Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, announced today that it has acquired Learning Catalytics™, an advanced, cloud-based learning analytics and assessment system developed by Eric Mazur, Brian Lukoff, and Gary King of Harvard University.
Research has shown that instant feedback as well as peer-to-peer engagement helps improve student comprehension. Learning Catalytics allows faculty to obtain real-time responses to open-ended or critical thinking questions, determine which areas require further explanation, and then automatically group students for further discussion and problem solving. The system supports numerical, algebraic, textual, and graphical responses. The comprehensive and advanced analytics also help faculty better understand student performance in real time while lecturing.
“A wide body of research has long supported peer instruction, student engagement, and active learning in the classroom,” said Paul Corey, Pearson Higher Education president of Science, Business, and Technology. “What attracted us to Learning Catalytics is its unique ability to make these proven learning techniques more scalable in and outside the classroom, to enrich them with more actionable data and innovative analytics, and, ultimately, to make them even more effective. The use of Learning Catalytics in the classroom also enables instructors to be more effective. Faculty benefit greatly from the graphical dashboard in the classroom and more detailed results afterwards; and equipped with these insights, they can dive more deeply into areas of common misconceptions or make adjustments in real-time.”
By actively engaging students with questions and receiving their immediate responses, faculty can see a graphical representation of the current state of learning in their classes. Faculty can then adjust their teaching method, in real-time, and provide more in-depth instruction on areas of common misunderstanding. Learning Catalytics also empowers faculty to author questions directly, or further develop questions written by other faculty whose questions they can rate, comment, and improve upon.
Learning Catalytics was co-founded by Eric Mazur, a thought leader in the flipped classroom movement and an esteemed Pearson author, Brian Lukoff, an education researcher and software engineer, and Gary King, a noted social scientist and statistician.
“Pearson’s global reach and their focus on truly understanding what leads to better results in learning is in perfect alignment with our goals for Learning Catalytics”, said Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University and Area Dean of Applied Physics. “We want faculty and students worldwide to benefit from our system.”
To learn more about Learning Catalytics, visit https://learningcatalytics.com/.
To learn more about Pearson, visit: http://www.pearsoned.com.
About Pearson
Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, has global reach and market-leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing (NYSE: PSO). Pearson helps people and institutions break through to improved outcomes by providing innovative print and digital education materials, including personalized learning products such as MyLab and Mastering, CourseConnect customizable online courseware, education services including custom publishing, content-independent platforms including the EQUELLA digital repository, and the Pearson LearningStudio online learning platform and OpenClass online learning environment.
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As a regular Learning Catalytics user, I'm wary about this move. The LC technical staff have been extremely responsive and supportive throughout the two semesters I"ve used this fantastic product, many times returning my emails within the hour with descriptive details to walk me through some particular problem I may be having or addressing a future feature that would be beneficial. They have also been very active about regularly rolling out new, beneficial features. I worry that this stellar level of customer support will disappear now that LC is part of a large corporation, the students may have to bear a bigger cost burden to use the tool, and also about the potential threat of locking this product down by requiring bundling with another Pearson product. Time will tell I suppose.