Dinner and discussion

Ted Mitchell, US Under-Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell is the under secretary of education. He has served in this post since his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on May 8, 2014, following his nomination by President Barack Obama on Oct. 31, 2013. Mitchell reports to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and oversees policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, adult, career and technical education, federal student aid, five White House Initiatives — Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Educational Excellence for Hispanics, Educational Excellence for African Americans, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and American Indian and Alaska Native Education— and the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

To spur education, economic growth, and social prosperity, Mitchell is charged with planning and policy responsibilities to implement President Obama's goal for the U.S. to have "the best educated, most competitive workforce in the world” as measured by the proportion of college graduates by the year 2020. Mitchell and his team are keenly focused on implementing President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative to improve college access, affordability, quality, and completion.

Mitchell is the former CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund and served as the president of the California State Board of Education. Through his long career in higher education, Mitchell has served as the president of Occidental College, vice chancellor and dean of the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and professor and chair of the Department of Education at Dartmouth College.

Mitchell received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, andPhD from Stanford University. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Christine, and their two children.
Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University Drew Gilpin Faust is the 28th President of Harvard University and the Lincoln Professor of History in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

As president of Harvard, Faust has expanded financial aid to improve access to Harvard College for students of all economic backgrounds and advocated for increased federal funding for scientific research. She has broadened the University’s international reach, raised the profile of the arts on campus, embraced sustainability, launched edX, the online learning partnership with MIT, and promoted collaboration across academic disciplines and administrative units as she guided the University through a period of significant financial challenges.

Faust previously served as founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2001-2007). Before coming to Radcliffe, she was the Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of six books, including Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (1996), for which she won the Francis Parkman Prize in 1997. Her latest book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (2008), which chronicles the impact of the Civil War’s enormous death toll on the lives of nineteenth-century Americans, was awarded the 2009 Bancroft Prize, the New-York Historical Society’s 2009 American History Book Prize, and recognized by The New York Times as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2008.” This Republic of Suffering is the basis for a 2012 Emmy-nominated episode of the PBS American Experience documentaries titled “Death and the Civil War,” directed by Ric Burns.
L. Rafael Reif, President, MIT L. Rafael Reif has served as MIT’s 17th President since July 2012. Having spearheaded the Institute’s latest experiments in online learning, MITx and (with Harvard University) edX, he has made their development a central focus of his presidency. In its first 30 months, edX engaged more than 3 million students from 196 countries. In September 2014, the Task Force on the Future of MIT Education published a pioneering report on the intersection of digital learning and residential education.

In keeping with MIT’s role as a wellspring of innovation, Reif was asked by the White House to co-chair the steering committee of the national Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP 2.0). In October 2013, to enhance MIT’s own innovation ecosystem and foster education, research, and policy, he launched the MIT Innovation Initiative, and in the spring of 2014, MIT began work on MIT.nano, a major new campus facility that will accelerate research and innovation at the nanoscale. In May 2014, Reif also launched an Environmental Solutions Initiative to drive progress toward solutions around environment, climate, and how to construct a sustainable human society. A major component of the initiative is the new Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Laboratory.

In his previous role as provost, Reif helped MIT weather the global financial crisis, launched the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science, and drove the growth of MIT’s global strategy. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the IEEE, and has been an MIT faculty member since 1980. A native of Venezuela, he received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University and is the inventor or co-inventor on 15 patents.

Discussion moderated by John HockenberryA three-time Peabody Award winner and four-time Emmy winner, John Hockenberry has more than two decades’ broad experience as a journalist and commentator. He is the anchor of the new public radio morning show The Takeaway on New York Public Radio (WNYC) and Public Radio International (PRI).

Hockenberry spent more than a decade with National Public Radio (NPR) as a general assignment reporter, Middle East correspondent, and host of several programs. He received the Columbia Dupont Award for Foreign News Coverage for reporting on the Gulf War. He later joined NBC as a correspondent for Dateline NBC, where his reporting earned him three Emmys, an Edward R. Murrow award, and a Casey Medal. In 2009, Hockenberry was appointed to the White House Fellows Commission by President Barack Obama, where he participates in the selection of the annual fellows for this most prestigious of federal programs.

Hockenberry is the author of A River Out Of Eden and Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence, a memoir of life as a foreign correspondent, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1996. He has also written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, I.D., Wired, The Columbia Journalism Review, Details, and The Washington Post. As a father of five children, including four of whom will be in college at the same time, Hockenberry has an abiding interest in conversations about disruption in higher education.

As the cost of education continues to rise, and as digital technologies continue to infuse teaching and learning models, higher education is at a crossroads. Under-Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, and MIT President L. Rafael Reif will discuss the impact digital technology is having on higher education and its potential to transform the college experience for generations of learners to come.

Welcome
Martin Schmidt, Provost, MITMartin Schmidt was appointed Provost of MIT in February 2014 after serving as Associate Provost since 2008. In January 2012, he assumed responsibilities for “all things industry” as the senior administrative officer responsible for MIT’s industrial interactions. He has played an active role as MIT’s faculty lead in the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a national effort bringing together the federal government, industry, universities, and other stakeholders to identify and invest in emerging technologies.

A faculty member in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science since 1988, Schmidt served as the director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories from 1999 to 2006. His teaching and research is in the areas of micro and nanofabrication of sensors, actuators and electronic devices, microelectromechanical systems, design of micromechanical sensors and actuators, and micro/nanofabrication technology. He is the co-author of more than 80 journal publications and 120 peer-reviewed conference proceedings. He is also an inventor on more than 30 issued US patents. More than 25 students have completed their PhD degrees under Schmidt’s supervision.

Schmidt’s research group has transferred a number of new technologies to industry and he has co-founded or has been the co-inventor of the core technology of six start-up companies. He received his BS from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and both his SM andPhD from MIT.

Opening remarks
Peter K. Bol, Vice Provost for Advances in Learning and Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University Peter K. Bol is Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (VPAL) and the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Through the VPAL office, Bol has budgetary oversight of HarvardX, the Harvard Initiative in Learning and Teaching, and HarvardX research and research collaborations to advance the science of learning. With input from the VPAL Advisory Committee, he works across the university to develop policies and best practices for online and blended learning and to foster closer university-wide collaboration. As the founding director of the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, Bol has long been interested in how technology can be used to advance learning and teaching in all fields. With his colleague William Kirby, he also teaches the HarvardX course ChinaX, one of the most ambitious and comprehensive MOOCs ever produced, with content spanning 15 months. He has taught on-campus versions of the course in both traditional and blended formats for several decades. Bol’s research is centered on the history of China’s cultural elites at the national and local levels from the 7th to the 17th century.
W. Eric L. Grimson, Chancellor for Academic Advancement and Bernard Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering, MIT W. Eric L. Grimson, the Bernard M. Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, is the Chancellor for Academic Advancement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reporting directly to President Reif, Grimson is a central advisor on strategy for MIT’s capital campaign.

