student success

Lessons from Treadmills and Owls: The Most Important Feature in Educational Technology Products

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empty treadmills in a gym

Treadmills are iconic pieces of exercise equipment for the wrong reason. They’re famous  primarily for sitting unused in basements and spare bedrooms all across the country. These treadmills go unused despite having some pretty sophisticated features, including embedded video trainers who talk to you during your workout, realistic imagery of running routes, automated speed and … Read more

What Memes Can Teach Us About Applying Educational Research in Practice

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One does not simply apply learning science.

Do you know the #nailedit meme? In its most common form: Someone sees a recipe or craft online. They try to recreate it. Things go terribly, comically wrong. They graciously post the results online, allowing us all to take joy in the degree to which they absolutely #nailedit. Part of what makes these memes great is … Read more

Why Improving Student Learning is So Hard

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A few thoughts about why improving student learning in the US higher ed context is so hard to do. (These ideas may apply elsewhere, but I’m thinking specifically about US higher ed.) 1. Improving student learning requires changing student behavior – changing the things students do in order to learn. Students learn by doing – … Read more