Georgia Tech Will Help Bring Critical Advancements to Online Learning as Part of Multimillion Dollar NSF Grant

Georgia Tech is a major partner in a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Artificial Intelligence Research Institute focused on adult learning in online education, it was announced today. Led by the Georgia Research Alliance, the National AI Institute for Adult Learning in Online Education (ALOE) is one of 11 new NSF institutes created as part of an investment totaling $220 million.

Digital Credentials Consortium: Evaluative User Research

The Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC) is a collaboration between twelve institutions across the world with the goal of creating a centralized platform or standard for academic credentials across universities and other education providers so that students can easily receive, store, and share their credential records. In Georgia Tech’s case, we've integrated an issuing tool in our learning management system (LMS), Canvas. In addition, we are collaborating with the DCC to create a tool for claiming credentials, called a “wallet.”

C21U Innovation and Impact Report

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March of last year, Georgia Tech (and most universities), pivoted to emergency remote teaching over the span of about two weeks. C21U was at the forefront of this pivot and has continued to help lead the Institute as we define the most optimal paths going forward.

Mapping Georgia Tech's New Strategic Plan to the CNE Report

Georgia Tech has a new strategic plan for the years 2020 to 2030. However, many of the themes highlighted in the 2018 CNE report -- themes like Lifetime Education, Distributed Worldwide Presence, AI, Whole Person Development, and more -- continue to be both critical to the future of Georgia Tech and relevant within the new Strategic Plan.

NSF Convergence Accelerator Awards Second Round of Funding to Eduworks, Georgia Tech, USG, Credential Engine for $5 Million Competency Catalyst Initiative

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named Competency Catalyst, an initiative focused on innovative tools for workforce reskilling and led by partners including Eduworks Corporation (Eduworks), Georgia Tech, and the University System of Georgia (USG), as one of nine teams selected to receive Phase II Convergence Accelerator funding. Over two years, Competency Catalyst will receive $5 million in funding from the NSF Convergence Accelerator.

C21U Launches New Canvas Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Tool to Help Instructors Collect Weekly Student Feedback

With more instructors than ever before teaching remote and hybrid courses this Fall semester, insights into course experience are critical for the continued success of both instructors and students at Georgia Tech. With that in mind, the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) has developed a new tool that provides instructors with course-specific weekly snapshots of how students are performing. Designed to work seamlessly with Canvas, Georgia Tech’s Learning Management System, the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Tool gives instructors a new, near real-time measure of student progress.

Understanding the Need for Digital Credentials

During Spring 2020, C21U initiated a pilot study to explore the idea of awarding digital credentials to Georgia Tech students via Canvas, the current Learning Management System for the university. The need for universally recognized and accepted verifiable digital credentials arises from the gap between the skills that recruiters and admissions committees seek, and the academic proof that college transcripts offer. Currently, many academic credentials are non-indicative of a range of skills that students gain from the courses they undertake in college, thus making it difficult for recruiters and admissions committees to evaluate candidates. If digital credentials are widely recognized and accepted across universities and education providers, it would not only provide students with a one-stop solution for credentials but would also aid university students, faculty, admissions committees, and employers in holistically assessing students’ skills.

Shaping the GTatrium Experience Through User Research and Design

This year, as C21U graduate research assistants, we were tasked with researching and designing initial concepts for a nascent but quickly-developing CNE project: the Georgia Tech atrium. As a physical gathering space and gateway to both in-person and digital GT services—such as career counseling, exploring GT credentials, and networking—the GTatrium™ is intended to expand the possibility for individuals to experience Georgia Tech beyond Atlanta. Alongside visiting atria, users will be able to extend their experiences using the GTatrium™ mobile application, weaving together their in-person and digital experiences, from near atria and afar.

Georgia Tech Joins MIT-led Digital Credentials Consortium, Co-Authors New Report on Digital Credentials of the Future

Georgia Tech has joined MIT and 10 other international universities as founding members of the Digital Credentials Consortium, a collaborative, intercollegiate research and design group focused on the creation of verifiable infrastructure for digital credentials of academic achievement. The group has released a co-authored report that charts a viable path to developing such infrastructure.

USG, Georgia Tech Awarded National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Grant

The Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded a grant of $499,753 by the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator to develop the Competency Catalyst project in conjunction with the University System of Georgia (USG). The Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) will work in partnership with a skilled project team that includes university faculty, researchers, and educational technology leaders from across the country to oversee the successful implementation of Competency Catalyst.

Get to Know Ashok Goel, C21U's New Chief Scientist

With the start of fall semester, C21U welcomes Ashok Goel to the team in the role of chief scientist. Goel will lead C21U's research agenda, with a focus on education innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing to Realign within the Center for 21st Century Universities

Effective immediately, the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) will become a unit within the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U). Following a detailed assessment, including interviews with key stakeholders and a K-12 summit event in fall 2017, the organizational adjustment moves CEISMC out of its current structure within the College of Sciences.

Service Design in Higher Education

My favorite description of service design comes from Marc Fonteijn: “When you have two coffee shops right next to each other, that each sell the exact same coffee at the exact same price; service design is what makes you walk into the one and not the other, come back often, and tell your friends about it.”

XR for Teaching and Learning

On February 7 2019, C21U hosted a seminar titled “Extended Reality (XR) for Teaching and Learning.” XR refers to real-and-virtual combined environments, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). We invited speakers from four teams across Georgia Tech’s campus to discuss projects currently underway throughout the Institute, and to discuss the future of XR in education.

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