A member of the MIT faculty since 1984, Grimson previously served as chancellor of MIT and has also served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is internationally recognized for his research in computer vision, especially in applications in medical image analysis.

Grimson has been actively engaged with students throughout his career. For 30 years he has taught introductory subjects in computer science and its applications. He jointly created 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, an MITx online MOOC. In all, Grimson has taught 11,000 MIT undergraduates and served as the thesis supervisor to 50 MIT PhDs.

Grimson is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Association for Computing Machinery, and holds a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from Dalhousie University.

Plenary Session 1: Impact of Online Innovations on Residential Education

Will online methods change the residential experience? How will online methods enhance learning, impact the use of learning and living spaces, alter the classroom experience, change the interactions between faculty and students, and affect other aspects of a residential experience?

Moderated by Catherine Koshland, Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education and the Wood-Calvert Professor in Engineering, University of California, BerkeleyCatherine Koshland is the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Wood-Calvert Professor in Engineering. She is a professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health and a professor in the Energy and Resources Group. Professor Koshland graduated with a BA in fine arts from Haverford College, studied painting at the New York School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, and received her MS in 1978 and her PhD in 1985 in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She was a former member of the Haverford College Board of Managers from 1994 - 2014 and served as board co-chair from 2005 - 2009 and chair from 2009 to 2014.

Among Vice Chancellor Koshland’s responsibilities are major operating units including University Extension; Summer Sessions, Study Abroad and Lifelong Learning; the Student Learning Center, the Athletic Study Center, The Center for Teaching and Learning, and Educational Technology Services, American Cultures, and Berkeley Connect. Her office has responsibility for several strategic academic initiatives as well as providing support to faculty development in teaching and learning. In addition, her office advises on enrollment planning and management, and serves as a liaison for academic units with many campus administrative offices. She co-chairs the Undergraduate Initiative with chancellor Nicholas Dirks.

Panelists

• Kimberly Wright Cassidy, President, Bryn Mawr CollegeKimberly Wright Cassidy became Bryn Mawr College’s ninth President in February 2014, having served as interim president from July 2013 to February 2014 and provost from 2007 to 2013. Prior to her appointment as provost, Cassidy was chair of the college’s Department of Psychology. During her tenure as provost and interim president, she was instrumental in leading a number of important initiatives, including the development of the college’s new interdisciplinary 360° courses and the advancement of digital initiatives within the classroom. Cassidy has led a program, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, piloting the use of blended learning in a liberal arts setting. Through this program, Bryn Mawr faculty have developed more than 20 courses across the curriculum that use the blended approach.
  
  Cassidy believes strongly in the important role academic partnerships play for small liberal arts colleges. She was instrumental in the college securing a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to establish its first-ever partnership with two area community colleges. The grant supports outstanding students from those schools who transfer to Bryn Mawr to finish their undergraduate degrees.
  
  Cassidy earned a BA in psychology from Swarthmore College and both her MA andPhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
• Thomas L. Magnanti, President, Singapore University of Technology and Design; Institute Professor, MITThomas Magnanti is the founding President of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Institute Professor and former Dean of the School of Engineering at MIT. He has devoted much of his professional career to education at the interface of engineering and management and to teaching and research in applied and theoretical aspects of large-scale optimization. His university administrative activities have focused on education of technically-grounded leaders, industrial and international partnerships, research in emerging technical domains, technology-based entrepreneurship and design, and diversity. He had also been the president of three professional societies and the editor of a major journal in his field.
  
  Magnanti has led several centers and programs at MIT including the Leaders for Manufacturing Program, the System Design and Management Program, and, as founding director, the Singapore–MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).
  
  Magnanti has received numerous educational and research awards, including four honorary degrees. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Magnanti holds a BS in chemical engineering from Syracuse University, as well as an MS in statistics, an MS in mathematics, and aPhD in operations research from Stanford University.
• John Mitchell, Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning; Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor, School of Engineering; Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University John Mitchell has been Vice Provost at Stanford University since 2012, first as Vice Provost for Online Learning and now in a broader role of Teaching and Learning. Over the past two years, his team has worked with approximately 200 instructors on 400 projects, including on-campus teaching innovation, online courses for public and selected audiences, and improvement of repeated course offerings. As co-director of the Lytics Lab, he is working to improve educational outcomes through data-driven research and iterative design. Mitchell is the Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor in the School of Engineering, professor of computer science, and (by courtesy) professor of electrical engineering and of education. His past research has focused on computer security, developing analysis methods and improving network protocol security, authorization and access control, web security, and privacy. Mitchell’s first research project in online learning started in 2009, when he and six undergraduate students built Stanford CourseWare, an innovative platform that expanded to support interactive video and discussion. CourseWare served as the foundation for initial flipped classroom experiments at Stanford and helped inspire the first massive open online courses (MOOCs) from Stanford. He received his BS from Stanford and his SM and PhD from MIT.
• Martha Pollack, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of MichiganMartha E. Pollack is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan, where she is also professor of information in the School of Information, and professor of computer science and engineering in the College of Engineering. Prior to becoming provost, Pollack served the University of Michigan in other roles, including vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs and dean of the School of Information. Her research has focused on artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on the design of intelligent technology to assist people with cognitive impairment. She has served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, as president of AAAI, as a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering Division, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association. Pollack earned her MSE and PhD degrees in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania.
• Sanjay Sarma, Dean of Digital Learning and Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MITSanjay Sarma is the Fred Fort Flowers (1941) and Daniel Fort Flowers (1941) Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the first Dean of Digital Learning at MIT. Before that he was director of MIT’s collaboration with Singapore, which lead to the establishment of the Singapore University of Design and Technology. Sarma co-founded the Auto-ID Center at MIT and developed many of the key technologies behind the EPC suite of RFID standards now used worldwide. He was also the the founder and CTO of OATSystems, which Checkpoint Systems acquired in 2008. He serves on the boards of several companies including GS1US, Senaya, and ESSESS. Sarma received his bachelor's from the Indian Institute of Technology, his master's from Carnegie Mellon University, and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He has authored over 75 academic papers in computational geometry, sensing, RFID, automation, and CAD, and is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and research. He advises several national governments and global companies.

