, students run the restaurant while developing skills in emotional performance. They must appeal to all the senses while sustaining high standards of staging, technology, cuisine and service.
iLEAD is a leadership development programme for students in public secondary schools and young graduates from tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It is designed to help them develop life, leadership, employability and entrepreneurship skills, which the current public education system in Nigeria is failing to develop in students. iLEAD has two subcomponents, the iLEAD programme into which the students in public secondary school are enrolled for three years and the 1-year iLEAD fellowship for graduate beneficiaries.
Al-Bairaq seeks to embed curiosity in a student through a six step programme: Stimulating curiosity; Providing hands-on experience; Creating mock design projects; Inspiring students to think independently; Evaluating student designs by community leaders.
Four Ferries Oy is addressing the problem of declining knowledge in mathematics and early drop-offs. One of the biggest problems is a broken feedback loop in today’s math education. Teachers don’t have time to help all students individually. As everything in math builds on the previous steps, missing something means it is difficult to catch up. Four Ferries Oy have developed an automatic math checker that can check students’ calculations step-by-step. Every math teacher knows that it’s not the answer that matters, but the path to the answer.
Pedagogic And Active Learning Mobile Solutions (Palms) Project For Stem Tertiary Education
According to extensive evidenced based research, active learning strategies significantly improve STEM education students’ achievement, understanding and application of concepts. There is also evidence that mobile applications for education enable teachers to improve their teaching practices and engage and highly motivate students by providing them with new opportunities to participate and construct their own learning, individually or collaboratively. The main objectives of this project are to explore and develop new pedagogies to increase active learning in STEM education and to cultivate innovative mobile applications to enhance the efficacy of said active learning pedagogies.
Augmented Baseplate Shoulder Simulation And Patient Specific Planning
This project is part of immersive medical education using VR to simulate the successful placement and checkpoints of using an Augmented Baseplate to reconstruct the glenoid. The aim of this module is to perform immersive virtual surgery on an actual patient to obtain exposure and reconstruct an abnormal glenoid commonly seen in shoulder replacement. The goal of this VR module is to permit deliberate practice and combine cognitive and technical decision making throughout to provide the greatest impact in surgical education.
Empower Generations Consortium (EGC) is an educational framework of life sciences and healthcare. It has been established in collaboration with 11 national business partners and recently with 3 international partners. It aims to enhance regional capacities in life sciences and healthcare careers through a structured educational framework that is composed of 5 competency pillars: career education and application; innovation; externship; advanced externship and research publications; scholarship and sponsorship. Through the project, a comprehensive database for the participants is built, analyzed and utilized by the authorities. EGC involves three projects: SEHHA, QSBD & GPM.
AI-Based Virtual Patient provides an enhanced learning experience to students, immersing them in the complexities of the human body, and allowing them to view and analyze medical sciences in new ways. This will help them to understand important concepts better, boosting their interest and curiosity in the field of medicine and health sciences. GMU is adapting tomorrow’s technology today in the hopes of creating medical professionals with futuristic outlook and skills. They are the first University in the Arab region to introduce Virtual Patient Learning (VPL) technology. VPL is a problem-based learning (PBL) application involving critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and communication skills.
Hands On Experience With Star Wars Robotics
The first semesters of an engineering curricula focus on developing a solid theoretical basis before becoming immersed in practical projects. Therefore, first-year engineering students usually struggle to visualize the practical applications of their studies. Advancing towards an educational model based on competencies, an interactive workshop was designed and implemented in an introductory engineering course where students were able to understand how a Star Wars BB8 commercial prototype droid is built and how it works. More than 600 freshmen took this workshop, which resulted in students engagement, curiosity, and interest in understanding what was inside the famous robot.
CS1301: Introduction To Computing In Python Online
CS1301: Introduction to Computing in Python Online is an attempt to meld the scalable, affordable mission of MOOCs with the rigorous, accredited requirements of a for-credit in-person education. The course was constructed to preserve the instructional quality and assessment rigor to offer on campus while also offering unlimited scale. Since its inception in January 2016, it has enrolled 1600 students in the for-credit section at Georgia Tech, and tens of thousands of additional enrollments in the MOOC section offered through edX. Students in both the on-ground section and the MOOC section complete the same assessments.
Computing was introduced to the English national curriculum in 2014; during this time many teachers found themselves without the necessary skills and support to effectively teach this exciting subject.
This project aims to enhance subject knowledge, pedagogical skills, and confidence of computing teachers to enable them to successfully deliver the computing curriculum.
The project was originally standalone, focusing on the delivery of quality online courses targeted to secondary teachers. Since the creation of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) in November 2018, it is also now a key component of the professional development offered by the NCCE.
IMAGINE believes that true social change and diversity tolerance grows from common experiences. This concept inspired IMAGINE to establish and operate inclusive bands with participants with and without disabilities. The participants develop musical skills with both ‘classical’ and technological musical instruments, an opportunity to create, compose, perform and empower personal, teamwork and life skills. IMAGINE developed a unique pedagogy for these bands which incorporates psychological and educational inclusive approaches and uses innovative teaching methods. The presence of this project within the community can minimize prejudice and lead to a more equal society.
Imagine Scholar catalyzes untapped human potential. Imagine Scholar has developed a world-class, cognition-based curriculum to cultivate a sense of curiosity and robust critical thinking skills among Grade 8-12 learners in the Nkomazi region of South Africa, where education and opportunity are scarce. Imagine Scholar emphasizes culture and community while equipping students with the necessary tools to be agile learners in the 21st-Century. Students explore cognitive bias, sensory perception, and understand how their lifestyle habits inhibit or enable their learning processes.
Taleemabad Learning App is a digital learning platform available on Android, iOS and Windows. It contains over 190 animated videos and tests, which teach and assess a child’s academic capability according to the National Curriculum of Pakistan. The curriculum has been tested in the past in government and private schools across Pakistan, and has the ability to take a child from complete illiteracy to advanced numeracy and literacy in a short span of time, while boosting performances in state level testing and reducing the chances of under-served children dropping out of school, especially in rural and remote access areas.
Imagine if students could gain relevant real-world experience in their field of study without having to leave campus. Agriculture students at University of Illinois are collaborating with Unilever to chart a path towards growing nutritious food at scale. Management students at University of Delaware are teaming up with eBay to devise service models for the future of eCommerce. Environmental science students at Vanderbilt are advising the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute on how to position green product labels in retail environments. All of this is happening today through ImpactEd, the bridge that connects the classroom to the real world.
SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! are evidence-based mobile applications for speech and language learning in autism and developmental disabilities. About 50% of these learners remain minimally-verbal even after years of treatment. New intervention technologies are needed to help and reduce the cost to schools, parents, and insurance estimated at $268 billion annually in the US. SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! enable early language learning, facilitate natural speech development, enhance generalization skills, and expand social circles as students learn. These solutions grow with the learner, enabling better participation in school and community, thus reducing the lifetime cost of care while enhancing chances for classroom success.
Smart Sparrow empowers instructors to reimagine how they teach. We specialize in crafting powerful, award-winning learning experiences. Our online platform enables anyone to easily create, deploy, analyze, and share visually-rich, interactive, and adaptive courseware. Educators can design personalized lessons, providing specific feedback and pathways that target misconceptions in real time. We give instructors full control, utilizing rules-based adaptivity instead of blackbox algorithms. Built-in analytics provide insights that enable quick intervention to help at-risk students and reflection on teaching efficacy. Smart Sparrow delivers everything from classroom activities to fully-online university courses, and LMS technology integration provides single sign-on and gradebook sync.
AL-Bairaq is a non-traditional, non-profit educational program; reaching youth in every province across Qatar. We have a 7-year track record of successfully delivering an innovative STEM–based program. Al Bairaq targets youth aged between 10-17 years old, via different creative workshops. We believe that by changing the young students’ attitudes toward science, there will be a difference to the future prospects of youth and to the world’s ongoing competitiveness. The project offers school students (Primary, Preparatory, secondary) the opportunity to connect with the research environment in the Center for Advanced Materials (CAM) at Qatar University, located in Doha, Qatar.
Through LIEP (6 months project), College of Engineering (CENG) reaches Qatari secondary school students and motivate them to study STEM, to discover the wide field of opportunities for further study and future careers. In cooperation with industrial partners, CENG attracted students to concepts of vehicle design and production. Participating students attended workshops on chassis manufacturing, parts assembly, and safety rules. After that, students were given chassis, and worked on the shell at their schools, and assembled all parts. After that, and once supervisors ensured that all cars were ready, cars were moved to QU for final check and race.
Rather than push students into predictable outcomes, Research Path pedagogy uses curiosity to pull them across new horizons. The Research Path objective is for undergraduate students to earn what they learn by integrating into research, developing hotly-demanded research skills, and graduating with concrete research results. 864 students have participated since 2004. 304 have graduated, and 100% of these are working or doing graduate studies. Students opt-in after third semester, complete eight credit-bearing seminars and internships, and document a capstone project with a peer-reviewed publication, intellectual property, business venture, or scientific reports. Results include 52 journal articles with 638 citations.
examPAL helps test takers of admission tests (such as GMAT and GRE) optimize their ability to solve questions fast by improving their “mind flexibility – the ability to find the fastest tool for each question. Using artificial intelligence and the wisdom of the crowd, the system predicts the best way FOR YOU to solve each question. examPAL’s online course is a rich interactive experience, with deep technology behind educational dynamics. examPAL studies the way each user thinks; studies all solutions; and provides the user proven, tailor-made practice sessions, with solutions based on his or her personal way of thinking.
The Online Orchestra is a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). We’re asking how we can use the internet to give children and amateur musicians who live in remote communities around the country the same opportunities to play in an orchestra as those who live in larger towns and cities. We’re designing an online orchestra that will allow people who live hundreds of miles apart to make music together for the first time.
Apps for Good is a charity aiming to grow a global generation of problem-solvers and tech entrepreneurs; young people that learn how to build, market and launch digital tools to solve real-world problems, positively impacting their communities and challenging the status quo. Partnering with schools and colleges across the world, Apps for Good trains educators to deliver our online product development programme to students aged 10 – 18 from a diverse range of socio-economic, ethnic and gender backgrounds, transforming the way technology is taught in schools and helping young people learn to turn bright ideas into real technology products.
The Generation Y students who come into the pharmacy course are technology-savvy and digitally-focused. We identified their gaming habits and preferences for a pharmacy-related serious game. In general, students preferred a three-dimensional, post-apocalyptic game with a fantasy/medieval/mythic setting and an adventurer storyline, played in a collaborative manner. Thus, we developed a three-dimensional Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, in which students engage in a futuristic fantasy world to “save the world” from a plague, so as to learn about the 21st century competencies and skills (confidence, critical thinking, communication skills, responsible decision-making, self-directed learner) needed in their future clinical practices.
