Cyberlearning Workshop Reports: Principles for the Design of Digital STEM Learning Environments

Download the report: Emerging Directions from the Workshop Leaders Summit (PDF)

White papers on each workshop are available below; see also the Cyberlearning Community Report.

NSF challenged interdisciplinary science and engineering teams to produce plans for developing forward-looking, highly adaptable, distributed digital environments that can personalize learning for diverse learners in collaborative settings. This challenge was issued in a DCL for synthesis and design workshops that funded the workshops below.

CIRCL hosted a Summit for workshop leaders on June 6, 2019 to collaboratively synthesize findings and recommendations and plan final white papers. The report Next Generation Challenges for Advanced Learning Technology: Emerging Directions from the Workshop Leaders Summit provides an overview.

White papers and slides by workshop leaders are available below, or see all slides from the Workshop Leaders Summit (PDF).

Workshop Title Abstract Date & Location PI name and email Resources

Designing Scalable Advanced Learning Ecosystems

Building on successful online education programs that have offered Master’s degrees in computer science and analytics, Georgia Tech hosted a workshop for higher education administrators and researchers to create educational experiences that can be scaled to growing populations of students while providing the personalized attention that has typically been the domain of unscalable individual, face-to-face teaching and advising. Read more…

Nov. 29-30, 2018
Atlanta, GA
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Stephen W. Harmon
Georgia Tech
swharmon@gatech.edu (former PI: Robert Kadel

White Paper (PDF) and Appendix (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

Designing STEM learning environments for individuals with disabilities

The workshop was grounded on four research questions: (1) What challenges do learners with different types of disabilities face in using current and emerging digital learning tools and engaging in online learning activities? (2) How do current digital learning research and practices contribute to the marginalization of individuals with disabilities? (3) What advances in digital learning design are required to support multi-modal learning and engagement that is fully accessible to and usable by students with disabilities? (4) What specific actions can digital learning researchers, funding agencies, educators, and other stakeholders take to systematically address issues with respect to disabilities? Read more…

January 15-18, 2019
Seattle, WA
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Sheryl Burgstahler
University of Washington
sherylb@u.washington.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

Principles for the design of digitally-distributed, studio-based STEM learning environments

This workshop brought together a community of collaborators from multiple stakeholder groups including academia, public libraries, museums, community based organizations, non-profits, media makers and distribution channels, and educators within and beyond K-12 schools. Led by the University of Arizona, and held at Biosphere 2, an international research facility, participants engaged in activities that invite experimentation with distributed learning technologies to examine ways to adapt learning to the changing technological landscape and create robust, dynamic online learning environments. Read more…

February 25-28, 2019
Oracle, AZ
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Jill Castek
University of Arizona
jcastek@email.arizona.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

Weaving the Fabric of Adaptive STEM Learning Environments Across Domains and Settings

The goal of this workshop was to articulate a transformative vision of future STEM learning for diverse learners across domains and settings. It forged a nexus among the emerging (a) sciences of learning, (b) assessment, and (c) big data to formulate frameworks and tools for designing STEM learning environments. Read more…

March 14-15, 2019
Stanford, CA
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Roy Pea
Stanford University
roypea@stanford.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

Research Priorities in Learning Analytics

The workshop brought together interdisciplinary experts to articulate the state-of-the-art and propose research priorities for learning analytics in the coming decade. A central theme was to explore new ways to use powerful tools in data science (machine learning, social network analysis, analytics and visualization of complex data, temporal, multi-scale and statistical models, integration of heterogeneous data, data scrubbing, wrangling and provenance tracking, data privacy and cybersecurity) to define competence, measure it, and build it using a rich array of new approaches to study learning. Read more…

March 18-19, 2019
Ann Arbor, MI

Stephanie Teasley
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
steasley@umich.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

Digital Science and Data Analytic Learning Environments at Small Liberal Arts Institutions

This project convened a workshop to create blueprint designs of next generation of digital learning environments to answer the question: How can science, technology, and mathematics digital learning environments be designed to enhance the digital science and data analytic skill competencies of learners at small liberal arts institutions of higher education? Read more…

March 29-30, 2019
Waukesha, WI
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John Symms
Carroll University
jsymms@carrollu.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

Digitally-Mediated Team Learning

This workshop aimed to advance the utilization and efficacy of next-generation learning architectures through a focus on instructional technologies that facilitate digitally-mediated team-based learning. Interdisciplinary science and engineering researchers, developers, and educators identified near-term and future research directions to facilitate adaptable digital environments for highly-effective, rewarding, and scalable team-based learning. Read more…

March 31-April 2, 2019
Orlando, FL
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Ronald DeMara
University of Central Florida
Ronald.Demara@ucf.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

Distributed Collaboration in STEM-Rich Project-Based Learning

This project convened a synthesis and design workshop on next generation STEM learning, envisioning a two-tier timeline that looks three years and then ten years into the future. One primary workshop topic involved design considerations for “boundary-crossing” project-based learning, by which students (middle school through college) collaborate on challenging STEM projects while they reside in different national, economic, cultural, and academic settings. Read more…

May 13-14, 2019
Malibu, CA
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Eric Hamilton
Pepperdine University
eric.hamilton@pepperdine.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

The Future of Embodied Design for Mathematical Imagination and Cognition

This workshop brought research scholars and classroom teachers together to achieve four central objectives: (1) synthesize current research into a coherent theory of embodied mathematical imagination and cognition, (2) identify the most promising opportunities for conceptual and methodological integration, (3) curate a set of evidence-based design principles for enhancing mathematics education and broadening participation in all STEM fields, and (4) articulate a future research agenda in the growing area of embodied cognition. Read more…

May 20-22, 2019
Madison WI
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Mitchell Nathan
University of Wisconsin-Madison
mnathan@wisc.edu

White Paper (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

In addition, the following two CIRCL-funded working groups presented findings at the Summit:

Workshop Title Abstract Date & Location Lead and email Resources

CIRCL Workshop: Instrumented Learning Spaces

More than a dozen interdisciplinary scholars participated in a CIRCL Working Group on Instrumented Learning Spaces at the NYU Tandon Makerspace in Brooklyn. Working in small groups, participants designed and prototyped a cup and saucer—one of which was made entirely out of food—in the Makerspace. Skeleton tracking, multi-channel audio, and radio-located positions were recorded throughout to produce a rich, multimodal dataset which will be annotated and made public. Read more…

February 8-9, 2019
NYU Tandon Makerspace in Brooklyn

Yoav Bergner
NYU
yoav.bergner@nyu.edu

Report (PDF)

Slides (PDF)

CIRCL Workshop: Robots, Young Children, & Alternative Input Methods

This two-day invitational workshop brought together researchers in the learning sciences, computer science, engineering, and psychology to review the current status of research on children-robot interaction, discuss theoretical and technical aspects that can support the research, and explore the potential for future research in the area from the social, emotional and cognitive, and educational perspectives. Read more…

January 24-26, 2018
Northern Illinois University

Yanghee Kim
Northern Illinois University
ykim9@niu.edu

Report (PDF)

Slides (PDF)