Research & Resources | EXL LAB Flames

01. EXL LAB Research and Resources

Methods & Practices

Learning through experience is the most impactful and resilient form of learning by its introduction of real-world context and consequence into the process. Because the assessment instrument of traditional education measures (“tests”) the ability to “retain and repeat” information, experience-based learning is not prioritized.

Making thinking visible through visual ideation is organic and fundamental to our species: we think and process primarily in images, not words. Exploring an idea visually simultaneously sharpened our intellectual and critical thinking skills. Drawing while we learn allows us to capture a concept, image, event, or object and frees up cognitive space so that we can begin to think critically.

Making based Learning / Project Based Learning - “Learning by Doing” - stimulates exploration, discovery, imagination, and innovation skills as it generates a physical emotional and intellectual sense of accomplishment in the learner. Design Thinking offers a proven effective process system that is inclusive of the user in the development of the product.

Maps and Mapping are valuable organizing and prioritizing tools to visually represent the interconnection of ideas, objects, places, and people and make navigating these connections more understandable and accessible for the learner.

Digital Education

Students today are born digital; these see the internet and related devices as central and essential to all aspects of their lives, including their personal and professional identity. Devices are tools, to restrict or deny their use in learning environments obstructs access to the nearly infinite amount of information and knowledge they provide.

We see hybrid / connected learning as an essential part of the shared learning experience. Hybrid offers a spectrum of benefits, including the ability to connect groups of learners in different locations to work on the same project.

When the place of learning can be mobile, instructors, mentors and practitioners do not have to be in the room to provide and inspiring and motivating learning experiences that emulate the work environment that awaits students in the post academic world.

It is our responsibility to integrate connected learning technologies into the learning environment, responsibly and effectively. When this is accomplished, student agency and engagement is increased, as are the spectrum of inspiring learning experiences.

Assessment & Evaluation

We recognize the importance of SEL and Durable skills for continued learning, employment, and career success and that these skills are not prioritized or often taught nor assessed in traditional education. Instruments that measure and evaluate SEL/ Durable skills are more complex and require more participation from both the learner and evaluator. These tools do exist and are effective in representing the spectrum and degree of learner interests and competency and how that is expressed in his work products and team relationships.

Project based learning offers several instruments designed specifically for PBL: we also recognize the excellent, non-numerical assessment instrument created by the Mastery Transcript Consortium, now accepted by numerous major universities nationwide,

Assessment should be included as part of the process cycle of learning, not the final product / end of a learning experience. It should be driven by what is important in learning, not whether you “qualify” on the subject. We should view assessment as a collective and relationship-building process that happens in context (in classrooms, faculty meetings, etc.)

Formal and public recognition of learners and teamwork is an imperative part of the experiential learning process. Badges and credentials have been proven to be highly effective in activating “achievement points” motivation and adding valuable use case examples of student mastery.

We suggest a pivot in the assessment and evaluation system to one built on shared interests, shared work, and shared benefit. Students would work in teams at all levels of education, and it is the work and the product of those teams that is evaluated, not only by the teacher but by the students themselves. Each student on the team receives the same evaluation grade. This incentivizes the team to work together in collaboration and cooperation each member of the team must participate with a real sense of equity and inclusion in the process of learning, creating, and presenting.

This method not only builds capacity and mastery of the core elements of how and why we learn but also instigates and activates a sense of shared responsibility for effort and outcomes that is essential and have a functional and productive society.

AI Learning

Artificial intelligence - “AI”- is not new, it’s been part of society for over 20 years. What is new is public access to it, which is resulted in a tsunami of speculations about its presumed capacity dangerous to our business and creative life. This alarm has been raised many times before with each new technological advancement.

As several AI learning programs have demonstrated, this technology has significant and groundbreaking benefits for learners and its ability to give a highly personalized experience tailored to student interest, even as it is informed by a mentors method and practice.

Access and agency are emerging as critical elements for students learning experience. AI allows students access to a virtual mentor on demand that can guide and inform their learning experience in a manner that complements and enhances their academic work.

As this technology advances and assimilates at an increasingly accelerating pace, it is essential that we incorporate AI into the learning experience, a valuable tool that serves learners and reflects the world they live in. To do this, on boarding programs for both the professional, and the students that are easy to understand and navigate and are integrated into the academic program are essential.

