Science researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are among a team of winners that won the $1 million national XPRIZE Digital Learning Challenge. UpGrade, a free and open-source platform developed by Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Learning, also placed as one of two finalists in the competition.
CMU researchers John Stamper, Norman Bier and Steven Moore were among the Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator team, which included University of Toronto and North Carolina State University researchers, that received the first-place finish due to their development of a tool that's poised to allow teachers to conduct experiments in the classroom that can offer insights on the types of teaching methods that are most effective.
To do this, the tool uses machine learning and statistical models that can then show relevant information to educators. The Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator team said its tool can integrate into existing teaching methods that educators are already using in their classrooms.
"We want teachers to be able to adapt their curriculum quickly to fit the needs of their students," Moore said in a prepared statement. "This allows them to send different messages, questions, and motivational prompts to groups of students in their class and see which one resonates, then rapidly move all of their students to the version of the materials that's resonating the most."
CMU's portion of the prize winnings will be reinvested into its ongoing Simon Initiative, which is working to advance innovation in education.
Bloomington, Indiana-based Indiana University had a team that also placed as a finalist in the challenge in addition to Carnegie Learning, which is not affiliated with CMU.
The Digital Learning Challenge is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), an independent and nonpartisan statistics, research, and evaluation division of the U.S. Department of Education. It consisted of 10 teams that had six months to demonstrate and reproduce their learning-based experiments.
"Through their participation and success in the Digital Learning Challenge, each of these teams has helped make advancements in technology to improve the ways that educators teach and that students learn," IES Director Mark Schneider said in a press release. "These teams have laid the groundwork for a new phase of experiments of frequency, scope and scale not possible through traditional methods of education research, which will ultimately lead to better experiences and outcomes for all learners."
