With funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Simon Initiative is working to better understand and develop strategies to overcome the roadblocks to using technology-enhanced learning (TEL) resources.
Why? TEL has the potential to dramatically improve education. For example:
- According to a recent Rand Corp. study, high school algebra students of all backgrounds who used a Carnegie Mellon University-inspired cognitive tutor learned almost twice as much as a similar group who did not.
- Students taking the Intro to Statistics online course developed at CMU learned more than traditional students, and they did so in half the time.
- A Learning @ Scale study found that students learn six times more with CMU’s Simon Initiative approach that emphasizes interactive activities than with MOOC courses, which rely on students watching videos to learn.
Yet, sizable barriers are preventing wide adoption of effective TEL. The Open Learning Initiative is playing a key role in this flagship Simon project.
