The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is a grant-funded group at Carnegie Mellon University, offering innovative online courses to anyone who wants to learn or teach. Their aim is to create high-quality courses and contribute original research to improve learning and transform higher education.

They combine leading research in cognitive and learning science with state-of-the-art technology to create courses that enact instruction. These courses incorporate practice and assessment throughout and represent current best practices. Openly and freely available their courses empower independent learners and support instructors to improve effectiveness in traditional classrooms. By rigorously capturing and evaluating learner data, OLI creates powerful feedback loops that assist learners and educators, improve courses and contribute their larger understanding of how humans learn.

Key Goals
 

• Support better learning and instruction with high-quality, scientifically-based, classroom-tested online courses and materials. Their courses are designed based on learning science research and, in turn, contribute to that research.
   
• Share their courses and materials openly and freely so that anyone can learn. Their courses are often used by colleges and universities to support classroom instruction, but they are designed to support the individual learner who does not have the benefit of an instructor.
   
• Develop a community of use, research, and development to allow for the continuous evaluation, improvement, and growth of courses and course materials. OLI is active in the Open Educational Resources community. They attend and present at related conferences, publish their research findings, and collaborate with many like-minded organizations, in addition to actively working with educators from a variety of institutions to develop new courses.

 

Who Benefits from OLI Courses?

Their courses provide a number of features that benefit students, instructors, and academic institutions.

Students

• Immediate feedback helps students assess their own learning and study effectively.
• All courses are free to independent learners and most are free to academic students.
• Secure log-in allows students to easily return to where they last left off in their course.

 

Educators

• Course materials are based on leading-edge research.
• Educators get timely, targeted feedback about their students’ progress; and automatic grading.
• Educators may join course evaluation studies, projects, and development teams.

 

Academic Institutions

• Their platform can benefit all types and sizes of institutions.
• Using data on student performance, OLI can improve educational outcomes and completion rates.
• Institutions that work with OLI build relationships with leading-edge research groups, organizations, and partners.