Breakout session 1

Topic 1: Global Access to Education
Approaches to providing global access to educational experiences, especially in degree-granting settings
Moderator: Anthony C. Masi, Provost, McGill University Anthony C. Masi is in his second five-year term as Provost of McGill University. After completing his PhD in sociology-demography at Brown University, he began his career at McGill as a professor of sociology whose research focuses on the labor force, industrialization, and statistical analysis and computer applications in social science. Masi has taught courses on population and society, the sociology of the labor force, and quantitative methods in social research. His innovative course syllabi and early use of web and internet tools were included in several editions of the American Sociological Association’s teaching resource materials. At McGill, Masi also served as founding director of the Faculty of Arts’ Computer Services, Vice-Principal (Information Systems and Technology), and Deputy Provost and Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Masi was McGill’s signatory on a major Canada Foundation for Innovation infrastructure project that led to the establishment of campus-based research data centers for accessing Statistics Canada survey information. Currently, he is a member of the Canadian National Statistics Council and serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of Italy’s National Research Council. In 2012, he was designated as a Cavaliere in the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, and in 2013 was named one of the recipients of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

• Robert Fastenau, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science; Dean of the Extension School, Delft University of Technology Robert Fastenau is Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science at Delft University of Technology, a position he’s held since 2011. In 2014, he became Dean of the TU Delft Extension School. Fastenau has almost 30 years of experience in both research and management in high tech industry. He most recently served as executive vice president of marketing and technology with FEI Company, the global market leader in electron microscopes. During his career he has also been involved with the Netherlands Centre for Nanoscopy (NeCEN), the Dutch High Tech Systems Platform, the strategic innovation program’s Point-One, and the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine. Fastenau holds MS and PhD degrees in technical physics from Delft University.
• Charles L. Isbell, Jr., Senior Associate Dean and Professor, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology Charles Lee Isbell, Jr., is a Professor and the Senior Associate Dean for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. He spent four years at AT&T Labs/Research before joining the faculty at Georgia Tech. Isbell’s recent research includes the building of autonomous agents that engage in life-long learning when in the presence of thousands of other intelligent agents, including humans. Lately Isbell has turned his energies toward adaptive modeling, especially activity discovery (as distinct from activity recognition); scalable coordination; and development environments that support the rapid prototyping of adaptive agents. As a result, he has begun developing adaptive programming languages, focusing on software engineering issues and trying to understand what it means to bring machine learning tools to non-expert authors, designers, and developers. He also pursues reform in computing education. Isbell was a developer of Threads, Georgia Tech’s structuring principle for computing curricula, and one of the key developers in Georgia Tech’s new MOOC-supported Masters of Science in Computer Science, the first of its kind in the world. He received his BS in computer science from Georgia Tech and his PhD in computer science from MIT.
• George Siemens, Executive Director of the Learning and Networked Knowledge Research Lab, University of Texas, Arlington George Siemens researches technology, networks, analytics, and openness in education. He is the Executive Director of the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Research Lab at the University of Texas, Arlington, and is cross-appointed with the Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University. He has delivered keynote addresses in more than 35 countries on the influence of technology and media on education, organizations, and society. His work has been profiled in provincial, national, and international newspapers, radio, and television. His research has received numerous awards, including honorary doctorates from Universidad de San Martín de Porres and Fraser Valley University for his pioneering work in learning, technology, and networks.

Topic 2: Sharing Best Practices in Blended Learning
How has blended learning catalyzed delivery of educational experiences in residential settings?
Moderator: Anka Mulder, Vice President for Education and Operations, Delft University of TechnologyAnka Mulder is the Vice President for Education and Operations at TU Delft and a fervent advocate of open education. From 2004–2013, she was TU Delft’s director of Education and Student Affairs, a position she eventually combined with the role of Secretary of the Executive Board. Mulder became a member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium’s board of directors in 2008. She served as the Consortium’s president between 2011 and 2013, making her the first person from outside the United States to do so. Mulder is also a member of the edX University Advisory Board and of the Comité d’orientation stratégique of the University of Sorbonne. She studied history at the University of Groningen, where she later lectured in international relations. Before joining TU Delft, Mulder was department head at the Dutch Institute for public administration and European policy advisor in Brussels and Vienna.

• Ani Adhikari, Teaching Professor, Statistics, University of California, Berkeley Ani Adhikari, Teaching Professor of Statistics at UC Berkeley, has received the Distinguished Teaching Award at Berkeley and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford University. While her research interests are centered on applications of statistics in the natural sciences, her primary focus has always been on teaching and mentoring students. She teaches courses at all levels and has a particular affinity for teaching statistics to students who have little mathematical preparation. She received her undergraduate degree from the Indian Statistical Institute and her PhD in Statistics from UC Berkeley.
• Mark Guzdial, Professor, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology Mark Guzdial is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a member of the GVU Center (formerly the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center). He received his PhD in education and computer science (a joint degree) at the University of Michigan. He is the inventor of the Media Computation approach to learning introductory computing, which uses contextualized computing education to attract and retain students. Guzdial is a lead on the National Science Foundation-sponsored alliance to help states broaden and improve computing education, Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP). He is fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and also an ACM Distinguished Educator.
• Robert A. Lue, Faculty Director, HarvardX; Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning; Professor of the Practice of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard UniversityRobert A. Lue is a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, where he is responsible for fostering innovative teaching in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and elevating its profile on campus. Lue serves as the director of Life Sciences Education at Harvard, where he led a complete redesign of the introductory curriculum that created some of the largest and most popular science courses on campus. As the faculty director of the Harvard–Allston Education Portal, Lue oversees the integration of undergraduate education with community outreach on Harvard’s Allston campus. In 2012, he became the faculty director of HarvardX; in this role he helps shape the university’s engagement in online learning in a way that reinforces its commitment to teaching excellence and works to expand its reach and impact globally. Lue earned his PhD in biology from Harvard and has taught undergraduate courses since 1988, garnering recognition as one of Harvard's foremost leaders in undergraduate education.

Topic 3: Translating Learning Research into Practice
Using research on learning and online methods to improve educational delivery both in residential settings and online. What can learning science tell us about how to deliver online or blended educational experiences? How does online delivery influence traditional in-classroom experiences?
Moderator: Andrew Ho, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education Andrew Ho is Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Chair of the HarvardX Research Committee. He is a psychometrician who studies test-based educational accountability metrics, particularly those that indicate and incentivize proficiency, growth, college readiness, and value added. He also chairs the HarvardX Research Committee, which oversees research in Harvard University's open online courses. His recent projects have described bias in proficiency-based trends, developed robust achievement gap measures, and clarified the outcomes of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). He holds his MS in statistics and his PhD in educational psychology from Stanford University.

• Justin Reich, Richard L. Menschel HarvardX Research Fellow, Harvard University Justin Reich is the Richard L. Menschel HarvardX Research Fellow, based in the Office of the President and Provost at Harvard University, where he explores the possibilities and limits of open online learning. He is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, a visiting lecturer in MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education program, and a lecturer in the Technology Innovation and Education program at the Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Reich earned his doctorate from Harvard University, where he led the Distributed Collaborative Learning Communities project, a Hewlett Foundation-funded initiative to examine how social media are used in K–12 classrooms. His research on large scale online courses has been published in Science, the Journal of Learning Analytics, EDUCAUSE Review Online, and in proceedings from Learning @ Scale and Learning Analytics and Knowledge. The HarvardX Working Papers are available at harvardx.harvard.edu/research
• Bror Saxberg, Chief Learning Officer, Kaplan, Inc.Bror Saxberg is responsible for the research and development of innovative learning strategies, technologies, and products across Kaplan's full range of educational services offerings. He also oversees future developments and adoptions of innovative learning technologies and maintains consistent academic standards for Kaplan's products and courses.
  
