TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | May 10, 2023
XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, hosts a virtual event today to celebrate the grand prize winner of the $1M Digital Learning Challenge, Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator from Raleigh, North Carolina, and showcase the technology developed by the challenge’s three finalist teams, including team Terracotta from Indiana University and team UpGrade by Carnegie Learning.
Launched in 2021, the Digital Learning Challenge incentivized teams to modernize, accelerate, and improve the technology and processes for evaluating and measuring effective learning and education. Using tools like AI methods, big data, and machine learning, teams sought to better understand the effectiveness of specific teaching techniques and practices, with the goal of providing substantial benefit for educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the tens of millions of Americans enrolled in formal education every year. The challenge is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the independent and nonpartisan statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education.
The three finalist teams participating in the Accelerate & Modernize: New Methods to Assess Student Learning Outcomes closing event include:
• Grand Prize Winner: Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator – Raleigh, North Carolina (Partnership between Intelligent Adaptive Interventions lab at University of Toronto, Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon, & North Carolina State University) o The Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator network aims to involve everyone in using experiments to enhance and personalize education. Our 'MOOClet' toolkit democratizes the contribution of ideas from many teachers, students, and scientists, then experimentally tests which ideas work for which students. Artificial Intelligence algorithms analyze data to adapt experiments in days vs months. This aims to test more ideas more quickly, and to use promising data to more rapidly get better approaches to students.
• Finalist: Terracotta – Bloomington, Indiana (Indiana University)
o Terracotta is an open source plugin to the Canvas learning management system, enabling researchers and teachers to conduct rigorous and responsible experimental studies on learning activities within a course site. Using Terracotta, the team was able to conduct over two-dozen mini-experiments across a variety of courses, ranging from 6th grade to college seniors, where each experiment used local materials and authentic teacher-created assessments.
• Finalist: UpGrade by Carnegie Learning – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
o UpGrade is a free, open-source platform that enables iterative experimental design and deployment of new learning experiences that compare the efficacy of different tools and resources—such as lesson content, interactive elements, videos, algorithms and more—during active student learning. Each experiment measures what works best for whom, advancing the way we understand student learning and engagement and enabling the rapid design, deployment and analysis of large scale studies, including but not limited to complex K-12 school environments.
The final round or demonstration phase of the competition required teams to replicate their experiments at least five times with three or more distinct learner demographics. Based on their demonstration performance, Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator receives the grand prize designation and $500,000, while runners-up Terracotta and UpGrade will each receive $125,000 prizes. The three teams previously shared a $250,000 prize when they were announced as finalists in September 2022.
During the closing event, each of the three teams will present their technology and how it works, followed by a discussion of lessons learned from the Digital Learning Challenge. With the Challenge now concluded, the teams will seek to work with partners across the education and technology sectors to scale the impact and implementation of their solutions.“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,” said IES director Dr. Mark Schneider. “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.”
In the initial pilot phase of the competition, 10 teams had six months to demonstrate the capabilities of their rapid, reproducible experiments in an accredited education institutional setting and then 30 days to launch a replication study with at least one unique learner demographic. A judging panel of education and technology experts reviewed the pilot study technical submissions and selected three teams to move on to the final round and ultimately designated the winner.“We are deeply proud of the achievements of the Digital Learning Challenge finalist teams, whose creativity and commitment to improving education outcomes through technology and experimentation will resonate far beyond the conclusion of the competition,” said XPRIZE Digital Learning Challenge Technical Lead Dr. Monique Golden.“We look forward to working with these teams to forge new partnerships that will ensure they can continue developing and refining their technologies and scale the impact of their solutions.”
The Digital Learning Challenge is part of XPRIZE’s Learning and Society domain which is committed to achieving a future where everyone, regardless of income, race, age, identity, gender, or geography, has access to learning experiences to reflect their unique capabilities, disposition, and aspirations.
About XPRIZE
XPRIZE is a global future-positive movement delivering truly radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. XPRIZE inspires and empowers a global community of problem-solvers to positively impact our world by crowdsourcing solutions through large-scale competitions, tackling the world’s grandest challenges in exploration, environment, and human equity.
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CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS
PRnewswire | April 25, 2023
The State of South Carolina has once again selected WIN Learning as its career readiness assessment partner, proactively responding to business and industry demand for work-ready talent.
In collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), WIN will lead delivery of research-based assessments measuring the foundational employability skills and soft skills each year of all 11th-grade students, spanning more than 80 school districts and 250 high schools statewide as required by state policy (SC Code § 59-18-325). Twelfth-grade students also have the opportunity to take or retake the assessments. The results benchmark district and school advancement toward ensuring all students are career-ready upon graduation. This year, school testing was conducted March 27-April 14.
