The Simon Initiative

The initiative’s goal is to measurably improve student learning outcomes by putting research findings into practical use in instruction. Named for the late Nobel and Turing Award laureate and CMU Professor Herbert A. Simon, The Simon Initiative harnesses a cross-disciplinary learning engineering ecosystem that has developed over several decades at Carnegie Mellon University.

The Open Learning Initiative is a flagship project of The Simon Initiative, offering textbook-replacement course content built upon principles gleaned from decades of research in three CMU’s strengths: cognitive science, computer engineering, and human-computer interaction. OLI provides a harmonious platform for delivering high-quality materials with the ability to facilitate groundbreaking research — in technology enhanced learning (TEL); data science; learning behavior; and more.

Educators and researchers can employ OLI technology to:

• Teach with any course in the diverse OLI catalog, and monitor the class’s learning
• Build and deliver a new course or an entire program, harnessing the OLI methodology that measurably improves student learning
• Convert their existing instruction to the OLI framework, for meaningful data collection and iterative improvements — at scale
• Partner with other users to integrate new technologies in instruction, collaboration, or data science
• Provide the testing ground for grant-funded research
• Combine multiple Simon Initiative partner products to tackle challenges in your instruction