  Prior to Kaplan, Saxberg served as senior vice president and chief learning officer at K12, Inc., where he was responsible for designing both online and off-line learning environments and developing new student products and services. Prior to joining K12, Inc., he was vice president at Knowledge Universe, where he co-founded the testing and assessment division that became known as Knowledge Testing Enterprise (KTE). Saxberg began his career at McKinsey & Company, Inc., and later served as vice president and general manager for London-based DK Multimedia, part of DK Publishing, an education and reference publisher.
  
  Saxberg holds a BA in mathematics and a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Washington. As a Rhodes Scholar, he received an MA in mathematics from Oxford University. He also received aPhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and an MD from Harvard Medical School.

Breakout session 2

Topic 1: Certification
Challenges in certifying online performance
Moderator: Robert A. Lue, Faculty Director, HarvardX; Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning; Professor of the Practice of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard UniversityRobert A. Lue is a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, where he is responsible for fostering innovative teaching in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and elevating its profile on campus. Lue serves as the director of Life Sciences Education at Harvard, where he led a complete redesign of the introductory curriculum that created some of the largest and most popular science courses on campus. As the faculty director of the Harvard–Allston Education Portal, Lue oversees the integration of undergraduate education with community outreach on Harvard’s Allston campus. In 2012, he became the faculty director of HarvardX; in this role he helps shape the university’s engagement in online learning in a way that reinforces its commitment to teaching excellence and works to expand its reach and impact globally. Lue earned his PhD in biology from Harvard and has taught undergraduate courses since 1988, garnering recognition as one of Harvard's foremost leaders in undergraduate education.

• Anant Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, edX Anant Agarwal is the CEO of edX, an online learning destination founded by Harvard and MIT. Agarwal taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, which drew 155,000 students from 162 countries. He has served as the director of CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He is a successful serial entrepreneur, having co-founded several companies including Tilera Corporation, which created the Tile multicore processor, and Virtual Machine Works.
  
  Agarwal won the Maurice Wilkes prize for computer architecture and MIT's Smullin and Jamieson prizes for teaching. He holds a Guinness World Record for the largest microphone array and is an author of the textbook Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits.
  
  In 2011, Scientific American included his work on organic computing on its list of 10 World-Changing Ideas, and he was named in Forbes' list of top 15 education innovators in 2012. Agarwal is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. Agarwal holds a PhD from Stanford and a bachelor's from IIT Madras.
  
  Agarwal 's twitter handle is @agarwaledu.
• Rovy Branon, Vice Provost, University of Washington Educational Outreach Rovy Branon is the vice provost for University of Washington Educational Outreach. In this role, he oversees all UW Professional and Continuing Education programs and staff. Previously, Branon was the associate dean for online learning and the executive director of the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Madison. Prior to his work in higher education, he led an instructional design team at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. He has more than 20 years of instructional media and learning technology development experience in corporate, higher education, and not-for-profit settings. He earned both his BA and MA at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and received his PhD in instructional systems technology at Indiana University Bloomington.
• Connor Diemand-Yauman, Manager of Business Development and Strategic Partnership, Coursera Connor Diemand-Yauman is a manager of business development and strategic partnerships at Coursera, a social entrepreneurship company that works with top universities to connect people worldwide with the best free education. He oversees Coursera's corporate partnerships and strategic initiatives focused on driving value to Coursera's learners and university partners. Before coming to Coursera, he was the show runner and lead actor in Speak Smart News, a children's educational program in Southeast Asia, as well as a primary school teacher in Randfontein, South Africa and Seoul, South Korea. Diemand-Yauman's academic research focuses on using cognitive disfluency to improve learning in classrooms. His published work has been cited in over 80 academic articles and featured in The Economist and The New York Times and on BBC International and CNN. He is also the founder of Own What You Think, a national campaign focused on bringing accountability into the way we interact and behave online. Diemand-Yauman's awards include the Cognition and Learning Prize from the Cognitive Science Society and the Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest distinction conferred on a student at Princeton University. He is a member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.

Topic 2: Learner Perspectives
How do students perceive the benefits and challenges of blended learning settings? Of online offerings? How can their experiences guide future innovations in digital learning experiences?
Moderator: Cynthia Barnhart, Chancellor and Ford Professor of Engineering, MIT Cynthia Barnhart, a professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been Chancellor at MIT since February 2014. She has overarching responsibility for graduate and undergraduate education and student life. Barnhart served as associate dean of the School of Engineering since 2007 and as acting dean of engineering from 2010 to 2011. Her research interests include mathematical programming models and large-scale optimization approaches for transportation and logistics systems and service network design and operations planning for scheduled transportation systems. Barnhart’s teaching interests have focused on the development and application of optimization models and algorithms to the design, management, and operation of transportation systems. Two of her most recently taught subjects are aviation operations research and transportation systems analysis.

Barnhart is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She has served at MIT as co-director of the Operations Research Center, as co-director of the Center for Transportation and Logistics, and as director of Transportation@MIT. She earned her SM and PhD degrees from MIT.

