Online Learning

Here is a very interesting interview with Jose Ferriera, CEO of Knewton. They have developed a platform for creating personalized lesson plans based on initial assessments and ongoing performance monitoring that gages the types of instruction that students best respond to. The instruction is delivered online with some portion taught remotely by live instructors.

Knewton has entered the market with test prep course offerings, but they are attempting to capitalize on their demonstrated success in that area to license their technology for use in other online learning applications. I don’t think that this approach will be appropriate for every type of online course offering, but some types of skill building, like remediation, are especially suited to it.

I am not so much excited by their specific implementation as I am by the fact that some really innovative technology is being developed for the online learning industry at long last. Intentional innovation will bring a lot more to the table than repackaged business tools.

There are a lot of people in need of education at all levels. It is time for educators to get a significant productivity boost. Substantial productivity gains in education will be one of the main catalysts for global growth in the next quarter century.