Recap of the Big Things I did at work in 2019-2020

Every year, we submit a report that shares the highlights of our unit activities at MIT. For a number of years now I’ve been the primary author of this “record” of our collective work. Drawing nearly verbatim from this report, below is a list of the major activities I was involved with for the last fiscal year (running July-June). You can also look back on reports from 2018-2019, 2017-2018, 2016-2017, 2015-2016, 2014-2015, 2013-2014, 2012-2013 and 2011-2012.

Open Learning Projects – July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020

Projects supports initiatives between MIT and other universities, foundations and trusts, non-governmental organizations, and national governments in their efforts to advance and transform educational opportunity through digital learning. Through these initiatives, MIT is furthering its mission to advance learning worldwide.

Summary and Highlights

In FY20 (2019-2020), Projects focused on four international projects that [I was involved with] that shared MIT’s expertise and approach to teaching and learning with K-12 students and teachers, university students and faculty and lifelong learners. Projects promoted MIT’s unique approaches to learning with these international audiences:

  • With CoLAB, a collaboration of primarily Centro Ceibal and the Universidad Tecnológica del Uruguay (UTEC) in Uruguay, Projects supported UTEC’s students who are concurrently enrolled in a UTEC Master’s degree program and MITx’s MicroMasters® Program in Statistics and Data Science. The initial generation (cohort) of 58 learners with support of Projects-led facilitated (recitation) sessions completed three of the four required courses in the MITx program offered during FY20 with a 95% pass rate.
  • With the Belize Ministry of Education Youth, Sports & Culture, Projects developed a conceptual design for a new STEAM Lab School in Belize. The STEAM Lab School is envisioned as combined high school and technical / vocational school serving up to 300 students in four Forms (grades) be located in Belize City, Belize with enrollment beginning in 2022.
  • For Open Learning Scholars with the Al-Ghurair Foundation for Education, Projects completed support for American University in Cairo and American University of Beirut faculty using course materials from sub-licensed MITx courses (6.00x, 7.00x, 7.28x and 18.03x). Over the two-year period of the project, Projects and MIT Open Learning supported 1,196 learner seats.

Goals

For FY 20, Projects’ broad goals were to:

  • Execute on existing projects: CoLAB and Open Learning Scholars
  • Identify (and execute) new digital learning projects, including the STEAM Lab School, in support of the Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab, MIT Open Learning, and the Institute
  • Integrate findings from science of learning into project activities.

Accomplishments

CoLAB Program in Data Science

CoLAB is a project between MIT and a collaboration of primarily Centro Ceibal and the Universidad Tecnológica del Uruguay (UTEC) in Uruguay to create a community of data scientists in the region and build the capacity to teach data science at UTEC and other Uruguayan universities. Projects provides support for a generation (cohort) of learners concurrently enrolled in a UTEC Master’s degree program and the MITx MicroMasters in Statistic and Data Science program. The project involves workshops focused on data science, entrepreneurship and study strategies, as well as MIT-led facilitated (recitation) sections to support individual learning in the courses that make up the MicroMasters program.

FY 2020 key accomplishments [I was involved with]:

  • Supported learners in completing three of the four required courses in the MITx program offered during FY20 with a 95% pass rate.

STEAM Lab School

The Belize Ministry of Education Youth, Sports & Culture through the Interamerican Development Bank approached the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab pK-12 Collaborative and Projects to develop a conceptual design for a new STEAM Lab School in Belize. The Lab School is envisioned as a combined high school and technical / vocational school serving up to 300 students in four Forms (grades) be located in Belize City, Belize with enrollment beginning in 2022.

FY 2020 key accomplishments [I was involved with]:

  • Projects and the MIT J-WEL pK-12 Collaborative team conducted site visits and hosted a co-design workshop to collaboratively develop the vision for and an implementation plan to design and build the STEAM Lab School in Belize.
  • Developed a conceptual design and implementation plan for the STEAM Lab School in Belize.

Open Learning Scholars (OLS)

OLS is a collaboration between MIT and the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education aimed at expanding access to and use of digital learning environments in STEM for learners worldwide. The goal is to make some of the best STEM education in the world available to Arab youth through innovative online and blended learning offerings.

OLS is engaged with:

  • Leveraging digital (online) learning in the Arab world, especially for displaced populations, with an initial focus on the professionally focused MIT MicroMasters program.
  • Supporting educational transformation and capacity building through blended learning utilizing curriculum from MITx courses.

FY 2020 key accomplishments [I was involved with]:

  • Supported American University in Cairo and American University of Beirut faculty using course materials from sub-licensed MITx courses (6.00x, 7.00x, 7.28x and 18.03x). Over the two-year period of the project, MIT Open Learning supported 1,196 learner seats.
  • Co-authored a whitepaper titled, “Charting a Path Forward: A Multi-stakeholder Collaboration to Promote Blended Learning in the Arab World” to be published in the second half of 2020.
  • Supported the Al Ghurair Foundation’s efforts to provide scholarships for MITx Supply Chain Management and Data, Economics and Development Policy MicroMasters learners from the Arab world.