• Khriseten Bellows Literature Teacher, Lexington High SchoolKhriseten Bellows is a National Board Certified teacher of English, with extensive experience as an educator in urban, suburban, and international school systems. For the past eight years she has been teaching English Literature at Lexington High School in Lexington, Massachusetts, where she regularly integrates online and multi-media-focused learning in her classroom. She is also a "Learning Differences Coach" in a MOOC dedicated to expanding our knowledge of ways people learn. In collaborating with Professor Lisa New and a selected group of teachers in the American Poetry EdX courses at Harvard University, she has helped to make American poetry--its practice, traditions, and rich history--more accessible and relevant to the members of her school community. Cody Coleman, Research Assistant, MITx Cody Coleman is a recent graduate from MIT, where he completed his SB and MEng in electrical engineering and computer science. During his MEng, he worked with the MIT Office of Digital Learning to explore student behavior and subpopulations in MITx and HarvardX courses to better accommodate the large and diverse populations these courses attract. Coleman’s interest in digital learning stems from the transformational impact education has had on his life. With firsthand experience in both residential and online digital learning settings, he aims to leverage these technologies to shrink the digital divide and close the achievement gap. His research has been published in EDUCAUSE Review Online and in proceedings from Learning @ Scale. He plans to continue researching in this area for his PhD. Ahaan Rungta, Founder, Online Science Olympiads Ahaan Rungta is a homeschooled student in eleventh grade who resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and uses online learning as his primary tool to learn a variety of subjects, including mathematics, history, economics, entrepreneurship, engineering, and the sciences. He spends most of his time online participating in MOOCs, such as those offered on edX, both as a learner and a community teaching assistant (TA). The revolutionary MOOCs also inspired him to found the Online Science Olympiads (OSO) non-profit organization, a global science contest initiative for people of all ages around the globe. The widespread acknowledgement of the OSOs eventually led to the concept of taking global learning to the physical scale with CalcBee, a contest akin to the spirit of the OSOs that Rungta currently directs. He is also a mathematics researcher at the MIT-PRIMES program, where he studies Markov processes and the motion of cells in porous media. In this endeavor, Rungta uses relies on subject matter knowledge he gained from studying and participating in online mathematics, physics, and computer science courses.  Topic 3: Spaces and Places How do online methods change the use of classrooms and other learning and living spaces? Moderator: Erin Driver-Linn, Director, Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching; Associate Provost for Institutional Research, Harvard University As Director of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, Erin Driver-Linn facilitates experimentation in innovative pedagogies and educational research and forges collaborative networks among Harvard faculty, students, administrators, and teaching and learning experts within and beyond the University. She works closely with the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning and others in the Office of the President and Provost, as well as leadership across school lines, to catalyze innovation and excellence in both residential and distance education. As Associate Provost for Institutional Research, Driver-Linn directs Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research in producing internal and external data reports and research projects that inform University decision-making. Before joining the Office of Institutional Research in 2008, she was Associate Director for Research at the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and taught in the Harvard Department of Psychology, where she received herPhD in experimental social psychology. Kenneth I. Fisher, Studio Director and Principal, Gensler Kenneth I. Fisher is the director of Gensler’s Boston architecture studio focused on higher education. In this capacity, he has led the creation of forward-thinking learning environments that recognize the breadth of pedagogical philosophies and the evolution of today’s college student. Fisher has spoken on the national and regional levels before the Society of College and University Planners. He is a member of the Boston Society of Architects, co-chair for the Committee for the Advancement of Sustainability, and a past subcommittee chair for the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Zero Net Energy Building Task Force and Roundtable on Sustainability. Fisher holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics and received his Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon. In 2014, he was elected into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. David Kuntz, Chief Research Officer, Knewton David Kuntz currently leads future-oriented research efforts at Knewton, focusing on better understanding and modeling student learning in personalized contexts at macro-scale. For five years prior, as Vice President of Research & Adaptive Learning at Knewton, he led the development of all of Knewton's core adaptive models and psychometric infrastructure. Before coming to Knewton, he held senior positions at Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC). Among other inventions, he created the first efficient automated test assembly algorithm and system for the LSAT, the first web-based test delivery and item-banking system, and the first large-scale web-based portfolio scoring and management system. He has been awarded five assessment-related patents. Kuntz holds a BA in philosophy from Brown, an MA in philosophy from Rutgers, and an MBA/MSE from Wharton and the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Karen Willcox, Professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Co-director, Center for Computational Engineering, MITKaren Willcox is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics in the Aerospace Computational Design Laboratory at MIT, as well as Co-director of the MIT Center for Computational Engineering. Willcox co-chaired President Reif’s Institute-Wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education, initiated in April 2013, with Sanjay Sarma, director of digital learning, and Israel Ruiz, executive vice president and treasurer. She holds a bachelor of engineering degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and master’s and PhD degrees from MIT. Before joining the MIT faculty, Willcox was a member of the Blended-Wing-Body aircraft design group at Boeing Phantom Works. Her research and teaching interests lie in computational simulation and optimization of engineering systems.

Breakout session 3

Topic 1: Building Community
How does one build a sense of community in an online setting? How does one handle the challenges of scale of online offerings in ensuring a sense of community for participants?
Moderator: Ralph Napolitano, Director, Online Learning Innovation Hub; Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State UniversityRalph Napolitano is currently the Director of the Online Learning Innovation Hub at Iowa State University, a unit that is actively engaged in promoting innovative technology-enabled instructional approaches to online and blended learning through faculty development, curriculum design, and research. He has several years of experience in teaching online and is also the Associate Director for Online Education in the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. He serves as a campus lead in online education development, including online programs, quality of online instruction, flipped/hybrid courses, multi-institutional collaborative programs, adaptive/personalized learning initiatives, massive open online courses, and other areas of online education. As a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, he focuses his research on understanding the dynamic processes of morphological evolution during solid-liquid phase transformations in metallic alloys. Napolitano earned his BS in materials science from the University of Florida, his MS in metallurgical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his PhD in metallurgy, also from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

• Huntington D. Lambert, Dean, Division of Continuing Education and University Extension, Harvard University Huntington D. Lambert is Dean of the Division of Continuing Education and University Extension at Harvard University. The Division serves 25,000 students annually and includes Harvard Extension School, Harvard Summer School, study abroad programs, Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, Harvard Professional Development Programs, and the Crimson Summer Academy.
  
  Previously, Mr. Lambert served as Associate Provost of OnlinePlus at Colorado State University (CSU), was a founder ofCSU Global Campus, Associate Vice President of Economic Development, Director of the Entrepreneurship Center, and a member of the faculty at the Business School. During his business career, he was part of 25 startups and helped another 15 startups at CSU.
• Carolyn Rosé, Associate Professor, Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science Carolyn Rosé is an associate professor of language technologies and human-computer interaction in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research program is focused on improved understanding of the social and pragmatic nature of conversation and in using this understanding to build computational systems that can better the efficacy of conversation between two or more people and also between people and computers. Rosé serves on the executive committee of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center and is the co-leader of its Social and Communicative Factors of Learning research thrust. She is also president-elect of the International Society of the Learning Sciences and associate editor of the International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. Rosé earned her BS from the University of California, Irvine, and both her MS and PhD from Carnegie Mellon.
• Anne Trumbore, Director of Wharton Online Learning Initiatives, Innovation Group, Wharton School at the University of PennsylvaniaAnne Trumbore leads Wharton’s online learning initiatives. Since 2004, she has taught in, and designed curricula for, online environments at Stanford, where she developed innovative interactive teaching techniques. In directing the design and implementation of online courses at NovoEd, and previously at Coursera, Trumbore guided top universities into emerging forms of online teaching. She has designed dozens of fully online MOOCs as well as blended classes that amplify student interaction to create meaningful learning experiences that encourage students to persist to completion. She analyzes and reports on data regarding learning in online and blended environments and conducts research to identify effective teaching practices. Her recent publications include articles on strategies for online engagement and the history of technology-mediated interactive learning. She holds an AB from Brown University and an MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University.

