There are few published studies investigating the effectiveness of hybrid formats at the program level in graduate legal education. A hybrid Juris Doctorate (J.D.) program launched by a Midwestern institution was the first ABA-accredited law degree program with a substantial online learning component.
Digital learning publications
The Apple and ConnectED Initiative: Three Case Stories
These case stories intend to give an in-depth look at each school’s setting and the details of how ConnectED unfolded in each of the following places: Compton, California; Tuskegee, Alabama; and Orondo, Washington.
Designing Smartphone Microlessons to Improve the Cybersecurity Workforce
This is a poster presented at the 4th annual Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace principal investigators’ meeting.
Next Generation Courseware Challenge Evaluation
How can college completion rates for low-income and minority students be improved? One solution may be digital courseware that offers individualized learning. SRI evaluated The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Next Generation Courseware Challenge and found positive educational impacts.
Using Technology to Personalize Learning in K–12 Schools
Using technology to personalize learning has become a high-profile trend in K–12 education. Personalized learning—generally conceptualized as tailoring learning experiences to individual students’ needs and interests—has been a centerpiece of education for students with disabilities for several decades. Now it is a term used widely to describe a variety of technologies, reform agendas, and instructional approaches for all student populations. Educators are looking to personalized learning approaches to move beyond one-size-fits-all schooling to new approaches that address both persistent and emerging educational challenges, such as achievement gaps and student disengagement. Educators are also seeking ways to keep up with the needs of a rapidly changing world in which student populations are increasingly diverse, workforce needs are shifting more toward 21st century competencies, and workers of tomorrow will need to take on more responsibility to manage their own lifelong learning and professional development.
Participant Experiences and Financial Impacts: Findings from Year 2 of Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative
This report presents findings from Achieving the Dream’s Open Education Resources (OER) Degree Initiative, which helps colleges reduce the financial burden on students and improve curriculum and pedagogy by developing course pathways using free and openly licensed instructional materials.
The Apple and ConnectED Initiative: Baseline and year 2 findings from principal, teacher, and student surveys
SRI Education is conducting rigorous research about the Apple and ConnectED initiative, to understand how technology integration can support teaching and learning at high-poverty schools. This report presents findings from large-scale surveys conducted with principals, teachers, and students at participating schools.
*Please note that the Apple and ConnectED initiative described in this report is not accepting new applications for grants. SRI is a nonprofit research institution and cannot provide technology grants of its own.
Evaluating Digital Learning for Adult Basic Literacy and Numeracy
More than 36 million adults in the United States do not have the basic literacy and math skills needed for many entry-level jobs and even less so for the types of jobs expected to dominate in the future. And current federal- and state-funded adult basic education (ABE) programs, the main providers of skill development and training programs for this population, do not have the resources, facilities, or trained staff to serve all those adults in need of further education to improve their basic skills and job prospects. In 2014, The Joyce Foundation asked SRI Education’s Center for Technology in Learning to investigate the role and efficacy of five different digital learning products in (1) improving the basic reading, writing, and math outcomes for low-skilled adults in ABE programs and (2) helping programs increase their capacity to serve a greater number of students. Through this research, we set out to understand how ABE programs might use these technologies to improve the instruction they offer, whether such technologies are effective with low-skilled adults (performing at fourth- to ninth-grade levels in reading and/or math) and which practices and product features might be associated with better outcomes for students and programs. In this report, we present the findings from this three-year study.
How big is that? Reporting the Effect Size and Cost of ASSISTments in the Maine Homework Efficacy Study
In a rigorous evaluation of ASSISTments as an online homework support conducted in the state of Maine, SRI International reported that “the intervention significantly increased student scores on an end-of-the-year standardized mathematics assessment as compared with a control group that continued with existing homework practices.” (Roschelle, Feng, Murphy & Mason, 2016). We reported an effect size of g = 0.18 of a standard deviation ( t (20) = 2.992, p = 0.007) based on a two-level hierarchical linear model (Roschelle et al., 2016). Naturally, education stakeholders want to know how big the improvement was practically. In this technical report, we present alternatives for explaining the effect size, building on the guidance of Lipsey et al. (2012), a leading researcher who developed broad recommendations for effect size reporting.