Green School exists to enable students to connect with nature and with communities, to develop holistically with skills and competencies for the world of today and the future, to learn entrepreneurial approaches to problem solving and to make a real difference, now. Our sustainability initiatives and entrepreneurial programs form part of an innovative skills-based educational model. GS delivers authentic, engaging learning, inspiring young leaders to be responsible global citizenship through a replicable, real-world case study with immense growth potential. GS is a sustainable and shareable model of learning that has captured the hearts and minds of millions worldwide.
TeachConnect is an innovative approach that uses an online platform and engagement strategy to connect preservice teachers with an interdisciplinary professional learning community of experienced teachers and discipline experts. Embedded in and available after their university studies, TeachConnect nurtures employability and attainment by providing the space for preservice teachers to develop networks, knowledge and skills, shape career aspirations and expectations, build confidence, and meet professional standards prior to entering the classroom. Collaboratively developed by eight universities over four years since launching in September 2015, TeachConnect has reached over 1,000 preservice teachers across Queensland, Australia.
The Open Learning Academy partners with rural elementary schools, allowing them to outsource digital, English and mathematics literacy to Good Work Foundation’s (GWF) digital learning campus. This is a continuous program that supports rural learners from Grade 4 onwards. In addition, conservation learning is added on a monthly basis supporting a need in South Africa to educate rural communities on environmental sustainability. As of 2016, GWF’s programmes reach more than 5000 children across four digital learning campuses, and English and math’s performance increases of up to 37% for school learners.
The Bridging Academy (BA) creates an access bridge between school and work or further education training, preparing rural school leavers for life in modern business environments. Graduates can be recruited into advanced Career-Training Academies that respond to the needs of the community in which the campus is located. This innovative training model provides for each Career-Training Academy to be linked to an enterprise established in partnership with an industry leader. The purpose of the enterprise is to employ graduates and fund the learning programmes, resulting in the creation of a sustainable and lasting social enterprise.
The University of Queensland developed a novel online crime drama and lecture video series that forms the basis of both an online course and an on-campus flipped course. Students take PSYC2361: The Psychology of Criminal Justice as a second-level elective on campus and as an online course called CRIME101x via edX. PSYC2361 students attend a 3-hour on-campus class each week where they work together with the teaching staff to answer questions related to the crime investigation depicted in the drama videos. The drama provides a coherent context for the online lecture videos and class activities, while regular assessment reinforces the video content.
Over 60,000 students from 169 countries as diverse as Botswana to Kuwait have enrolled in CRIME101x online. On campus, approximately 300 students have taken part in the course. Students show an average improvement of around 35% in their weekly online quiz marks, and also show an improvement in their in-class tests, of around 13%.
SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! are evidence-based mobile applications for speech and language learning in autism and developmental disabilities. About 50% of these learners remain minimally-verbal even after years of treatment. New intervention technologies are needed to help and reduce the cost to schools, parents, and insurance estimated at $268 billion annually in the US. SPEAKall! and SPEAKmore! enable early language learning, facilitate natural speech development, enhance generalization skills, and expand social circles as students learn. These solutions grow with the learner, enabling better participation in school and community, thus reducing the lifetime cost of care while enhancing chances for classroom success.
The goal is to improve the teaching-learning process of mathematics by increasing spatial visualization skills using augmented reality, virtual environments and 3D impressions. A new way of teaching important mathematical concepts is presented by adding the senses of touch and sight to the learning process, showing the student a way of describing reality through mathematical language in a natural way and achieving a meaningful learning of mathematics. The results indicate an increase in motivation and increased learning, in addition to developing skills of mathematical visualization and interpretation of concepts in students.
Koantum is an online education program that makes science engaging for elementary students and young learners (K-5). Our curriculum is based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), using 5E Instructional Model. With interactive, self-guided lessons, our program allows children to immerse themselves fully in science while complementing core curriculum. Koantum includes: 1- Standard-based science lessons 2- Lesson plans for teachers to guide on how to present each topic 3- Extra printable student worksheets 4- Tracking and assessment engine to monitor students 5- Insight on each student’s strengths and trouble area 6- Student Management Dashboard.
In university library resources training, there are currently three primary modes of teaching students how to conduct literature research using SciFinder: (1) instructing via live classroom and (2) teaching via recorded videos (3) self-learning without guidance. The inverted classroom model has not been adopted in teaching how to use such essential chemical databases. In our project, we share our motivations and experience with the inverted classroom approach teaching SciFinder. Students’ reports suggest more positive learning perception and better experience with the inverted classroom approach. The effectiveness of the inverted-SciFinder approach is evidenced by higher scores obtained in the end-of-class assessment.
The Generation Y students who come into the pharmacy course are technology-savvy and digitally-focused. We identified their gaming habits and preferences for a pharmacy-related serious game. In general, students preferred a three-dimensional, post-apocalyptic game with a fantasy/medieval/mythic setting and an adventurer storyline, played in a collaborative manner. Thus, we developed a three-dimensional Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, in which students engage in a futuristic fantasy world to “save the world” from a plague, so as to learn about the 21st century competencies and skills (confidence, critical thinking, communication skills, responsible decision-making, self-directed learner) needed in their future clinical practices.
BioBeyond is an introductory biology course unlike any you’ve seen before. It teaches science as exploration of the unknown, using next-generation interactive and adaptive courseware technology. It’s changing science education — both teaching and learning — forever. We focus on moving students away from pure fact memorization, and get them excited to form deeper understandings of scientific reasoning, develop problem solving skills, and understand modern science. BioBeyond is driven by the Inspark Teaching Network, in collaboration with the Center for Education Through eXploration at ASU (ETX), Smart Sparrow, and world-leading research universities and innovative educators.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an important educational strategy, adopted and contextualized in many medical colleges. A problem is usually presented to students in paper form or in a digital format. This format of delivery, lacks the authenticity of a patient encounter. The Project Virtual patient learning (VPL) is an online simulation system, based on artificial intelligence and pre-recorded movies, in which the learner plays the role of a physician who confronts a (simulated) patient. The interaction takes place in real time and each decision taken by the learner instantly affects the reactions of the patient, just as it would in real life. The patient in the scenario is played by a professional actor who is trained to simulate variable moods, attitudes, and emotional responses through verbal and non-verbal communication (body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice). Feedback is given through the simulated patient’s comments. Virtual patient learning can be used in two modes: a ‘learning’ mode and an ‘evaluation’ mode. VPL has been used on a trial basis in Qatar, Lebanon, the UAE, Italy, and France. Outcomes We believe that VPL will gradually replace the traditional less authentic forms of PBL.
The proposed Open Innovation Laboratory has three major pillars: specific Learning Techniques to enhance education; Design Methodologies to guide the design process, and a Rapid Product Realization Platform, that includes emergent technologies for product development. Using this Open Innovation Laboratory, it is possible to demonstrate students apply technical skills and experiences during the development of innovative and sustainable products. The laboratory promotes interactive collaboration between internal and external actors during the innovation process to develop Sensing, Smart, and Sustainable products and services. It also supports the maker movement to stimulate an entrepreneurship culture and foster companies incubation and economic development.
This project aims to provide an online learning portal for public speaking enthusiasts worldwide. This learning portal is a mobile-friendly web application (entitled ‘Speak!’) on which public speaking learners can polish their skills and knowledge through games and a video-sharing section. To sustain learner interest in Speak!, we include a story where users have to raise a cartoon chicken and refurbish its home. Speak! also includes human-computer interaction as technologies such as eye-tracking and voice recognition are adopted to record their performance and provide real-time feedback for their improvement.
The Open Learning Academy partners with rural elementary schools, allowing them to outsource digital, English and mathematics literacy to Good Work Foundation’s (GWF) digital learning campus. This is a continuous program that supports rural learners from Grade 4 onwards. In addition, conservation learning is added on a monthly basis supporting a need in South Africa to educate rural communities on environmental sustainability. As of 2016, GWF’s programmes reach more than 5000 children across four digital learning campuses, and English and math’s performance increases of up to 37% for school learners.
The Online Orchestra is a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). We’re asking how we can use the internet to give children and amateur musicians who live in remote communities around the country the same opportunities to play in an orchestra as those who live in larger towns and cities. We’re designing an online orchestra that will allow people who live hundreds of miles apart to make music together for the first time.
This year’s Cultivating Curiosity Award Gold Winner, ‘NoRILLA (Novel Research-based Intelligent Lifelong Learning Apparatus)’, is the joint brainchild of Carnegie Mellon University and NoRILLA Inc.
They are developing a new mixed-reality learning system and a new genre of Intelligent Science Stations, bridging the advantages of physical and virtual worlds to improve children’s inquiry-based STEM learning in a more enjoyable and collaborative way, thus stimulating curiosity. It provides personalized interactive feedback to children based on proven learning techniques, as they experiment and make discoveries in their everyday physical environment, turning them into little scientists. Research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University with over 200 children has shown that their system improves children’s science learning by 5 times compared to equivalent tablet or computer games, while also increasing enjoyment.
Rather than push students into predictable outcomes, Research Path pedagogy uses curiosity to pull them across new horizons. The Research Path objective is for undergraduate students to earn what they learn by integrating into research, developing hotly-demanded research skills, and graduating with concrete research results. 864 students have participated since 2004. 304 have graduated, and 100% of these are working or doing graduate studies. Students opt-in after third semester, complete eight credit-bearing seminars and internships, and document a capstone project with a peer-reviewed publication, intellectual property, business venture, or scientific reports. Results include 52 journal articles with 638 citations.
Virtual exchanges—defined as sustained, technology-enabled, people to people education programs—can vastly expand the number and diversity of young people who have access to profound cross-cultural experiences as part of their education. Positive, personal, global experiences enhance children’s educational journeys, and lay the foundation for a more peaceful world. Imagine if every child matched online with global mentors throughout their K-12 years? If best practices from the online dating industry were applied at scale to the education, then our school systems would be able to truly help all youth to become curious, confident and compassionate global citizens.
Calls for competency-based training, reduced opportunities for operating room practice and scarcity of resources have resulted in the emergence of supplemental surgical training environments, such as virtual reality (VR). VR-based surgical training is advantageous because it supports structured, repeated, and risk-free training. However, a major setback to its widespread adoption is the lack of automated feedback/guidance which requires the presence of human experts to provide advice during training. To overcome this, Melbourne developed methods of providing automated feedback/guidance on different aspects of surgical skills in a VR simulator and validated their effectiveness in teaching temporal bone surgery.
The Peer Programs Strategy is a university-wide, evidence-based support framework for peer programs at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. The Strategy has been used to align peer programs across QUT with a set of common principles: using a partnership approach, aligning peer support into curriculum, developing a distributed leadership model, and building leadership capabilities among both staff and students for peer-enabled initiatives. In particular, the Strategy has successfully redesigned peer programs to make them more needs driven, learner-centred and accessible to non-traditional students, thus providing sustainable structures that will provide ongoing support of these vulnerable populations.