Topic 2: The Role of Game-Based Learning
How can elements of game playing and game design enhance learning? How do such methods influence the design of online educational experiences?
Moderator: Eric Klopfer, Professor of Science Education and Engineering Systems and of Urban Studies and Planning; Director, Scheller Teacher Education Program and the Education Arcade, MITEric Klopfer is a professor and the director of the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program, as well as director of the Education Arcade. His research focuses on the development and use of computer games and simulations for building understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Using both mobile and web-delivered platforms, the games are designed to build understanding of scientific practices and concepts as well as critical knowledge. In the realm of simulations, Klopfer's work focuses on students understanding complex systems and connecting computer programming with scientific practice, critical thinking, and real-world issues. He is the co-author of the books Adventures in Modeling and The More We Know, and author of Augmented Learning. Klopfer is also the co-founder and past President of the non-profit Learning Games Network (www.learninggamesnetwork.org). Klopfer earned his BS in biology from Cornell and his PhD in zoology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

• Barry Fishman, Professor of Learning Technologies, School of Information and School of Education, University of Michigan Barry Fishman is a professor of learning technologies in the University of Michigan School of Information and School of Education. His research focuses on video games as models for learning environments; teacher learning and the role of technology in supporting teacher learning; and the development of usable, scalable, and sustainable learning innovations through design-based implementation research (DBIR), which he helped establish. He is the creator of GradeCraft, a game-inspired learning management system, and is the principal investigator of the A-GAMES project. Fishman currently serves as the Associate Steward for Teaching and Learning on the Information Technology Council at the University of Michigan. He was co-author of the Obama Administration’s 2010 US National Educational Technology Plan, and served as associate editor of The Journal of the Learning Sciences from 2005 to 2012. He received his AB from Brown University, his MS in instructional systems technology from Indiana University, and his PhD in learning sciences from Northwestern University.
• Dave McCool, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Technology Officer, MuzzyLane Software Dave McCool is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Technology Officer of Muzzy Lane, a leader in the growing field of game-based learning. Prior to Muzzy Lane, he co-founded successful technology startups Shiva Corporation and Aptis Communications. Shiva went public in 1993, and Aptis was acquired by Nortel Networks in 1998. McCool started Muzzy Lane in 2002 to revolutionize educational content, bringing the benefits of “learn by doing” to the curriculum. Drawing on his technology background, he built Muzzy Lane to deliver innovative learning in a scalable and cost-effective way. Muzzy Lane is now a global leader in the development and delivery of engaging, interactive curriculum in the K-20 market, working with partners including McGraw-Hill Education, National Geographic, Pearson, Cengage Learning, and other innovate learning companies. Dave graduated from MIT in 1987 with a Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.
• Zoran Popovic, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director, Game Science, University of WashingtonZoran Popovic is a Director of the Center for Game Science at University of Washington and founder of Enlearn. Trained as a computer scientist, he is a researcher who focuses on creating interactive engaging environments for learning and scientific discovery. His laboratory created Foldit, a biochemistry game that produced three Nature publications in just two years, and award-winning math learning games played by over five million learners worldwide. He currently focuses on engaging methods that can rapidly develop experts in arbitrary domains with particular focus on revolutionizing K-12 math education. His Algebra Challenges, conducted in Washington, Minnesota, and Norway, have shown that 96% of children--even in elementary school--can learn key algebra concepts in 1.5 hours. He recently founded Enlearn to apply his work on generative adaptation to any curricula and toward the goal of achieving full mastery by 95% of students in any environment. His contributions to the field of interactive computer graphics have been recognized with a number of awards including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGGRAPH Significant New Researcher Award.

Topic 3: Analytics
What do we know about online learners? What do we need to know? What and how are students learning? What is our evidence for that learning, and what do we hope to do with that knowledge?
Moderator: Roland T. Chin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost; Chair Professor of Computer Science, The University of Hong KongRonald T. Chin joined the University of Hong Kong in 2010. Prior to HKU, he was Provost and Vice-President for Research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Chin earned his BS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and was Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research is in the areas of computer vision,  image processing, and pattern recognition. Chin’s work has been recognized with the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award and with appointments to serve on the editorial boards of journals including the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, and Pattern Recognition. Chin’s research has been supported by funding bodies in Hong Kong and the US, including NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Research Grants Council, and Innovation Technology Funds. Chin is active in public service and participates on numerous committees and boards.

• Isaac Chuang, Senior Associate Dean of Digital Learning and Professor, Department of Physics, MITIsaac Chuang is Senior Associate Dean of Digital Learning at MIT. He is also a professor of physics and of electrical engineering and computer science. His research focuses on quantum information and quantum computation. Chuang leads the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Research Traineeship (NSF IGERT) on Interdisciplinary Quantum Information Science and Engineering at MIT. As the senior associate dean of digital learning and a core developer of the edX platform, he is deeply involved in developing new methods for teaching and learning. Chuang received his PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he was a Hertz Foundation Fellow. He is also a fellow of the American Physics Society. Chuang holds two bachelor’s degrees and one master’s degree in physics and electrical engineering from MIT and was a post-doctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author, together with Michael Nielsen, of the textbook Quantum Computation and Quantum Information.
• Candace Thille, Associate Professor of Education, Stanford Graduate School of Education; Senior Research Fellow, Office of the Vice Provost for Online Learning Candace Thille is an assistant professor of education at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and Senior Research Fellow for the Office of the Vice Provost for Online Learning. She is the founding director of the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University and at Stanford University. Thille serves on the board of directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities; as a fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education; on the Assessment 2020 Task Force of the American Board of Internal Medicine; on the advisory committee for the Association of American Universities STEM initiative; and on the advisory council for the NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources. She served on on the working group of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) that produced the Engage to Excel report. She served on the US Department of Education working group, co-authoring The 2010 National Education Technology Plan, and is currently serving on the working group to co-author The 2015 National Education Technology Plan. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Breakout session 4

Topic 1: Pre-college (K-12) Preparation
How can online methods be used to impact K-12 education? Can online offerings be used for blended experiences in these settings? Are online offerings better suited to "teaching the teachers" than to delivering education directly to younger learners?
Moderator: Sanjay Sarma, Dean of Digital Learning and Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MIT Sanjay Sarma is the Fred Fort Flowers (1941) and Daniel Fort Flowers (1941) Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the first Dean of Digital Learning at MIT. Before that he was director of MIT’s collaboration with Singapore, which lead to the establishment of the Singapore University of Design and Technology. Sarma co-founded the Auto-ID Center at MIT and developed many of the key technologies behind the EPC suite of RFID standards now used worldwide. He was also the the founder and CTO of OATSystems, which Checkpoint Systems acquired in 2008. He serves on the boards of several companies including GS1US, Senaya, and ESSESS. Sarma received his bachelor's from the Indian Institute of Technology, his master's from Carnegie Mellon University, and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He has authored over 75 academic papers in computational geometry, sensing, RFID, automation, and CAD, and is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and research. He advises several national governments and global companies.

• Kenneth Klau, Director of Digital Learning, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Kenneth Klau is the Director of Digital Learning for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Klau is responsible for developing a strategy for rethinking the structure and delivery of learning, building a more student-centered system of public education, and creating the next generation of K–12 learning environments. He brings more than a decade of experience at the state level in accountability system design and instructional improvement at scale. Prior to coming to the department, Klau worked in the private sector as director of operations for a small start-up educational publishing company and served as manager of curriculum development for a comprehensive educational reform organization that served predominantly urban elementary and middle school students in ten states.
  
  He earned undergraduate degrees in history and secondary education from the University of Vermont and Trinity College of Vermont, respectively, and a masters degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.Klau is a 2014 recipient of the Manuel Carballo Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service.
• Gay Krause, Executive Director, Krause Center for Communication, Foothill Community CollegeGay Krause founded the Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) in September 2000. She was responsible for developing and implementing the initial vision to serve K-14 educators in professional development activities. She also led the effort to restore the former Space Science Museum into a fully equipped technology facility to serve K-14 educators, Foothill students, and the community. The KCI is available for professional development activities 24/7 both in-house and online throughout the state of California.
  
