Learning Sciences Research/Suddenly Online ReportWhat challenges did college students face in the shift to remote learning in the wake of COVID-19? Digital Promise and Langer Research Associates developed a survey in spring 2020 to capture the experiences of over 1,000 undergraduates taking courses that transitioned to online instruction. The Suddenly Online report features the findings from this national survey and explores how college courses were taught during the COVID-19 outbreak, the pervasiveness of various challenges undergraduates faced after the remote instruction transition, and course features associated with higher levels of student satisfaction.
Learner Variability ProjectThe release of the Learner Variability Project’s Adult Learner Model was prescient, as interest in weaving social and emotional skills into academic learning piqued as a response to COVID-19. Our 2019 national survey found that among teachers who use edtech, 76 percent often or sometimes use data from edtech products to help them support individual students’ learner variability. This past year, Digital Promise’s edtech certification program added learner variability as a new certification, and a new product assessment tool was launched for developers to explore how well their products support learner variability and identify features that could reach more learners in the Learner Variability Navigator.
Adult LearningThe pandemic exposed and widened existing inequities in rural America. In 2020, the Adult Learning initiative developed a landscape research project with Ascendium Education Group to explore how micro-credentials may be used to promote an inclusive economic recovery for rural learners. We began documenting innovative ways that postsecondary education and training institutions are using digital learning models and micro-credentials among rural learners who are impacted by poverty, particularly in Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. As we continue this work, our goal is to inform the field about the value and use of micro-credentials to increase social mobility for adult learners.
Inclusive InnovationThe Center for Inclusive Innovation launched with a vision focused on resourcing the ingenuity of Black, Brown, and Indigenous students and communities through equity-centered, community-driven R&D. Our Teachers of Color recruitment and retention project culminated in a virtual showcase of 22 teacher-created concepts to more than 600 attendees. Our Data Ready cohort also engaged 11 districts in developing resilient data systems to support deeper learning and address equity gaps. Additionally, we launched new projects to engage three districts in addressing challenges in adolescent writing and 14 districts to develop open educational resources to support classroom discourse on racial and social justice.
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