In 2014 The Mind Lab launched a hybrid postgraduate programme to reskill New Zealand teachers in digital technologies and contemporary educational practice. The 32-week programme was built upon a commitment to easy access (both geographic and digital literacy) recognising that many New Zealand teachers taught in small towns where the majority had low levels of digital and technological confidence. Since then, the Digital and Collaborative learning programme has become the largest and most distributed postgraduate programme in New Zealand’s history. Over 4000 teachers have undertaken this blended delivery course in 85 towns and regions.
Business-based approaches hold tremendous power to alleviate poverty. Yet there is very little real understanding of how business-related skills and know-how can take on this challenge, and a dearth of good educational models for developing the capacity to do so. The Subsistence Marketplace Initiative (SMI) at its core addresses this educational need. Our curricular innovations challenge students to confront global problems and envision a better world, adopting a conception of business that focuses on finding win-wins between different dimensions of sustainability while acknowledging tradeoffs and emphasizing a pragmatic focus on sustainability.
The Purple Pen provides a bespoke learning map design tool integrated with a teaching and evaluation platform for time-constrained educators and often-disengaged learners. The Purple Pen enables its users to 1) Create/Modify learning maps, 2) Teach/Learn from the learning map, and 3) Evaluate the learning. The Purple Pen delivers its solutions via cloud-based subscription serving three learning markets: Education, Corporate, and Personal.
Jara provides emergency education through the Jara Unit to displaced and refugee children who do not have access to quality education due to natural disasters and conflict. The Jara Unit is the first low-cost education device that uses basic technology and does not require any pre-existing infrastructure. The device runs on solar and crank power and is updatable through IoT technology. The Jara Unit includes material developed in partnership with local digital education content creators. The Jara Unit is a long-term viable alternative learning solution for students to learn anywhere at any time.
SEHHA-QSBD Dual project is designed for K12 students to connects the bridges between Secondary Education, Higher Education, Career Life, and National Demands of Health Professionals. It works on the secondary education platform to direct student interest towards innovative science & health careers and supports teachers to deliver the real applications of science. SEHHA is designed for the girls at the College of Health Sciences, whereas QSBD is being operated for the males at the Biomedical Research center. The project is approved by the ministry of education and grants the participants 30 hours community service.
Lucina Augmented Reality (AR) allows clinicians to practice pre-partum assessment, labor and delivery, emergency care and transport all within one wireless patient simulator. Lucina was implemented keeping in mind the following objectives: 1) Make the entire teaching and learning process based on Simulated Clinical Experiences 2) Make the entire process extremely interactive and engaging. 3) Lucina is the only wireless childbirth simulator; with this feature we can validate integrated maternal-fetal physiology and interchangeable static services to train on all the stages of delivery and the rare emergency scenario. 4) Allow instructors to increase throughput and manage multiple demands.
The value of education can never be overstated, and the dangers of its ignorance can never be overestimated. Where Quality Education is one of the UN’s SDG’s, often those who are challenged are secluded from mainstream education and workforce, thus leading a dependent and dissatisfied life. Ajman reimagines education for Visually Impaired (VI) individuals, providing them with equal opportunities to be part of regular schools, earn a professional degree and find placement in workforce. Sense7 is a multi-featured, cost effective, IoT based assistive technology tool that transforms a traditional classroom into an inclusive one and supports employability of VI.
STEAM education strategies in flipped model involve interventions at two levels: from K12 to promote a continuous interest in STEAM oriented fields, whilst providing an ad-hoc environment to develop serious research practices in collaboration with First Class experiments such as DUNE Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. It includes several activities and linked laboratories between Universidad de Guanajuato and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala to provide the student training and academic mobility between institutions promoting the best practices in the research fields. The need to establish a laboratory is fundamental to provide a stable work framework.
TAK-TAK-TAK is a Learning System based on educational video games to support, complement and reinforce education at elementary schools at the base of the economic pyramid. It also includes player learning progress reports and information about games’ learning objectives for teachers and parents. Inoma envisions every member of society to be able to pursue their dreams and potential. TAK-TAK-TAK leverages the inherent globality of the Internet and ICT, and thus its economies of scale. By 2023, their goal is to reach 1 million children and 30,000 teachers mainly in Latin America.
The Joven de Futuro (JF) seeks to improve public education in Brazil, creating a culture of change in which all education system players are invited to act with co-responsibility in a way that is reflexive and student-focused. Through this approach, the systems are offered the ‘Management Circuit’ method, within which actions focused on improving learning are agreed upon between the players, guiding the implementation of plans for change. This process strengthens learning based upon the practices of the education managers and contributes to the development of the education professionals, whilst providing better learning environments.
Creative Technologies in the Classroom (CTC), is the flagship Arduino Educational Programme for schools. CTC is a modular STEAM program, tailored for ages 13 to 17, that follows a Project Based Learning methodology. Students are introduced to the foundations of programming, electronics, and mechanics through a series of playful, well-documented projects and easy-to-assemble experiments. Since 2012 the CTC program has been used in 1235 schools and reached 30000 students.
Skillogs offers ACARYA, the Web application based on artificial intelligence algorithms, that allows you to speak a foreign language fluently in less than 6 months, by watching and interacting with your favorite TV series. The training course is fully personalized. Often, many people cannot afford a personal tutor or to arrange long trips to master a language. ACARYA solution is cost-efficient, fast & fun!
WordDive is an AI-based app for learning foreign language speaking skills. Last year, WordDive developed an artificial intelligence-based innovation that can teach users to speak English fluently in only 75 hours. The AI innovation enables a scalable way of detecting individual articulation errors that affect understanding and gives personal instructions for correcting them. The prototype’s Net Promoter Score of 64 anticipates strong viral spreading. WordDive estimates to have a commercial version of the product ready by the end of 2018.
The Virtual Interactive Human Anatomy (VIHA) is an advanced visualization tool allowing medical students to comprehend complex features and concepts in the study of Human Anatomy in an immersive and interactive Virtual Reality (VR) environment. NUS believes that VIHA overcomes existing challenges in learning Human Anatomy by cementing 3-D spatial orientation and visualization of anatomical structures. VIHA has been designed to encompass high quality precise 3D models that reinforce intricate anatomical interactions, relationships and clinical pathological conditions. VIHA has been incorporated into the existing Human Anatomy curriculum at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS).
Yixue Education Technology Co., Ltd is a Chinese internet-based education company with a team of international background and expertise, concentrating on intelligent personalized tutoring. Yixue strives to provide the high-quality learning experience to students at an affordable price. The system developed by Yixue provides personalized learning paths for each student through its advanced adaptive learning engine which assesses and monitors students’ progress and provide courses that align with students’ local learning contexts. The state-of-the-art course design improves efficiency and collaboration in students’ learning through Yixue’s self-developed “5-1” teaching model, AI-driven course matching system, and accurate data analysis on students’ performance.
A Spoken Tutorial is a 10 minute audio-video tutorial, created for self learning of ICT topics through a set of tutorials. Tutorials can be used offline, and the speech can be dubbed into other languages. Using this approach, IIT have trained 4 million students in the past four years in India. It is now proposed to extend this approach to other fields and in other countries in Africa, the Middle East and in South America.
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have grown up in refugee camps with limited access to schooling, and literacy rates stand at less than 10%. If they are to lead a productive life and return to build their country, they need basic reading and writing skills. eLimu literacy apps use stories created by the community, read by actors and illustrated by artists. Each story has activities that make up a scientifically-proven pedagogy. eLimu have created a system to create affordable, world-class mother-tongue literacy apps across Africa, and transform learning to read for millions of children.
GWF, in partnership with T-Systems, established a Service Desk on its flagship rural campus in 2016. This was established as an extension of the ICT Academy, which provides advanced IT training. The young people being trained at HDLC represent a pool of skilled human capital. Once qualified, they can function as entry-level IT support engineers, creating jobs in Mpumalanga. Graduates of the Bridging Academy and the ICT Academy have the option to match their skills to a real opportunity without having to relocate to urban South Africa. What’s more, the income generated is reinvested back into the learning programmes.
Two main questions dominate today’s global education discussion: 1) What does the school of the future look like? 2) How do we get all children a basic education? When we ask the first question, we typically envision wealthy children using cutting-edge technology and pedagogy. With the second, we picture a developing-world schoolhouse using century-old methods. Divorcing these questions limits our thinking. We could ask, instead: How can the school of the future enable all children–even the poorest–to receive not just a basic but an exceptional education? Through innovative operating structures, pedagogy, and training, Thando’s redesigned school model does just that.
Student Success Agency is scaling one-on-one attention in education by bringing traditional services such as mentoring, tutoring, and advising, to students’ cell phones anywhere and at any time. We can expand access to these support services by connecting high school students with near-peer mentors via our proprietary engagement software. SSA currently impacts 125 high schools reaching 16,000 students in 13 states through the largest college-readiness federal grant. We are uniquely positioned to reengineer Student Support Services so students across the country can have quality on-demand support regardless of their zip code.
Move This World’s social emotional learning program provides Pre K-12 educators and students with video tools to strengthen their social and emotional well being in order to create healthy environments where effective teaching and learning can occur. Through evidence-based, developmentally appropriate videos that open and close the school day, Move This World ritualizes a daily practice of identifying, expressing and managing emotions. The program is hosted on Move This World’s online platform, which includes educational videos, a resource library, interactive discussion boards, and a dedicated well-being consultant. Move This World has impacted students and teachers across 25 states and D.C.
The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) is a collection of independent and public high schools reinventing how students prepare for college, career, and life. Their network of member schools is creating a high school transcript that reflects the unique skills, strengths and interests of each learner. This new transcript will move from crediting student time spent in single-subject courses to crediting demonstrated achievement of mastery credits. Schools will define their credits, with most including both traditional academic and broader skills (collaboration, communication, leadership, etc.). This new transcript will provide support for schools to create and build multidisciplinary, deep, authentic learning experiences.
GWF, in partnership with T-Systems, established a Service Desk on its flagship rural campus in 2016. This was established as an extension of the ICT Academy, which provides advanced IT training. The young people being trained at HDLC represent a pool of skilled human capital. Once qualified, they can function as entry-level IT support engineers, creating jobs in Mpumalanga. Graduates of the Bridging Academy and the ICT Academy have the option to match their skills to a real opportunity without having to relocate to urban South Africa. What’s more, the income generated is reinvested back into the learning programmes.
While educators are seeking how to develop a generation of individuals prepared to shape a better, sustainable world, the focus is technical and intellectual. Yet research indicates that the foundation of our behaviors lies in our mindset, which is rarely addressed in our programs. A new sustainability mindset comprises a particular thinking process (systems intelligence), combined with self-awareness (emotional intelligence) and consciousness (spiritual intelligence). The Sustainability Mindset Indicator is an instrument that will assess where an individual is on the continuum, and provide pedagogical resources and guidance to individuals and educators on the areas of potential development.
