New learning media and technology are being used and tested across the entire spectrum of two- and four-year colleges and universities and K-12 schools. Common goals of these widely varied efforts include improving learning outcomes, increasing efficiency and productivity, and making knowledge more accessible. Steve Arnold, vice-chair of the board of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Kevin Guthrie, president of ITHAKA, and Candace Thille, director of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University, discuss the work of their organizations.
Arnold describes the Lucas foundation’s efforts at the K-12 level to identify, capture and share “what works in education” via its website edutopia.org. Guthrie reviews the case studies of online learning initiatives undertaken by leading universities, as described in Unlocking the Gates, written by Taylor Walsh for ITHAKA. Candace Thille explains the power of the data gathered through tracking all student interactions with OLI’s courses.
The data are part of a feedback loop of continuous improvement of the courses and, likewise, teaching and learning outcomes. All three organizations are engaged in research to assess the effectiveness of their work, so as to further a revolution in education enabled by new learning media and technology. Excepts of Arnold’s, Guthrie’s and Thille’s remarks at the Forum’s June 2011 Aspen Symposium are reprinted here.