  Prior to July 1998, Krause was a principal of both elementary and middle schools in the MountainView Whisman School District. She served as teacher, middle school counselor, assistant principal, and principal for 10 years. Krause received her BS degree from The Pennsylvania State University in education and special education, her MS degree from the University of Virginia in counseling psychology, and administrative credentials in administrative leadership from San Jose State University and San Francisco University.
• Pegeen Wright, Director of Digital Learning, WGBH Pegeen Wright is Director of Digital Learning at WGBH in Boston. She is an experienced strategic planner, software developer, and project manager who translates what’s new in emerging technologies, learning, and curriculum research into what works in the K-12 classroom and the marketplace. She has a longstanding commitment to making learning accessible to students with special needs and draws on over 25 years of experience in the educational publishing industry. Wright has held senior positions in digital product development and K-12 business development at Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic, and CAST. She holds a BA in Psychology from Rutgers University, where she received certification as a teacher of the handicapped, and holds an MA in technology in education from Teachers College, Columbia University

Topic 2: Improving Engagement
What are the ways in which learners become engaged and with whom? What does this imply for the design of online and blended educational experiences?
Moderator: Anne Margulies, University Chief Information Officer, Harvard University Anne Margulies is Vice President and University Chief Information Officer at Harvard, where she is responsible for information technology strategy, policies, and services that support the university’s mission of teaching, learning, and research. Margulies leads Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT), which provides IT services to 30,000 educators, students, and staff. Before returning to Harvard—she had been assistant provost and executive director for information systems in the late 1990s—Margulies was assistant secretary for information technology and CIO for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Prior to her service with the Commonwealth, she was founding executive director of MIT OpenCourseWare. Additionally, Margulies was the founding chair of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, an international organization comprising 300 universities around the world working together to share educational materials. She was also instrumental in the early formation of edX, a joint venture with MIT to expand access to education through open, online courses. Margulies has been recognized many times for her IT leadership accomplishments, including being a named as a finalist for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s CIO of the Year Award in 2009.

• Christopher Brooks, Research Fellow and Research Investigator, University of Michigan School of Information Christopher Brooks is a research fellow in the University of Michigan School of Information’s USE Lab, where he applies computational techniques to better understand the hundreds of thousands of learners who have participated in MOOCs. He is particularly interested in how learning analytics can be applied to human computer interaction through educational data mining, machine learning, and information visualization. Prior to coming to Michigan, Brooks was a software lead and one of the founding members on the board of directors on the Mellon- and Hewlett-funded Opencast Matterhorn open source lecture capture project. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD in computer science at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
• William W. Fisher, WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Harvard Law School Since 1984, William W. Fisher has taught at Harvard Law School, where he is currently the WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law. Between 2002 and 2014, he was the Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He teaches CopyrightX, Harvard Law School’s first online course. Between 1982 and 1984, Fisher served as a law clerk to Judge Harry T. Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and then to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. His academic honors include a Danforth Postbaccalaureate Fellowship (1978–1982) and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California (1992–1993). Fisher received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College and his graduate degrees (JD and PhD in the History of American Civilization) from Harvard University.
• Karen Symms Gallagher, Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean, University of Southern California Rossier School of EducationSince becoming Dean in 2000, Karen Symms Gallagher has focused the USC Rossier School of Education on its mission to improve learning in urban education locally, nationally, and globally. The School’s highly innovative graduate programs prepare students to be change agents as teachers, school leaders, and scholars. Under Gallagher’s leadership, Rossier launched its groundbreaking online Master of Arts in Teaching degree in 2009, which has graduated nearly 2000 highly prepared teachers since then. The school also pioneered the practitioner-focused education doctorate, the EdD, that is now a national model. Gallagher’s team then launched its Global Executive EdD program in 2012 to prepare senior education executives from around the world for the challenges of the 21st century. In Los Angeles, she and her faculty have partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on a variety of field-based initiatives—the most exciting of which is USC Hybrid High School, which provides a technology-rich, personalized, and rigorous college preparatory education to students who have been traditionally underserved by the public education system. As a 2013 Pahara-Aspen Fellow, Gallagher became the first school of education dean to be honored. She was the recipient of the Los Angeles Urban League's Social Responsibility Award and has been twice honored by the USC Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International, the premiere international association for educators.

Topic 3: Curricular Innovation
New approaches to curriculum design through online learning experiences and tools
Moderator: John Mitchell,Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning; Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor, School of Engineering; Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University John Mitchell has been Vice Provost at Stanford University since 2012, first as Vice Provost for Online Learning and now in a broader role of Teaching and Learning. Over the past two years, his team has worked with approximately 200 instructors on 400 projects, including on-campus teaching innovation, online courses for public and selected audiences, and improvement of repeated course offerings. As co-director of the Lytics Lab, he is working to improve educational outcomes through data-driven research and iterative design. Mitchell is the Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor in the School of Engineering, professor of computer science, and (by courtesy) professor of electrical engineering and of education. His past research has focused on computer security, developing analysis methods and improving network protocol security, authorization and access control, web security, and privacy. Mitchell’s first research project in online learning started in 2009, when he and six undergraduate students built Stanford CourseWare, an innovative platform that expanded to support interactive video and discussion. CourseWare served as the foundation for initial flipped classroom experiments at Stanford and helped inspire the first massive open online courses (MOOCs) from Stanford. He received his BS from Stanford and his SM and PhD from MIT.

• Christine Alvarado, Associate Teaching Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego Christine Alvarado joined the UC San Diego faculty in 2012. Prior to coming to UC San Diego, she was a tenured associate professor at Harvey Mudd College. She received her undergraduate degree in computer science from Dartmouth College and both her and SM and PhD in computer science from MIT. Alvarado works to develop new curriculum and programs for computer science education that engage a wider audience, particularly women. Her work is funded by several grants from the National Science Foundation including a CAREER award in 2005. She served on the College Board's commission to design the new Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles, and recently served as a co-chair of the NCWIT Academic Alliance. In 2013 she received the A. Richard Newton Educator ABIE Award from the Anita Borg Institute for her contributions to diversity in computer science education.
• Sanjoy Mahajan, Associate Professor of Applied Science and Engineering, Olin College of Engineering Sanjoy Mahajan is an associate professor of applied science and engineering at Olin College of Engineering. Mahajan earned a BA in mathematics from Oxford, a BS in physics from Stanford, and a PhD in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology. He credits his teachers for his interest in improving science teaching, an interest he pursued as a postdoctoral researcher and faculty member in the Physics Department at the University of Cambridge and as a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Mahajan helped start the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Cape Town, South Africa, where he taught the first courses in physics and computer science and served as the first curriculum director. There he wrote the (free) software to automate the barcoding and cataloguing of the Institute library’s 5,000 donated books.
  