Since 2009, CareerTrackers has been improving the tertiary educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students while securing professional employment for them. Partnering with QUT and 36 other universities and high profile corporations, CareerTrackers recruits Indigenous university students, linking them with employers in annual 12-week paid summer internships over the course of their study. Pre-employment training, skills development, social and cultural support scaffold the experience to ensure interns’ success. Significant graduation and employment rates and a supportive community of Indigenous role models evidence the program’s outstanding success, with 90% of participants in full-time employment within three months of graduation.
Employers need skilled people to fill open jobs. However, educational institutions are struggling to keep pace with job market changes and companies cannot train workers fast or cost-effectively enough to remain competitive. MicroMasters® programs, a new category of Master’s-level online education, bridge the knowledge gap between higher education and the workplace. MicroMasters programs are part of edX’s mission to expand access to high-quality, career-relevant education. With subjects ranging from AI to project management, MicroMasters programs are credit-backed programs offered by edX in connection with its esteemed university partners, valued by top companies and linked to specific career outcomes.
Deakin is pioneering the development of Professional Practice Credentials, a micro-credential that recognises core employability skills and technical knowledge. Credentials are developed in consultation with professional bodies to ensure industry recognition. Students earn credentials through academic and industry assessment of a portfolio of evidence demonstrating achievement in a given skill. Deakin also uses Credentials as the backbone of Professional Practice Degrees, wherein Credentials count towards a student earning a master’s or graduate certificate. The aim is to allow individuals with extensive experience to obtain a macro-credential that validates their knowledge and skills in less time and at reduced cost.
Students take notes to learn what teachers know. Teachers give tests to learn what students know. Epigrammar developed the first tool to integrate students’ annotations with teachers’ assessments, supporting individualized instruction at scale. On the platform, teachers work with students on shared files— or”Epigrams”. Epigrammar’s patent-pending technology, developed at Princeton University, then captures data on the margins and uses artificial intelligence to illuminate common areas for academic growth. Thus, Epigrammar helps instructors cover concepts, grade assignments and create documents for class, granting administrators a means to debug learning at school.
Mimir is a software company that grows the software engineering workforce. Mimir Classroom, a Mimir product, is a web-based platform that helps higher ed computer science educators scale and automate their classroom content for students through plagiarism detection, autograding and web-based assignments and projects. More than 70 universities have trusted the platform in their CS courses.
Sero! aims to move the assessment community beyond over-reliance on multiple-choice items by providing a knowledge assessment platform based in concept mapping. Recommended by the National Assessment for Educational Progress and used around the world, concept mapping taps higher order thinking abilities that are difficult to measure by other means. Sero! brings much needed efficiency to the process, enabling intuitive authoring and taking and providing visual analytics that show misconceptions and the expansion of understanding over time. Deployed in the cloud and xapi enabled, Sero! is poised to move classrooms and large-scale assessments beyond multiple choice.
UC BERKELEY
The landscape of higher education poses a difficult terrain for students to navigate. Amid the abundance of information systems on most campuses, critical course information and degree logic remain siloed, stifling necessary innovation in student-facing information systems. The Intelligent Course Guide draws together information distributed throughout the University into a central platform allowing students to illuminate their academic terrain like never before. The system incorporates degree audit, course description, and historic enrollment information combined with AI to help students explore their interests, connecting course concepts across departments, while satisfying complex constraints of their programs.
Annoto is a B2B startup company that provides engagement and collaboration tools for websites with video content.Today the “Like” in the end of the video is not enough, because our emotions and opinions are changing while watching the video. We enable social interactions on video moments bringing user generated content into the passive video watching experience. Annoto seamlessly integrates and works with virtually any type of website without influencing its infrastructure, layout and media platform. It provides innovative UX for threaded discussions on video and call to action tools.
SMART CITY INNOVATION LAB
The Smart Business Modeler (SBM) is a digital tool that enhances the traditional lecture-based methodology of teaching entrepreneurship by using a blended learning approach and empowering educators with a more dynamic and effective teaching process that ultimately results on supporting students to bring their ideas to implementation stage. In this sense, the SBM was created as a one stop businesses modelling solution for educators and entrepreneurs who want to: teach and learn about business modelling, think outside the box, ‘test-drive’ different business models, and find novel ways of creating and capturing value for a ‘fully digitalized, fully connected age’.
COGNALEARN
We empower team-based learning with technology. We have an exclusive worldwide patent license from Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School. Universities such as Columbia, UCLA and Yale-NUS use our software. Six of the ten largest global healthcare MNCs such as Bayer, GSK, Johnson and Johnson, Merck, Pfizer and Takeda use our turnkey solutions. Our team of 19 has generated US$1.8 million in revenue. Our founders, advisors and the Singapore government have invested US$1 million.
In developing countries, many primary schools (Grade 1 to 5) in India rural areas are of a multi-grade, multi-level nature. A multi-grade, multi-level (MGML) classroom comprises children of different ages and varying abilities belonging to different grade levels. There is considerable variation between the ages of children, their academic competence, the study materials (mostly in the form of textbooks), and the grades they belong to. Teachers in such a classroom are expected to manage diverse learners albeit with inadequate preparation and training. Consequently, millions of children suffer in these joyless schools resulting in low-levels of learning, rampant absenteeism and high drop-out rates. In response to these challenges, RiVER initiated a network of schools (Rishi Valley Rural Outreach Project) and developed the School in a Box curriculum as well as the RiVER MGML pedagogy. The RiVER model, an Activity Based Teaching (ABL) pedagogy allows teachers to handle classrooms in a creative way. Government curricula are adapted for local context and organized into smaller meaningful modules called ‘RiVER Learning Ladders’. These ladders are linked to a series of graded fun activities which enable students to learn from things around them and from real life experiences.
COVENTRY UNIVERSITY & UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE
Immersive Telepresence in Theatre began in 2016 as an online project between Coventry and Tampere Universities, using a variety of telepresence technologies and web based applications, to investigate actor training, rehearsal, education and performance. Two identical spaces, linked by H.323 videoconferencing technology, are created in both locations, each with large rear projection screens showing an image of the other room giving the students the impression of a shared space. To support the work, a series of contextual lectures were delivered using Adobe Connect and this app is also used to provide individual rehearsal/social spaces for the students.
World’s First Live Holographic University Lecture At Imperial College Business School
In November 2018, Imperial became the first university to deliver a lecture via holographic telepresence technology. Three of the five speakers ‘appeared’ in the lecture hall whilst being physically located in New York and Los Angeles. They were able to make eye contact with students, answer questions in a live Q&A panel and respond in real-time to audience reactions. The result was an interactive learning experience, which parallels the ‘real world’ equivalent, whilst offering significant benefits: drawing on a global pool of speakers, maximising academic teaching time whilst travelling, and creating an educational experience perfectly tailored to Generation Z students.
Augmented Baseplate Shoulder Simulation And Patient Specific Planning
This project is part of immersive medical education using VR to simulate the successful placement and checkpoints of using an Augmented Baseplate to reconstruct the glenoid. The aim of this module is to perform immersive virtual surgery on an actual patient to obtain exposure and reconstruct an abnormal glenoid commonly seen in shoulder replacement. The goal of this VR module is to permit deliberate practice and combine cognitive and technical decision making throughout to provide the greatest impact in surgical education.
CleverBooks provides Augmented Reality resources for Primary STEM Education that bring schools subjects to life, empowering students learning in developing 21st-century skills and achieving higher academic results.
The goal of this project is to reimagine STEM Education in every classroom by disrupting the pedagogical approach towards teaching, and setting the standards in the integration of augmented learning in the STEM curriculum.
One of SuperMemo Method’s mottos comes from Benedict Carey, who wrote in ‘How We Learn’: Throw out the rule book and unlock your brain’s potential (Macmillan 2015). SuperMemo Method is focused on the innovation of spaced repetition, one of the most important developments of the recent 30 years in education. The revolution started in 1980s by Piotr Wozniak and SuperMemo, the first company to implement advanced, individualized repetition scheduling algorithms in its computer programs. SuperMemo continues to be the unique source of research in long term memory and a leader in its commercial application through the SuperMemo.com online ecosystem.
A Model To Incorporate The Learning Sciences In Mooc Design And Beyond
How Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) creators incorporate the learning sciences into their work is unclear. Many institutions started creating MOOCs with little preparedness for the learning design challenges posed by online education. With increasing MOOC offerings, paid certificate tracks, and schools counting MOOCs for credit toward a degree, the quality of these online learning experiences matters more than ever before. To lower the barrier to incorporate the learning sciences in MOOCs and beyond, MIT is documenting their process in applying research on learning and creating practical guides and training for others to design digital learning experiences.
Neurolanguage Coaching – A New Way For Language Learning
Neurolanguage Coaching® incorporates the latest findings in neuroscience as well as principles and tools from coaching into the traditional process of language teaching with practical steps to facilitate learning. Through neuroscience we know that every brain is unique, so neurolanguage coaching® is tailor-made learning to clients´ needs, without books, but with clear and structured targets to achieve in defined periods of time. This method and approach potentially creates the perfect learning conditions for the brain leading to faster, more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective results. It is essential as an educator to fully understand how the brain is impacted and affected to teach the best.
The Monash University’s School of Psychological Sciences’ fully-online Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced (GDPA), and its novel educational innovations, have enabled rapid course growth and success. In three years the course has rapidly grown to include (currently) almost 500 enrolled students.
The creation of the course required the creation of an online research system. Monash University’s transferable and expandable Research Portal is a one-stop solution for scoping, designing, conducting, analyzing, storing and writing-up a research project fully online. Previously thought impossible, this world-first research teaching support system has made the GDPA, and subsequent online courses with a significant research requirement, a reality.
AN INTERNET OF LABORATORY THINGS
The OpenSTEM Labs project challenges the traditional university STEM pedagogical model of students and teachers being co-located in a lab, during office hours. This project is an essential component of The Open University’s distance learning environment. The OpenSTEM Labs connect students to state-of-the-art instrumentation, equipment and data for practical investigations over the internet, where distance is no barrier and where access can be available 24 hours a day. Students and teachers connect to remote equipment/data-interfaces via a web browser through which they can view the apparatus, send real-time control commands, monitor real-time response and download data for subsequent analysis.
http://bit.ly/OUScienceLab
Video: https://player.open.ac.uk/embed/72fd5e5eed
Snapplify is a leading global edtech company focused on content distribution, mobile publishing, and innovation for digital education. Snapplify for Education, a suite of products for digital reading and e-learning, is transforming classrooms by empowering teachers and students to teach and learn, digitally. From software to support, Snapplify provide institutions with everything they need to create a secure, collaborative e-learning environment for students. In addition, the Snappbox, their hardware distribution solution for ebooks, allows students to access learning materials affordably.
