Science of Learning and Readiness: State-of-the-Art Report

Technology is rapidly transforming how people learn and how training is provided. For example, in higher education, there are estimated to be nearly 6.7 million students enrolled in online education courses (National Center for Education Statistics Fast Facts, 2018). The dynamic and high-stakes nature of education and training software demands that evidence-based practices and policies are relied upon to make decisions about technology adoption and implementation. The purpose of the Science of Learning and Readiness project (SoLaR) is to identify these practices. This State-of-the-Art Report (SoAR) is the first project deliverable and summarizes evidence-based practices and implementation within public, private, and academic sectors. The SoAR also includes specific guidance on metrics-based, most effective, at scale, and blended learning strategies within institutional systems, courseware, and pedagogical methods. Methodologically, this report emerges from a broadly scoped review process comprising over 200 formal database searches. The search strategy was inclusive of academic, military, and industry resources. SoLaR-SoAR consists of a review of the current state of the art for distributed learning environments. To further understand perceived importance and implementation of these practices, learning organizations representing public, private, and academic sectors were surveyed. A consistent discrepancy was observed: respondents reported that actual implementation of best practices fell short (i.e., ratings of implementation were significantly lower than ratings of perceived importance). This pattern was most striking within military organizations. The survey sample was small and thus limited in generalizability. Nonetheless, the consistently high perceived importance of best practices in the public sector--particularly the military--suggests a readiness for a transition to advanced distributed learning methodologies. The report is structured for use by multiple types of end users. The main report provides a 22-page, high-level overview of findings of the current state of the art. This section can serve as a quick reference. The report's Appendixes provide a detailed summary of the empirical literature on state-of-the-art distributed learning ecosystems. These materials enable "deeper dives" into learning organization, technology, and human pedagogy topics. [This report was written with contributing authors, Nancy J. Cooke, Deborah Prewitt, Siyuan Li, Laurie A. Morgan, Yancy V. M. Paredes, Robert F. Siegle, and Ashley Clark.]