Doing Online Learning Research

with both Scientific and Financial

Value

Joseph Jay Williams

josephjaywilliams@stanford.edu

www.josephjaywilliams.com

Why bother? We do “Science” not

“Business”

● Industry/Business/Entrepreneurship ○ ?

○ Making products, selling things?

○ “Every successful business creates something of

value. The world is full of opportunities to make

other people’s lives better in some way, and your job

as a businessperson is to identify things that people

don’t have enough of and then find a way to provide

them.”

● Science: Developing theories/principles that

explain, predict, and control behavior

Examples where Online Learning

helps Science & Industry overlap?

● Ed-Tech products

● Corporate Training & E-Learning ○ Sales

○ Product use

○ Product details

○ Software & Equipment Use

○ Safety Training

○ Executive Education

● Consulting activities

● RCTs in Workforce Development

● Where can you imagine an overlap?

Online Learning can turn everyday

work environment into a laboratory

● Physical ----> Digital Online

● Easier Access & Collaboration

● Precise Control

● Automatic data & analytics collection

● Immediate delivery & redeployment, iterative

improvement

● Easily modify digital materials/environment

● Random Assignment to different versions

Target Intersection of Scientific

Questions & Industry Problems

Scientific

Questions Industry

Problems/

Products

?

*Start* with product, then ask

scientific question

● Example:

Scientific Question: Role of generating

explanations in learning

“Product with value”: Khan Academy math

exercises

http://tiny.cc/khanzscore1

http://tiny.cc/khanexercise1

Identifying Relevant Contexts

● Adopt “Growth Mindset”/Leap of Faith

● Identify Society & Attend a Conference

(www.elearningguild.com 70 000 + e-learning

professionals, hosts DevLearn 2013 in October)

● Consulting

● Give Talk/Write Post on applying research to a product

● Talk/Collaborate/Partner with Scientifically minded

people in Industry

○ Bror Saxberg (Kaplan)

○ John Behrens (Pearson)

○ Will Thalheimer, Karl Kapp, Ruth Clark (Run

Consulting & Training businesses)

Science → Industry route

● Identify relevant scientists ○ MediaX

○ BJ Fogg, John Stamper, Karl Kapp

● NSF's Innovation Corps

● Grants for small businesses/startups

○ NSF Small Business Innovation Research

○ Technology Transfer

○ Department of Education grants

Identifying Products for Research:

Criteria to Consider

● “R.E.P.E.A.T.” Criteria for a Product/Context

● Realistic

● Experimental

● Product

● Evaluation

● Accessible

● Theory

Potential Directions

● Focus on “Assessment” as well as Learning ○ EdLab at Columbia,

○ https://getclever.com/

○ http://www.brightbytes.net/

● Sales Training - measures of learning

● Search Skills & Workforce Development

● Executive Education

Thoughts?

Potential Benefits

Industry → Science

● Address practical needs - “Customer

Development”

● Software/Technology Development

● Data

● Funding (scientist as consultant model?)

Science → Industry

● Measureable, Practical Improvements

● Use 50+ years of education/learning

research

● Identify and Apply underlying principles