Teaching Advantage Global: Developing Academic Self-Efficacy And Employability For Doctoral Students Who Aspire To Academic Careers
Only 16% of Australian doctoral students with academic career intentions report having participated in any teaching development during their candidature, leaving them underprepared for academic life. To improve employability, QUT developed and implemented Teaching Advantage Global (TA): a competency-based teaching development program that engages doctoral students in a community of inquiry with peers and experts across disciplines and institutions, underpinned by a cognitive apprenticeship framework. Learners experience significantly increased teaching self-efficacy, an enhanced capacity for reflexivity, improved employment outcomes, global connections, and external recognition of their commitment to learning and teaching through the UK Higher Education Academy’s Fellowship scheme.
Building Ontario’S Inclusive, Online Work-Integrated Experiential Learning Ecosystem
Work-integrated experiential learning (WIEL) is a proven method of enhancing students’ skills, career clarity, networks, and employability; but traditional methods (e.g. coops, internships) are costly to scale and often challenging for underserved students to access. Online WIEL solves these challenges. In 2018/2019, Riipen collaborated with the Government of Ontario to deliver 8,249 online WIEL experiences for students at 12 Ontario colleges and universities over a 16-month period (budget: $735,000). The project enabled underserved students to access WIEL regardless of discipline, socioeconomic background or geography. We catalyzed employer engagement by subsidising participation fees and increasing access for non-profits and small businesses.
Elysium – The Multisensory Restaurant And Education Experience
The hospitality industry demands new skills, such as emotional intelligence and the ability to excite a guest’s emotions. At the multisensory restaurant Elysium, students run the restaurant while developing skills in emotional performance. They must appeal to all the senses while sustaining high standards of staging, technology, cuisine and service.
LEGO® Education delivers innovative, hands-on learning experiences that bring subjects to life in the classroom, make learning engaging, and develop confidence as well as 21st century skills. The LEGO Education continuum of solutions begins the process of familiarizing students with concepts like coding and robotics as early as preschool and kindergarten. As their understanding grows and they progress through grades, LEGO Education’s offerings and capabilities grow with them, allowing them to build on their knowledge, expand their skills, and develop real confidence in STEAM concepts.
QUT’s STEM School Engagement program (SSEP) is a leading example of collaboration among university and industry, showcasing the role that higher education plays in increasing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) participation.
Its innovation lies in its integration of education, research and public engagement, underpinned by QUT’s signature real-world approach.
SSEP supports K-12 students in making connections to the relevance of future STEM career pathways at pivotal learning and decision-making times, provides support and to teachers and parents, and engages all ages via access to world-class STEM facilities and community events.
Imagine Scholar catalyzes untapped human potential. Positioned as a think tank for what education could be in sub-Saharan Africa, Imagine Scholar have developed a world-class, cognition-based curriculum to cultivate a sense of curiosity and robust critical thinking skills among Grade 8-12 learners in the Nkomazi region of South Africa, where education and opportunity are scarce. Imagine Scholar emphasizes culture and community to students, equipping them with the necessary tools to be agile learners in the 21st century. Students explore cognitive bias, sensory perception, and understand how their lifestyle habits inhibit or enable their learning processes.
According to extensive evidenced based research, active learning strategies significantly improve STEM education students’ achievement, understanding and application of concepts. There is also evidence that mobile applications for education enable teachers to improve their teaching practices and engage and highly motivate students by providing them with new opportunities to participate and construct their own learning, individually or collaboratively. The main objectives of this project are to explore and develop new pedagogies to increase active learning in STEM education and to cultivate innovative mobile applications to enhance the efficacy of said active learning pedagogies.
Operation Outbreak (O2) is a novel educational platform focusing on infectious diseases. O2 combines experiential learning, through leveraging widely available mobile communication technologies that simulate an outbreak experience, and an academic curriculum on pathogen biology, public health, epidemiology and governance during health emergencies. This platform could be adopted by educational institutions from middle-school to college levels to complement their existing curricula in areas.
Weekly, online, curriculum-aligned exercises and standardized, termly assessments provide immediate feedback for learners, dynamic visualizations of learning analytics for schools and district officials. Stakeholders are able to immediately identify learning barriers or systemic issues. Green Shoots: Integrated Maths Project is a structured training & development programme that guides the implementation and ongoing support through online training materials to help curriculum support.
We are an alliance of eight business schools who share a vision that online learning should have the same transformational impact as the very best face-to-face courses. We are a productive and vibrant partnership with global reach, pooling resources, knowledge, expertise, co-developing new pedagogies and collaborating on programmes. The output of our collaboration is new pedagogical models and technologies consistent with our vision and a range of innovative, high quality online courses and degree programmes. Our project is powered by a shared learning experience platform which is informed by the ideas and inspirations from the alliance partners’ Edtech teams.
OpenStudio is a visually rich digital learning platform with a firm foundation in collaborative design thinking. Developed by the Open University for use within its Virtual Learning Environment, OpenStudio helps remote students feel less isolated and learn important feedback skills that would more naturally be developed in a physical space. It has successfully evolved from a small pilot to an important part of the OU’s teaching delivery toolkit; OpenStudio is enhancing the student experience and supporting learners in developing skills they need to succeed. By blending technology, user-centred learning design, and academic research, we have created a natural and vibrant social learning environment.
Computing was introduced to the English national curriculum in 2014; during this time many teachers found themselves without the necessary skills and support to effectively teach this exciting subject.
This project aims to enhance subject knowledge, pedagogical skills, and confidence of computing teachers to enable them to successfully deliver the computing curriculum.
The project was originally standalone, focusing on the delivery of quality online courses targeted to secondary teachers. Since the creation of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) in November 2018, it is also now a key component of the professional development offered by the NCCE.
UQ BEL Student Employability Team: Getting Students Set For Their Future
With the introduction of the demand-driven system, University enrolments have dramatically increased. At the same time, graduate employment rates have been declining. UQ’s Business Economics and Law (BEL) Faculty discovered that students believed a bachelor’s degree would result in employment. This is problematic because it does not acknowledge that employers require more. The BEL Faculty recognized a need to provide a real solution for its students. The Faculty addressed this problem by implementing a faculty embedded Student Employability Team (SET). Through its innovative employability services, the SET strategy supports thousands of students resulting in graduate employment rates well-above national averages.
KE@WORK
Initiated in 2014, KE@Work is an honors program that connects the best first year students of our BSc program Data Science and Knowledge Engineering (KE) to academically challenging real life problems from businesses and institutes. During the full second and third year of the bachelor program, KE@Work students spend 50 % of the time in class and 50% at a local business or institute. Because each project runs for 23 months, serious challenges can be tackled, students grow to be real employees, business-university collaboration is taking off and the gap between academic training and business demand is bridged.
Imperial’s GMBA is now ranked no.1 in the UK, and no.2 in the world by the 2019 QS Online MBA rankings. The school remains attuned to the needs of today’s experienced business students, with an emphasis on innovation, student and faculty feedback, and enrichment. Challenges of online learning are addressed through new technologies such as holographic events and the integration of ‘on the ground’ modules such as Glocal electives, which allow students to immerse themselves in a global challenge from a local perspective, whilst applying their MBA course skills. Glocals are being extended across new projects and cities for 2019/20.
In 2016, MIT launched the world’s first ever MicroMasters program — the MITx MicroMasters program credential in Supply Chain Management (SCM). This flexible, affordable, and rigorously assessed online pathway to advanced education consists of a series of courses that culminate in a digitally delivered credential. The credential is recognized by employers and institutions as commensurate with one semester of graduate-level coursework at MIT. A successful credential earner completes a demanding sequence of MITx MOOCs that demonstrates their mastery of the concepts and skills necessary for a strong foundation in the SCM profession.
The Georgia Tech Online Master of Science in Computer Science program is an entirely online graduate degree, equivalent in accreditation to its on-campus counterpart, offered at scale at a total cost of ~$7500 for the entire degree. As of Fall 2019, it has 9,000 active students and has graduated over 2,000 alumni. Research has shown it will single-handedly increase the total MSCS output in the United States by 8%. The program was the first of the rapidly expanding number of affordable degrees at scale, with over 45 followers having now been announced with similar models.
We are an alliance of eight business schools who share a vision that online learning should have the same transformational impact as the very best face-to-face courses. We are a productive and vibrant partnership with global reach, pooling resources, knowledge, expertise, co-developing new pedagogies and collaborating on programmes. The output of our collaboration is new pedagogical models and technologies consistent with our vision and a range of innovative, high quality online courses and degree programmes. Our project is powered by a shared learning experience platform which is informed by the ideas and inspirations from the alliance partners’ Edtech teams.
Moving Tomorrow – A Cultural Journey is a serious video game that familiarizes players with the subject of culture and intercultural management and supports them in developing their intercultural skills for navigating successfully in an international work environment. The game represents a narrative driven learning experience, where the player takes control of a character and has to cope with various cultural challenges on the individual, group, organizational and national level including traveling to different countries such as Germany, Russia and China, where difficult decisions have to be made that affect the further development of the overarching story of the game.
IMAGINE believes that true social change and diversity tolerance grows from common experiences. This concept inspired IMAGINE to establish and operate inclusive bands with participants with and without disabilities. The participants develop musical skills with both ‘classical’ and technological musical instruments, an opportunity to create, compose, perform and empower personal, teamwork and life skills. IMAGINE developed a unique pedagogy for these bands which incorporates psychological and educational inclusive approaches and uses innovative teaching methods. The presence of this project within the community can minimize prejudice and lead to a more equal society.
International Changemaker Olympiad (ICO) is a program for children from 6th-12th grade in schools; it hopes to give them a platform to identify social or environmental problems around them and launch change initiatives to solve them. The objective is to help children develop into empathetic, conscious citizens with an action-oriented mindset. In ICO, students participate in teams of 2-4, identify a real-world problem, and develop, implement and scale their solution over 4-5 months under the guidance of an assigned ICO mentor. More than 5,100+ students have participated and launched 1,520+ initiatives, solving diverse problems from water conservation to food shortage.
The Ocean Race (formerly known as the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18) published a sustainability education programme for educators to use with kids aged 6-12 years old. It was translated into 7 languages and used by over 100,000 people in 42 countries. The focus of the education programme was on ocean health and the plastic pollution crisis, hoping to spark fun ways of positive action.
eCLOSE provides biomedical research training to high school teachers and students using a citizen science approach that includes the questions, ideas, experimental data and conclusions of all participants in professional cancer research. The program is unique in its ability to promote student agency and career preparation while transforming the science education experience by replacing labs that “get the right answer” with professional research training that drives cancer discovery forward. This project will transition successful program modules, data collection, and peer and mentor networking to a Learning Management System, enabling participation of students nationwide.
Three2six Projects aims to provide access to quality bridging education for children from Migrant/Refugee communities, and to assist them to integrate into public schools. The Project offers educational bridging learning for children who cannot access government schools in an urban Refugee community in Observatory/Yeoville area in Johannesburg, South Africa. Children come from the Democratic Republic of Congo 39%, Zimbabwe 34%, Nigeria 4%, Burundi 4%, Uganda 3% and 1% Other from Eritrea, Rwanda, Malawi, Swaziland. The Three2Six Project’s name is derived from the hours during which it operates, from 3 pm to 6 pm.
This project was set up by a small Experiential Learning (EL) team at the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong in 2016-17. It aims to re-think how teacher education can adapt to a rapidly changing and unpredictable global context while bringing benefits for the teaching profession and the wider community. Through the establishment of a mandatory EL curriculum for all new teachers on its preparatory courses, this project seeks to promote a third layer of learning in teacher education, making the community outside the university an inter-space for reciprocal knowledge building and the source of multiple learning opportunities for teachers-to-be.
This compulsory, credit-bearing EL curriculum across all ITE programmes was the first example in Hong Kong and south-east Asia. In a grade-conscious culture, the project creators choose to emphasize learning ‘processes’ over grades so all courses are pass/fail (no grades); they want students to see the purpose of serving the community above individual grades and marks. Ongoing reflective practice is promoted using multiple modalities (written, photo voice, poster conferences, debriefing) to connect students’ experiences. They create multiple platforms for partners to collaborate with them and one another. An annual fair is held for new pre-service teachers and alumni to meet with community partners for exchanging ideas, thereby promoting sustainability in their own fields and quality assurance.
Using Digital Reading Data To Measure And Facilitate Literacy
This project explores the feasibility of combining Worldreader’s big data on reading and voice-recognition technology with the goal of developing an automated, cost-effective, and scalable oral reading fluency assessment tool for teachers and educators in the Global South. The measurements are based on Worldreader’s proprietary data science models that calculate users’ reading speed as a basic indicator of reading fluency. We assume that, together with the voice recognition technology, Worldreader’s BookSmart product will be able to record students reading aloud, process that data to text, and enable teachers and others to evaluate the number of correct words read.
The Speak Assessment is a computerized automated test which analyzes natural, spoken English and provides an accurate profile of a candidate’s language skills. Speak uses cutting edge technology to develop a 10 minute, affordable exam. As English establishes itself as the language of international business, non-native English speakers must demonstrate the necessary skills to perform effectively in academic and professional tasks. Today, universities, employees, recruiting companies, HR firms and more deal with costly and time-consuming English assessments. Speak’s innovative technologies offer a speedy, low-cost, and accurate solution, changing the English assessment world as we know it
Qridi is a Finnish learning analytics and formative assessment toolset for students, teachers and administrators. It was developed with Finnish students, teachers, and researchers. With Qridi a student can learn to take an active role in his or her own learning process and become a self-regulated learner. Qridi makes the learning process visible and provides analytics where the actual learning takes place. Qridi is used by more than 10% of the students in Finland, making its impact on the learning and pedagogy is huge.
TELUS MBA PROGRAM
This collaboration brings together a leading business school that prides itself on seeing things differently, with a national telecommunications company based in Canada that was ready to equip its employees with even more tools for success, and wanting to cultivate future leaders with a distinctive mindset. Course content and deliverables were tailored to leadership and strategy issues specific to TELUS and the telecom industry. This customized degree program combined traditional classroom settings, through six face-to-face residencies in Victoria, British Columbia, with online learning and live, virtual classes, as well as an international residency.
Alumni testimonials: http://bit.ly/
Initiated in 2014, KE@Work is an honors program that connects the best first year students of our BSc program Data Science and Knowledge Engineering (KE) to academically challenging real life problems from businesses and institutes. During the full second and third year of the bachelor program, KE@Work students spend 50 % of the time in class and 50% at a local business or institute. Because each project runs for 23 months, serious challenges can be tackled, students grow to be real employees, business-university collaboration is taking off and the gap between academic training and business demand is bridged.
With the introduction of the demand-driven system, University enrolments have dramatically increased. At the same time, graduate employment rates have been declining. UQ’s Business Economics and Law (BEL) Faculty discovered that students believed a bachelor’s degree would result in employment. This is problematic because it does not acknowledge that employers require more. The BEL Faculty recognized a need to provide a real solution for its students. The Faculty addressed this problem by implementing a faculty embedded Student Employability Team (SET). Through its innovative employability services, the SET strategy supports thousands of students resulting in graduate employment rates well-above national averages.
Wonda VR (NYU StartEd ’17) is a VR software company revolutionizing the way we learn and discover the world. The Wonda VR creation and publishing platform has been used by 7,000+ content creators, and more than 300 universities such as Harvard University, NYU and Parsons, as well as Pearson Education, and 200-plus medium and large businesses such as Cisco, DuPont, Bombardier, Intel and MassMutual.
Labster has worked constantly to grow its product since the company’s inception in 2012 with the end aim of opening up the potential for experiential, outcome-driven education to a wider student audience. Boundaries to allowing distance learning of methodologies and scientific techniques have been removed by Labster with the development of 30 fully VR enabled simulations specifically for Biology undergraduate courses. For the first time, a fully online undergraduate degree is being delivered with practical laboratory experience, learning of laboratory methods and techniques, the opportunity for experimentation and practice of skills all being achieved in the virtual environment.
In Fall 2017, Instructional Technology Services (ITS) at San Diego State University (SDSU) launched the Virtual Immersive Teaching and Learning (VITaL) initiative, providing a variety of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality immersive tools for use across the pedagogical spectrum. VITaL serves as an incubator to enable experiences that would be out of reach in a traditional learning environment, including low-frequency, high-risk scenarios simulating life-threatening medical conditions, celestial events in outer space, and scientific phenomena at the micro scale. In its inaugural year, VITaL facilitated immersive teaching, learning, and research in 26 courses across all seven colleges at SDSU.
The usual way in which laboratory instructional videos are filmed takes the third person view. However, such videos are not as realistic and sensorial. A more personal and effective way of educating students on laboratory procedures has been pioneered – the Instructor’s Point of View (IPOV) technique. To capture the attention of technology-savvy students in the 21st century, educators have to be innovative and reinvent new ways to teach procedures in conducting chemistry experiments. This 3-year study made use of GoPro/Google Glass to film realistic IPOV videos (Live and pre-lab) from the demonstrator’s point of view.
PG Online produce exceptional resources, written and researched by experienced and outstanding teachers, to sound pedagogical principles. They seek to combat wasteful development and duplication of lesson resources across the UK. Their editable presentations, teaching guides, lesson plans, worksheets, homework and end of unit assessments free teachers up to teach, feed back and focus on the individual needs of their students. Schools using these resources have been shown to improve the grades of their students.
Have you ever asked “do you have any questions or comments” to your students in class? Do you just hear silence and crickets in the background 95% of the time after you ask this question? More precisely, have you ever had trouble engaging your students in a simple “question and answer” active teaching method? If the answer is yes, then YoTeach! is here to help. YoTeach! is an educational backchannel chatroom app that enhances engagement and discussions in class with text, drawing, picture uploading, annotating and machine learning hand-writing math/symbol recognition functionality
The eTekkatho MyLibrary project makes world-class educational resources available in low-resourced communities without easy access to the internet in Myanmar. MyLibrary is a self-contained digital library which works offline without the need for a phone signal or internet connection. This means MyLibrary can be set up anywhere, providing instant access to the best in open educational resources alongside content in local languages for school children, university students and life-long learners. MyLibrary is set up in rural schools, regional universities, youth centres, local libraries and refugee camps, creating new educational opportunities for thousands of young people living in hard-to-reach places.
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, MCCOMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Ethics Unwrapped is a video series and educational program aimed at improving the world by improving ethics education. This is a mature academic project that has already produced more than 130 award-winning videos, complete with supplemental teaching materials, including case studies, discussion questions, bibliographies, teaching notes, and transcripts of video narration. All of these resources are available in Spanish. The videos are relatively brief, creative, entertain-ing, and research-based. They are FREE and easily accessed on either YouTube or on the Ethics Unwrapped website: EthicsUnwrapped.utexas.edu. The videos have been used on more than 1,200 college campuses and viewed from 170+ countries.
Imperial College Business School’s Global MBA raises the bar for online MBAs. The content was carefully developed by faculty and Edtech as an engaging, interactive, reinvented MBA, alongside Imperial’s three other on-campus MBAs. Its bespoke platform, The Hub, is a fundamental part of the learning experience. Since launching in 2015 it has won two prestigious awards and achieved student satisfaction ratings averaging 4.5/5. In 2018’s QS rankings, it came first in the UK, third globally and second in terms of employability; this despite being only two years old and with a far smaller cohort than well-established competitors like IE and Warwick.
Broadening Horizons And Nurturing Social Emotional Skills For Autistic Children
Lyfta is a tablet-based platform that allows users to immerse themselves in various educational stories, and has been used increasingly by SEND practitioners to assist the learning of children on the autistic spectrum. Children on the autism spectrum can exhibit a wide range of behaviours, including difficulty relating to others and understanding unwritten rules; difficulty in communicating (some may communicate in a non-verbal way); and difficulty with thinking flexibly, such as struggling to cope when plans change. Having worked in numerous special education schools and with children’s disability charities, the Lyfta team is passionate about helping teachers provide an inspiring and exciting way to engage and teach autistic children the curriculum and many important skills and values.
Amplify works to disrupt traditional financial training and education, delivering innovative, real-world simulations to many of the world’s largest financial institutions and UK universities. It aims to bridge the gap between what students are taught in theory, and what happens in an office environment on a day-to-day basis. The technology assesses technical and behavioural competencies for different financial roles, connecting a diverse range of students with competitive graduate opportunities. With offices in London, Shanghai, and new partnerships in Europe and the US, candidates worldwide can now benefit from practical education that directly and positively impacts their career.
With 21% of all resumes containing a fraudulent degree we think it’s essential to make verification easy, decentralized and almost impossible to fake. The problem of our time is fake news and whilst normally we think of that in the news/political sense increased globalization and advances in AI will mean it’s an increasing problem across a range of industries. We expect credential fraud to keep increasing it and Accredible is tackling the problem head on with innovative use of technology. We are a cloud-hosted web application where credential issuers can create, deliver and manage their certificates and badges. These digital credentials are delivered to individuals via email or their learning platform and exist on a unique URL to be shared with third parties. We provide a number of verification tools that include blockchain record verification, PDF validation and a directory of alumni.
PeerWise is a free online learning tool that enables students to collaboratively create, share, answer, evaluate and discuss their own practice questions with explanations and solutions. Generating questions requires that students think carefully about the topics and concepts of their course and how they relate to learning outcomes. More than 500,000 students, from 80 countries, have used PeerWise to create and share more than three million practice questions. More than 60 peer-reviewed studies have shown PeerWise to be an effective tool for supporting student learning.