"South Carolina Department of Education is a longtime partner of WIN," said Teresa Chasteen-Dunn, CEO of WIN Learning. "We are excited to continue our partnership to ensure that all South Carolina students graduate high school with the skills they need to succeed in their future careers."
Students who pass the assessments earn the South Carolina Work Ready Credential, demonstrating mastery of foundational math, reading and data analysis skills, and the South Carolina Work Ready Essential Soft Skills Credential, validating mastery of professional skills including communicating effectively, conveying professionalism, promoting teamwork and collaboration, and thinking critically and solving problems. The credentials are endorsed by the National Work Readiness Council as tools for educators, workforce development professionals, and employers to determine students' readiness for post-secondary education and technical training, apprenticeship, on-the-job training, and ultimately employment.
The WIN-powered assessments used by South Carolina have been developed in direct response to education, workforce, economic development, and business and industry demand for a common measure of students' career readiness. WIN's solutions are based on the U.S. Department of Labor O*NET Content Model Framework, which is widely recognized as the nation's primary source of occupational data. The Work Ready assessments target the transferable career readiness skills that employers in South Carolina and nationwide commonly define as essential to gain and maintain employment across industries, in occupations from entry level to professional. The assessment learning objectives correlate to the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate, a set of standards for the career and life skills high school students should master by the time they graduate.
WIN was chosen as the state's foundational career readiness partner through competitive bid, ranking as the preferred provider based on expertise and experience, technical approach, and value. "South Carolina Department of Education is a longtime partner of WIN," said Teresa Chasteen, CEO of WIN Learning. "We are excited to continue our partnership to ensure that all South Carolina students graduate high school with the skills they need to succeed in their future careers."
About WIN Learning
Since 1996, WIN has become the leading provider of career readiness solutions to help business, industry, workforce and districts prepare pathways for students' and job seekers' futures, whether they are college, trade school, military or workplace bound. WIN's e-learning solutions include academic and employability skills courseware, assessments, and nationally recognized credentials endorsed by the National Work Readiness Council (www.nwrc.org). To date, more than 10 million students worldwide have participated in the specialized career-driven courseware and education intervention initiatives as well as career readiness certification programs.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
PRnewswire | April 11, 2023
Northpass, the leading platform for digital customer education, announced the launch of two essential resources, The Business Case for Digital Customer Education and the Digital Customer Education Impact Calculator, both created for customer success leaders looking to elevate their customer experience and optimize operational efficiency through digital learning.
The customer education industry is experiencing strong growth as macroeconomic pressures have forced B2B companies to rethink how they facilitate their customer success practice more cost-efficiently. The Business Case for Digital Customer Education is the first and only resource that provides insights on how teams can quantify the return on investment (ROI) and impact of digital customer education. It helps leaders understand the benefits of investing in digital customer education, such as reduced expenses and costs, improved productivity for customer success and training teams, and elevated customer experiences, as well as the costs of delaying adoption; namely missed revenue opportunities.
"The Business Case for Digital Education is long overdue," said Sumeru Chatterjee, founder of CustomerEducation.Org, a 4000+ member community of customer education professionals. "Our industry has needed a resource that lays out a clear rationale, ROI and roadmap for customer education, and why it's imperative to invest in it. The Business Case definitely delivers this insight."
The Digital Customer Education Impact Calculator is an interactive tool that can benefit every customer education and customer success leader, whether they are just starting out with digital education or still relying on traditional methods like live training, webinars, and emails. It allows them to evaluate the effectiveness of their current training program and explore the potential impact of incorporating digital strategies. The Calculator delivers specific findings, such as the number of hours a customer success manager could be using more efficiently and the potential cost savings that could be realized; data points to help facilitate decisions on how to allocate resources more effectively.
"Digital customer education is one of the most effective methods for maximizing the efficiency and productivity of forward-thinking customer success teams," said Northpass CEO, Steve Cornwell. "Our new resources help chief customer officers and customer education leaders quantify the direct impact it can have on their business and jumpstart their transition from outdated customer training to modern digital customer education."
Digital customer education has become a go-to option for many innovative companies like Northpass customer, Bonfire Interactive. According to Vy-Vy Nyguen, manager of client enablement at Bonfire, the company saved over 2,000 hours per year by moving its outdated customer education program to Northass and eliminating the need for one-to-one customer training.
About Northpass
Northpass is a market-leading digital customer education platform that empowers businesses to elevate their customer experience and optimize operational efficiency through digital learning. Iconic brands, including Walmart and Johnson & Johnson, in addition to hundreds of growth businesses, like Pipedrive and Freshworks, choose Northpass to power their digital customer academies. Our award-winning platform and expert services give companies a surefire path to transform outdated customer training methods into modern digital education programs that match how customers want to learn today and improve training efficiency, effectiveness, and reach.
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