Since the release of the original KPI tool, new features have been deployed to Georgia Tech’s instance of Canvas. C21U is excited to continue to provide this updated tool to faculty at Georgia Tech for the upcoming Spring 2022 semester. We are very excited.

The Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC) is a collaboration between twelve institutions across the world with the goal of creating a centralized platform or standard for academic credentials across universities and other education providers so that students can easily receive, store, and share their credential records. In Georgia Tech’s case, we've integrated an issuing tool in our learning management system (LMS), Canvas. In addition, we are collaborating with the DCC to create a tool for claiming credentials, called a “wallet.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March of last year, Georgia Tech (and most universities), pivoted to emergency remote teaching over the span of about two weeks. C21U was at the forefront of this pivot and has continued to help lead the Institute as we define the most optimal paths going forward.

Georgia Tech has a new strategic plan for the years 2020 to 2030. However, many of the themes highlighted in the 2018 CNE report -- themes like Lifetime Education, Distributed Worldwide Presence, AI, Whole Person Development, and more -- continue to be both critical to the future of Georgia Tech and relevant within the new Strategic Plan.

With more instructors than ever before teaching remote and hybrid courses this Fall semester, insights into course experience are critical for the continued success of both instructors and students at Georgia Tech. With that in mind, the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) has developed a new tool that provides instructors with course-specific weekly snapshots of how students are performing. Designed to work seamlessly with Canvas, Georgia Tech’s Learning Management System, the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Tool gives instructors a new, near real-time measure of student progress.

During Spring 2020, C21U initiated a pilot study to explore the idea of awarding digital credentials to Georgia Tech students via Canvas, the current Learning Management System for the university. The need for universally recognized and accepted verifiable digital credentials arises from the gap between the skills that recruiters and admissions committees seek, and the academic proof that college transcripts offer. Currently, many academic credentials are non-indicative of a range of skills that students gain from the courses they undertake in college, thus making it difficult for recruiters and admissions committees to evaluate candidates. If digital credentials are widely recognized and accepted across universities and education providers, it would not only provide students with a one-stop solution for credentials but would also aid university students, faculty, admissions committees, and employers in holistically assessing students’ skills.

This year, as C21U graduate research assistants, we were tasked with researching and designing initial concepts for a nascent but quickly-developing CNE project: the Georgia Tech atrium. As a physical gathering space and gateway to both in-person and digital GT services—such as career counseling, exploring GT credentials, and networking—the GTatrium™ is intended to expand the possibility for individuals to experience Georgia Tech beyond Atlanta. Alongside visiting atria, users will be able to extend their experiences using the GTatrium™ mobile application, weaving together their in-person and digital experiences, from near atria and afar.

With the start of fall semester, C21U welcomes Ashok Goel to the team in the role of chief scientist. Goel will lead C21U's research agenda, with a focus on education innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI).

What does it mean to be Deliberately Innovative? On April 11, Georgia Tech’s CNE Program Office partnered with CDI to host an information session and workshop focused on the concept and process of Deliberate Innovation.

I’ll admit, I’m new to service design. I first became familiar with the term a few months ago when a Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) graduate researcher, Lindsay Kelly, introduced me to the concept. Lindsay convinced C21U to take service design for a spin, and co-facilitated a workshop with me in February. The following post is my attempt to explain service design to others in higher education who – like me – were unaware of its potential. 

On February 7, C21U hosted a seminar titled “Extended Reality (XR) for Teaching and Learning.” XR refers to real-and-virtual combined environments, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). We invited speakers from four teams across Georgia Tech’s campus to discuss projects currently underway throughout the Institute, and to discuss the future of XR in education.

During the Summer of 2018, the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) embarked on a journey to introduce Blockcerts at Georgia Tech. Blockcerts are blockchain-powered academic credentials, housed on a mobile application, that are decentralized, secure, and verified.  

However, in order to realize the full potential of Blockcerts, it is essential that the user groups are actively considered in the creation of the application. That is why, this year, we sought to reach out to the Blockcerts application user groups and conduct research to better understand their experiences using the application, as well as the students’ surrounding contexts of use for the application.

A funny thing happens as online learning scales. At first, learning scales by breaking the requirement for collocated meetings, allowing students to attend live lectures via telepresence from anywhere in the world. Then, learning scales by breaking the requirement for synchronous meetings altogether: with prepared lecture material and textbooks, asynchronous class forums, and modern learning management systems -- there is little need to get together at the same time in the same place… or at least, little strong need for the fundamental requirements of a classroom.

Jenny Strakovsky, Assistant Director of Career Education and Graduate Programs for the School of Modern Languages, is a co-recipient, along with Aaron Santesso, a professor of literature in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, of the GT-FIRE grant directed towards the development of new programs that apply the humanities to training students in 21st century skills and whole person education. These include the Institute's new M.S. in Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (MS-ALIS) and M.S. in Global Media and Culture (MS-GMC), a suite of graduate certificates for professionals, and a new curriculum design lab, 21st century Humanities, which is researching humanities practices in traditionally non-humanistic spaces.

This year our VIP team’s research focus is on data that we've collected through Georgia Tech's online platforms. This includes mass-market courses hosted on Coursera, our online masters programs on edX and data from Canvas, the learning management system that services both our online and on-campus courses. To introduce the students to learning analytics using data from online platforms, we hosted Dan Davis, a PhD student from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.