Lyfta was founded by award-winning filmmaker couple Serdar Ferit and Paulina Tervo in 2016, with the desire to inspire future generations to make a positive impact in the world. Lyfta’s platform was created to support teachers in tackling complex themes and topics with the best tools to introduce different global phenomena in the classroom. Lyfta is currently used in over 350 schools in the UK, Finland and the US. Our mission is to have an immersive story from every single country in the world by 2020 on our platform, accessible to a global audience.
World Possible
As developed countries race ahead with virtual reality and other advanced technologies that make education ever more powerful, the 52% of the world’s population that cannot even access basic information on the internet is falling farther behind. At World Possible, we are bridging this gap with RACHEL, an innovative, low-cost server that makes it easy to bring knowledge and information to the world’s most remote areas. RACHEL includes the best openly licensed educational content such as Wikipedia, Khan Academy, PhET physics simulations, and much more, instantly turning graveyards of old computers into learning centers.
THE MIND LAB
The New Zealand Minister of Education announced the intention to adopt ‘digital technologies’ as a new priority area in education, adding to literacy and numeracy. The announcement in May 2017 required teachers from K1- K10 to comprehend a new curriculum area that was unfamiliar and technical. The two priority focus areas were identified as ‘Computational Thinking’ and ‘Designing & Developing Digital Outcomes’. Through our long-term relationship with teachers across the country, it was identified that teachers felt a high level of anxiety about truly understanding the curriculum and how to bring it to life in classrooms teaching students aged 5 – 15 years. The Mind Lab identified the need for a non-intimidating, comprehensive resource that could be undertaken in their own time, that could be self-paced and linked to year levels education outcomes and the new curriculum. An online, video-based platform was determined to be the most accessible and useful resource. It was also decided that the resource would need to be free for teachers to remove any financial barrier from accessing new knowledge and key information. The solution developed is a video-based online platform, that is designed to be highly accessible (non-tech language), entertaining, informative and relevant. The solution is broken into four curriculum levels and focus areas linked to year levels. Each area of focus is supported by examples, lesson plans, suggested resources and downloadable content. The resource is made free to all New Zealand teachers through a personalized school code. Parents and other interested people can access the platform for a small fee of $39.95NZD. The ability to provide the $300,000 resource to teachers at no charge was funded by the two shareholders in The Mind Lab and the generous support of a local philanthropic trust – NEXT Foundation.
Low-income preschoolers begin Kindergarten one year behind their middle and high-income peers in mathematics, and these achievement differences grow to 2.5 years by the end of fifth grade. Early math interventions can eliminate the school entry math achievement gap, however, fewer than 1 in 4 US children who attend public preschools receive high-quality math instruction. Public preschools spend less instructional time on math compared to private preschools, and children participate in fewer math activities than students in private preschools. Moreover, qualitative studies have documented that teachers in low-income preschools use little mathematics language, and survey data demonstrate preK teachers don’t feel prepared to teach math. Cost effective and scalable early mathematics interventions for low-income preschoolers are needed to improve their math outcomes and future academic achievement. We created Math Shelf, a tablet early math program with the goal to eliminate the school entry math achievement gap. Math Shelf uses tablets to integrate the mathematics instructional materials and sequence created by Maria Montessori, developmental mathematics theory, and mathematics content from evidenced-based early interventions. Math Shelf is both adaptive and scalable. Using algorithms, Math Shelf adapts the math materials and sequence to individual student’s achievement levels. This adaptability optimizes both learning and engagement, because children play math games that are neither to easy nor too hard. Math Shelf is scalable and affordable. It runs on $49 Amazon Fire tablets, and is cloud-based, thus enabling play in school and home environments. Finally, Math Shelf solves for the problem of mathematics NOT being consistently taught in low-income preschools, because it provides an easy to implement tool for preschool teachers to provide children with opportunities to learn early mathematics skills.
AMERICAN AND BRITISH ACADEMY
ABA English is a digital academy specializing in teaching English via desktop & mobile devices. The learning experience is designed to include the human factor throughout the digital process. By combining a humanized course curriculum, real tutors, technological advances and AI, they are contributing to extending education beyond the classroom walls. Many adults are now learning English online in a truly effective way. While a machine can emulate the abilities of human teachers, it will never replace them: rather, it’s the emerging hybrid of human and machine training, not either alone, that may transform education. ABA English aim to prove this.
Taleemabad Learning App is a digital learning platform available on Android, iOS and Windows. It contains over 190 animated videos and tests, which teach and assess a child’s academic capability according to the National Curriculum of Pakistan. The curriculum has been tested in the past in government and private schools across Pakistan, and has the ability to take a child from complete illiteracy to advanced numeracy and literacy in a short span of time, while boosting performances in state level testing and reducing the chances of under-served children dropping out of school, especially in rural and remote access areas.
Pakistan is suffering from a major learning crisis, especially in the primary grades. This is the problem SABAQ aims to solve. Over 22 million children are out of school and even when they attend, they fail to learn adequately. SABAQ’s digital learning solution, Muse is a multi-platform, K-5, digital learning system that improves student engagement and learning outcomes for Math, Science, English, and Urdu. Muse apps serve as an effective and affordable solution to augment learning across a variety of low-resource learning environments. Our approach sustainably leverages technology to improve the quality of learning in classrooms with limited resources.
Imagine 50 or even 50,000 students, anywhere the world, using a VR device to stand together with an instructor virtually, and in real time, at the famous pyramids at Giza, Egypt.
Harvard’s first experiments in ‘educational telepresence’, which have connected Harvard students with Zhejiang University students in China, promise tremendous potential for innovative education. Harvard is using online 3D models of the archaeological site based on scientifically responsible archaeological documentation (the results of decades of Harvard University’s research), Boston Museum of Fine Arts expeditions, and other work. The Giza Project combines traditional archaeology with cutting-edge 3D immersive visualizations to serve the world community.
Executive Doctorate of Business Administration students face many challenges when either legitimizing an expertise for an industry or transitioning into academia. Doctoral supervisors must adapt their scientific guidance to this specific population. Superwisor is a serious game played by doctoral supervisors, and aims to improve the multifaceted supervisor-supervisee relationship to enhance students’ success in a program to reach their goals. Superwisor facilitates three levels: the initial meeting, the extended research proposal, and publishing. Throughout the game, supervisors are prompted to make decisions, and at each level’s end, supervisors receive personalized feedback and access to resources to improve their practices.
QATAR UNIVERSITY
Education, still dependent on traditional methods of indoctrination and ‘spoon feeding’, is unilateral (one-sided learning) from employing different teaching tools to delivering the disciplinary content. Unfortunately, schools have been shielding overly orchestrated, overly scrutinized, and extremely controlled students and teachers. Ahmed was intellectually reaching out to the swirling leaves to perceive with his hands, ignoring his teacher’s artistic illustration of a green leaf on the whiteboard to transmit information on photosynthesis. Well, why is he constrained to visually and palpably explore the phenomenon while it is possible to? This scenario tends to nurture a potentially curious child into a passive and sedentary recipient. If the world is not separated to educational or non-educational, the child wants to learn everything. They make learning as an integral and organic part of their learning. Instructor centered teaching promotes rote learning – thereby nullifying curiosity in students leading to a decline in problem –solving and critical thinking skills. Creativity nurtured through hands on experience along with curiosity, agility, critical thinking and problem solving are among the key techniques that could change this landscape promising a better tomorrow of employability for the next generation. Science is a process of exploration and innovation that roots from the basic inquiry and stems through application to evaluation. Scientific inquiry is an efficient tool to vitalize curiosity. Hence, we employ scientific workshops in our STEM pedagogy. The structure of our program is designed as follows; 1- STIMULATING CURIOSITY: We make a show to flare up curiosity through a scientific experiment. 2- ASK: Students pop up quality questions; ‘why’, ‘what if’ and ‘how’ and research and hunt to note their findings. 3- HANDS ON EXPERIENCE: They perform technical experiments to gain an advantage in scientific knowledge. 4 – MOCK DESIGN PROJECT: Apply their acquired knowledge by employing in an already designed project to verse them on the steps to an independently design a project. 5- INSPIRE: convert the acquired knowledge into a real-life application (an independent design project) and it follows the order; A: brainstorm on a real-life problem, B: decision-making, C: planning and designing, D: creation (real-working prototypes) and 6- EVALUATION: these working prototypes are presented to community leaders thereby subjecting the students in the real world realizations. This whole process has succeeded in embedding curiosity in each student resulting in an upgraded logical performance.
Mathigon is an online platform for middle and high school mathematics. It combines an innovative new curriculum with cutting-edge technology, to make mathematics more engaging than ever before. Our unique content format allows student to actively “explore and discover” – not just consume information like they would in a video or textbook. Over time, we can seamlessly adapt and personalise the content, while a virtual tutor provides real-time help and feedback. Using countless interactive explorations, animations and games, Mathigon can teach problem solving and creativity. A captivating narrative provides context for abstract ideas, and lets the content come alive.
Of 100 children that start school in South Africa, approximately 60 will reach their final year, 37 will graduate, and only 12 will access university. Almost none will be adequately equipped to participate in the fourth industrial revolution. We are on a mission to change this by challenging how we learn, what we learn, and who has access to learning. Our digitally based Open Learning and Bridging Academies aim to enhance and bolster state learning through gamified, wonder-filled learning which builds on existing pedagogical practice.
In the United States, 82% percent of low-income youth are not proficient in math by the eight grade, with many suffering from declining engagement in STEM throughout middle school. The NBA Math Hoops program addresses this core challenge by integrating a student passion point into classroom learning. The experience leverages a basketball board game, curriculum, and mobile app, prompting students to complete a basketball season in the classroom with the stats of their favorite NBA and WNBA players. To date, the program has reached over 150,000 students and accomplished significant academic and social-emotional gains for students underrepresented in STEM.
The i-Space is a Digital Makerspace and vibrant community at the library of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It aims to lower the barriers of entry for students to try out and explore new digital devices and creative use of technologies regardless of their disciplines and family background. Abreast of technology, i-Space is unique in terms of our emphasis on 1) equal opportunity to access digital equipment, 2) facilitating students’ creative work, 3) the archival and dissemination of the maker’s knowledge, and 4) embrace Tech Culture concept. By self-guided exploration or competitions, i-Space helped students gone through significant transformations.
BUILDING HOUSES. FRAMING CHARACTER.
unCommon Construction is a nonprofit that uses the build process to empower youth to lead the workforce after high school or college. Through the selective apprenticeship program, students from six different high schools in New Orleans, Louisiana join a diverse team to earn above-average hourly pay and school credit for building a house in a semester. Apprentices are exposed to industry-related partners, develop professional skills, and are awarded an Equity Scholarship at the end of the semester where uCC matches an Apprentice’s earnings by 50%. This scholarship is intended towards any post-secondary career goals after an Apprentice graduates high school.