  AT MIT, he was associate director of the Teaching and Learning Laboratory and taught inthe mathematics, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering departments. He is the author of Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving (MIT Press, 2010) and The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity (MIT Press, 2014), called "one of the best science books of all time, for people who want ahas in life."
• Sally Mapstone, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) and Professor of Older Scots Literature, University of Oxford Since 2011, Sally Mapstone has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Oxford, having previously served as Pro-Vice Chancellor (Personnel & Equality). In her current role, she is responsible for the University¹s strategy and policies for teaching, learning, student support, and admissions. She is also Professor of Older Scots Literature in the Faculty of English and a fellow of St Hilda's College. Her research is in Older Scots literature, dealing primarily with literature in Scots and in Latin, with political literature, and with book history. She is Honorary President of the Scottish Text Society, an honorary fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, and a fellow of the English Association. Professor Mapstone also serves on the steering group of Pro-rectors for Teaching and Learning in the League of European Research Universities, and was the lead author on LERU's recent advice paper on online learning at research-intensive universities.

Plenary Session 2: Sustainability and Financial Models in an Online/Residential World
How will online learning affect the cost of a college education? What models are being pursued both for residential and distance learners?
Moderated by W. Eric L. Grimson,Chancellor for Academic Advancement and Bernard Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering, MIT W. Eric L. Grimson, the Bernard M. Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, is the Chancellor for Academic Advancement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reporting directly to President Reif, Grimson is a central advisor on strategy for MIT’s capital campaign.

A member of the MIT faculty since 1984, Grimson previously served as chancellor of MIT and has also served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is internationally recognized for his research in computer vision, especially in applications in medical image analysis.

Grimson has been actively engaged with students throughout his career. For 30 years he has taught introductory subjects in computer science and its applications. He jointly created 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, an MITx online MOOC. In all, Grimson has taught 11,000 MIT undergraduates and served as the thesis supervisor to 50 MIT PhDs.

Grimson is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Association for Computing Machinery, and holds a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from Dalhousie University.

Panelists

• John Baker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Desire2LearnJohn Baker founded Desire2Learn (D2L) in 1999, at the age of 22, while attending the University of Waterloo as a Systems Design Engineering student.
  
  A strong believer in community involvement, Baker devotes both his personal and business efforts to supporting young entrepreneurs who are developing and applying technology to improve society worldwide. A four-time recipient of the Deloitte Technology Fast50 award in consecutive years (2006-2009), he was named the Waterloo Region’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008 and received the University of Waterloo Young Alumni Achievement Medal in 2010.
  
  In February 2013, Baker was appointed to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). As a prominent voice for both education and technology, he serves as chairman of the board at Communitech and sits on the board for the National Ballet School (in Canada). Additionally, he is an affinity board member for Memorial University and a University of Waterloo Alumni Council member.
  
  Baker graduated from the University of Waterloo withan honors BASc in systems design engineering, with first class honors and an option in management sciences.
• Peter K. Bol, Vice Provost for Advances in Learning and Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard UniversityPeter K. Bol is Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (VPAL) and the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Through the VPAL office, Bol has budgetary oversight of HarvardX, the Harvard Initiative in Learning and Teaching, and HarvardX research and research collaborations to advance the science of learning. With input from the VPAL Advisory Committee, he works across the university to develop policies and best practices for online and blended learning and to foster closer university-wide collaboration. As the founding director of the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, Bol has long been interested in how technology can be used to advance learning and teaching in all fields. With his colleague William Kirby, he also teaches the HarvardX course ChinaX, one of the most ambitious and comprehensive MOOCs ever produced, with content spanning 15 months. He has taught on-campus versions of the course in both traditional and blended formats for several decades. Bol’s research is centered on the history of China’s cultural elites at the national and local levels from the 7th to the 17th century.
• Wendy Cebula, President and Chief Operating Officer, edXWendy Cebula is President and Chief Operating Officer at edX, managing the nonprofit’s day-to-day operations and positioning it for accelerated growth. She is best known for her 13-year tenure at Vistaprint, a leading online provider of professional marketing products and services to micro businesses and the home, where she recently served as chief operating officer and helped grow and scale the company from $1 million to more than $1 billion in revenue globally. She is a member of the board of directors for ResearchNow and also serves on the board of directors of the Commonwealth Institute, a nonprofit founded to help women-led businesses become and stay successful. Cebula received her BS in international finance from Rochester Institute of Technology.
• Harrison Keller, Vice Provost for Higher Education Policy and Research and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning/Continuing and Innovative Education, University of Texas, AustinHarrison Keller is Vice Provost for Higher Education Policy and Research and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning/Continuing and Innovative Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to UT Austin, Keller served as director of research for the Texas House of Representatives and senior education policy analyst for the speaker of the Texas House. He is an appointed board member of the Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board that oversees the state college savings plans, has worked with Texas state leaders to develop and pass major education budget and policy proposals, including the Texas Tuition Promise Fund 529 college savings plan and college readiness provisions of House Bill 3 (81st Legislature, Regular Session).
  
  Keller frequently works with policymakers, foundations, and national policy organizations on issues regarding public and higher education and is a state advisor to Lumina Foundation’s higher education productivity initiative. His research interests include education policy and finance, moral philosophy, and democratic deliberation. He has taught at Georgetown University, St. Edward’s University, and the University of Texas at Austin. Keller holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with honors from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree andPhD from Georgetown University.
   

Closing remarks

W. Eric L. Grimson, Chancellor for Academic Advancement and Bernard Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering, MIT W. Eric L. Grimson, the Bernard M. Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, is the Chancellor for Academic Advancement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reporting directly to President Reif, Grimson is a central advisor on strategy for MIT’s capital campaign.

A member of the MIT faculty since 1984, Grimson previously served as chancellor of MIT and has also served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is internationally recognized for his research in computer vision, especially in applications in medical image analysis.

Grimson has been actively engaged with students throughout his career. For 30 years he has taught introductory subjects in computer science and its applications. He jointly created 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, an MITx online MOOC. In all, Grimson has taught 11,000 MIT undergraduates and served as the thesis supervisor to 50 MIT PhDs.

Grimson is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Association for Computing Machinery, and holds a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from Dalhousie University.

Alan M. Garber, Provost, Harvard University; Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical SchoolAlan M. Garber is Provost of Harvard University and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, with professorships in the Department of Economics, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Garber earned an AB, AM, andPhD in economics from Harvard, and an MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine. He returned to Cambridge in 2011 after a distinguished 25-year career at Stanford, where he had been most recently the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor and a professor of Medicine, as well as a professor of Economics, Health Research and Policy, and Economics in the Graduate School of Business (by courtesy). He directed the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research in the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Center for Health Policy at Stanford, and served as a staff physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

Garber is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and an elected fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians. He is a member of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy of the National Academies, and has advised government agencies, including service as a member of the Panel of Health Advisers for the Congressional Budget Office, and chairing the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee.