3 Lessons Learned From Education Technology Research

ASSISTments is featured in Hechinger Report article as a math software rising to the top of tools that show learning improvement. The article references a J-PAL study on the tool and the SRI-led Efficacy Study on ASSISTments.

“We had the guts to expose ourselves” to randomized control trials, said Neil Heffernan, the inventor of ASSISTments, and a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. The article goes on to state, "Heffernan’s business approach is unusual in the education technology industry. He financed the development of his software with federal funds and gives it away free to schools. Heffernan now has grants to test whether the Maine results can be replicated in North Carolina, and whether teachers can be trained online to use the system across the country, especially in more urban settings. But the results of these studies won’t be known for another four years, he said."

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