Most education systems do not provide sufficient opportunities to unlock the true potential of the students and retain creative confidence, address fear of failure and nurture the ability to think out of the box. It is estimated that 65% of kids entering primary schools today will end up in jobs that don’t exist today. For the next generation of learners, it is essential to master empathy, critical thinking and creativity in order to be able to work in the complementary way with machines and artificial intelligence. We want to ensure kids embrace empathy, design and innovation at a very young age as these will help them stay relevant and make them future-ready. We designed an experiential based curriculum by bringing entrepreneurship, innovation, design thinking and deliver it in a project based approach where K12 students will solve real world challenges by leveraging IoT sensors (LittleBits) and other emerging technologies. We mapped 40+ life skills and 45+ tools & techniques that are taught in an experiential manner to children and young adults while solving real world challenges. We are also planning to leverage emerging technologies ( such as voice assisted and digital games) to reinforce the skills and tools learnt during the classes.
The Biodesign Challenge is an international university competition that pairs art and design students with scientists to envision the future of biotechnology and how it might address grand challenges in health, agriculture, manufacturing, and sustainability. Each summer, participating universities present their projects and compete for awards on stage at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The goal of BDC is to seed a new generation of professionals who can integrate design and biotechnology; build an interdisciplinary STEAM community; and engage the larger public about the societal implications of emerging biotech.
Two hindrances to students’ international mobility are the need to verify of academic credentials (graduation degree, transcript of records, European diploma supplements) by host universities, and the centralized recording by the home university of the credits acquired abroad. The Universities of Milano–Bicocca and of Padova, together with the CINECA Consortium Computing Center, solved problem 1 by devising an “Integrated Graduation OpenBadge” based on Blockcerts and Mozilla OpenBadge technology; for solving problem 2, we are planning a blockchain-based track of records that will allow decentralized, direct recording of credits in the students’ careers by foreign host universities.
Smart Credentials
PwC’s vision is to build trust in society. Trust is crucial for people to exchange value, especially in this digital age when trust is often violated. Smart Credentials is based on trust and powered by blockchain, which leads to an immutable and tamperproof platform. The idea was conceptualised from conversations with our clients & employees, who want to independently own and control a verified record of their lifelong achievements. They want portability & freedom to carry, share & revoke their credentials. Smart Credentials combines the two crucial ingredients of trust; authentication & authorisation, with credentials being issued in permanence.
With 21% of all resumes containing a fraudulent degree we think it’s essential to make verification easy, decentralized and almost impossible to fake. The problem of our time is fake news and whilst normally we think of that in the news/political sense increased globalization and advances in AI will mean it’s an increasing problem across a range of industries. We expect credential fraud to keep increasing it and Accredible is tackling the problem head on with innovative use of technology. We are a cloud-hosted web application where credential issuers can create, deliver and manage their certificates and badges. These digital credentials are delivered to individuals via email or their learning platform and exist on a unique URL to be shared with third parties. We provide a number of verification tools that include blockchain record verification, PDF validation and a directory of alumni.
Using state of the art machine learning algorithms, DAMVAD Analytics are able to identify 80 percent of the students who actually drop out, more than six months in advance. This allows universities and other higher education institutions to intervene on an individual level to provide personal counseling to the students who need it the most. By aggregating the results, it is also possible to identify problematic courses, faculties or custom cohorts. This provides a cost-effective tool for driving retention both at an individual and institutional level. This is done solely on the institution’s own data on their students.
Adapting Tomorrow’S Technology Today: Innovation In Medical Education With AI-Based Virtual Patient Learning
AI-Based Virtual Patient provides an enhanced learning experience to students, immersing them in the complexities of the human body, and allowing them to view and analyze medical sciences in new ways. This will help them to understand important concepts better, boosting their interest and curiosity in the field of medicine and health sciences. GMU is adapting tomorrow’s technology today in the hopes of creating medical professionals with futuristic outlook and skills. They are the first University in the Arab region to introduce Virtual Patient Learning (VPL) technology. VPL is a problem-based learning (PBL) application involving critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and communication skills.
CENTURY is an award-winning artificial intelligence teaching and learning platform used by schools, colleges and universities across the world. CENTURY is improving and positively disrupting aspects of the education sector, traditionally untouched by technology, now requiring a re-examination of its foundational principles. By helping to relegate the failed ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of delivery in favour of a personalised ‘one-size-fits-one’, CENTURY is both improving outcomes and challenging the outdated, underperforming models of educational delivery that have let down children for too long. CENTURY recently launched the world’s first system-wide roll-out of AI in schools and is now the world-leading AI platform.
GRENOBLE ÉCOLE DE MANAGEMENT
21 Days is designed as a serious game to promote awareness and practices of innovating with limited resources. It exhibits in a form of a tangible game, as well as an online variation. Playing the game day after day, it distributes knowledge about innovation and provides players a hands-on experience. It lasts for 21 days, which is considered as the minimal time to develop a behavioral routine. Executive and Higher Education students will play their 21-day quest on a mysterious island. They will be given a precious mission box with 21 tubes and a secret diary…
Lean Thinking Learning Space (LTLS) is a flexible and innovative physical space which generates development of disciplinary and personal competences through experiential learning and challenge based learning. This innovative project proposes to create an environment of continuous production with all the real factors of a productive process where the students are immersed in the experience and make decisions to create an efficient transformation with zero waste. The results for this novel model competency-based education have been demonstrated a significant increase in the development of attitudes, skills and knowledge, as well as better perception of students in the teaching-learning process.
HELM Open is a collection of over 250 free, open, multimedia learning resources. Many of these have been developed by patients, health practitioners and carers, meaning that they provide unique insights for healthcare students and others around the world on subjects as diverse as dementia, adolescent mental health, end of life care and childhood development. The team has developed a distinctive process and tools to empower communities in resource creation. The resources are having a global impact and are currently being accessed by approximately 1.5 million users in over 50 countries. Research and evaluation shows clear impact for these learners.
Many teenagers today are obsessed with the Internet, which results in a disconnection from real natural/cultural environments. An after-school program providing flipped, collaborative, and interdisciplinary learning experience was initiated to combat this problem and raise K-12 students’ 21st century skills and awareness of natural/cultural heritage in their communities. Our pilot research study in Taiwan examined program outcomes in two schools. Student-created Augmented Reality (AR) / Virtual Reality (VR) products featuring local heritage sites were later embedded in formal curricula and used for teaching over 1,100 students. These positive results encourage us to expand this program to maximize the benefits.
This is an IoT application & sensor/display that detects & alerts the presence of stress & anxiety in the user. It uses biometric & geo-location sensor information combined with big data cloud analysis. The development of this idea is focused on children in the classroom with ASD Autistic Spectrum Disorder or associated or conditions but is transferable to other anxiety wellbeing applications. The wearable device alerts the user discretely as well as other chosen relevant people of a change in this person’s mood allowing them to act or behave accordingly; ultimately avoiding an incident of conflict and disturbance from occurring.
BioBeyond is an introductory biology course unlike any you’ve seen before. It teaches science as exploration of the unknown, using next-generation interactive and adaptive courseware technology. It’s changing science education — both teaching and learning — forever. We focus on moving students away from pure fact memorization, and get them excited to form deeper understandings of scientific reasoning, develop problem solving skills, and understand modern science. BioBeyond is driven by the Inspark Teaching Network, in collaboration with the Center for Education Through eXploration at ASU (ETX), Smart Sparrow, and world-leading research universities and innovative educators.
UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA, PETER B. GUSTAVSON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
This collaboration brings together a leading business school that prides itself on seeing things differently, with a national telecommunications company based in Canada that was ready to equip its employees with even more tools for success, and wanting to cultivate future leaders with a distinctive mindset. Course content and deliverables were tailored to leadership and strategy issues specific to TELUS and the telecom industry. This customized degree program combined traditional classroom settings, through six face-to-face residencies in Victoria, British Columbia, with online learning and live, virtual classes, as well as an international residency.
Alumni testimonials: http://bit.ly/TelusMBA
MONASH UNIVERSITY
MyDispense is a freely available community pharmacy simulation, developed by Monash University, providing opportunities to teach, practice, and assess the medication use process at a level of detail and difficulty corresponding to students’ knowledge and experience. It replicates the decision-making environment within which dispensing occurs, allowing students to learn by experimenting, by making mistakes and by receiving targeted feedback in a safe and secure environment. Developed in response to an educational need in Australia, through effective global collaboration, MyDispense is now used by student pharmacists in multiple countries. It has significantly contributed to growth in the pharmacy simulation community.
The Carbon Reduction Challenge is an initiative that empowers students to become lifelong champions of sustainable business in their organizations. We ask students who hold traditional internships and co-ops to identify, quantify, and obtain approval for a project at their place of employment that reduces both greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs. The Challenge has attracted students from across all majors at Georgia Tech, and in its latest cohorts, expanded to include students participating from five more regional universities. To date, the Challenge has engaged 75 students at 23 different organizations, and avoided emissions of over 20,000,000lbs of CO2.
This prize will be given to the project that most successfully improves learning outcomes, teaching delivery, and/or employability outcomes for those undertaking an MBA, an Executive education qualification, or another form of Business & Management Education.
We invite educators that are improving learning outcomes or course content for Online/Distance MBA programs to apply to this award discipline.
WHY REIMAGINE THE MBA?
The notion that a formal course in business administration might be as valuable a path for future businesspeople as immediate post-school real-life experience has steadily gained traction over the past century. There are now currently hundreds of thousands of MBA students worldwide, and in 2014 it became the most popular postgraduate course in the United States.
It is clear that the MBA has enjoyed growth and retains its role as a pathway taken by many of the world’s business leaders, despite the eye-watering costs often incurred by taking it. The proportion of young people seeking to become successful entrepreneurs is increasing. In an uncertain employment market, some argue that the MBA is one of the few qualifications certain to provide value into the future.
It is for precisely for these reasons that it cannot remain static. Automation threatens to transform employment beyond all recognition. Received notions about vertical corporate hierarchies are, if not under threat, being questioned. The business leader of the future must be one able to negotiate the challenges and changes facing their role – and the MBA must remain a qualification suited to preparing them for that role.
As such, we seek projects and submissions that can demonstrate their ability to ensure tht MBA students receive the highest-quality teaching and learning possible. Projects might demonstrate the successful implementation of a new module, or show that they have enhanced the effectiveness of a distance MBA. However, all successful projects will be united by their ability to ensure that the MBA remains a program suited to preparing tomorrow’s leaders.
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For Onsite Registration: The cost for all standard delegate registration will be at USD 1000 and LMI delegate registration will be at USD 500.
Please note that cash and credit card are the only accepted forms of payment.