Durable Skills

In higher education, and with employers, they are increasingly seeing a deficiency of durable skills ability to express what you believe, you have a coherence and collaborative conversation, to present and defend to work effectively and productively in groups. Some of this is due to the increasing academic pressure that institutions students are under and the consequence of social media.

As information management technologies continue to advance, and AI assimilation accelerates, these skills have become an acute necessity in the workplace. Those who have the skill set to build an intellectual, emotional, an empathetic bridge between an idea and an individual that engages them in a business or social opportunity are invaluable to today’s companies and organizations.

Achieving competence in durable skills allows learners to demonstrate their understanding of knowledge dynamically, visually, kinetically, and interpersonally. durable skills are the “secret sauce” that makes learning come alive.

As these skills move to the forefront of learning, professional development programs are needed that provide learning professionals with models, methods, and practices to inspire and build these skills in learners at all levels.

Relevant skills needed today

NACE – National Association of Colleges and Employers

Career & Self Development

Communication

Critical Thinking

Professionalism

Leadership

Teamwork

Technology

Equity & Inclusion

Future Skills – Bernard Marr

Digital & Data Literacy
Technical Skills
Digital Threat Awareness
Critical Thinking
Complex Decision Making
Emotional Intelligence & Empathy
Creativity
Collaboration and Working in Teams
Working in Gigs
Interpersonal Communication

Adaptability & Flexibility
Cultural Intelligence
Diversity Awareness
Ethical Awareness
Leadership Skills
Brand of “You” & Networking
Time Management
Curiosity & Continuous Learning
Embracing and Celebrating Change
Physical and Emotional Self-Management

Support and Guidance

It is well documented that the foremost reason teachers leave teaching is lack of professional support on all levels. These are mission driven individuals who have a passion and vocation to inspire and support youth on the path of lifetime learning.

It is also well known that the more adults that are in the learning space, the more engaged and motivated learners will be: nothing inspires young people like seeing adults learn them and from each other. Team teaching, team-based capstone projects and off-site exploratory learning experiences, are just a few examples of how professional support can keep good teachers doing what they do best.

Guidance counselors and student support personnel has been severely reduced in recent years, even as the emotional and career counseling need has become more acute. Emotional self-management is an essential skill for both teachers and students; both deserve to have easy access to the services that need. When this is provided, engagement in learning and academic achievement go up and anxiety, stress and social behavior conflicts go down.

High Impact Tutoring

Tutoring has long been the remediation of choice by parents and professionals to address learners’ gaps in academic performance. In execution however, studies show that practice factors including inconsistent sessions and different mentors for sessions, compromise the efficacy of the mentorship and can increase student anxiety in the process.

Recent work in high impact tutoring, in which these issues are comprehensively addressed by assigning one mentor per student, increasing the number of sessions per week and the learners’ access to the mentor dramatically increases efficacy in the short and long term, which can be significant. High impact tutoring builds powerful and lasting learning lifetime learning habits as well as self-confidence and emotional self-management.

By “supercharging” traditional mentoring programs by applying high impact methods, we can remove the mental and emotional obstacles that impede the embodiment of “How to Learn.”

Professional Development

The need and impact of professional development for learning professionals has never been greater or more essential to creating youth with a clear sense of identity, agency, and personal competencies. The acceleration of technologies and AI supercharged this necessity. These highly disruptive evolutions are her now and advancing at an unprecedented pace.

It is our responsibility to meet our youth in the world that live in - not the traditional academic bubble - and give them the tools and skills they need to survive and thrive in a brave new world. We act in service to them and their future; anything less is a betrayal of that sacred trust.

The professional development needed is multi -eveled and interconnected. We begin by including learning professionals and learners in our program development process: it is our responsibility to listen and learn before we develop, create, and implement. Instruction on how to use connected learning technologies and AI must be presented on a plain-speaking non-technical manner, ideally by other professionals who are already proficient in their use and who have successfully integrated it into their workflow.

One of the biggest benefits of new technologies is lifting the burden of mechanical work. If professionals will learn to “think different” about How they do what they do, the Why they do it will shine more brightly. Connected learning technologies, as well as AI, allows learning and the emotional and empathetic engagement of the process to be more personal and persistent. Therapists strongly resisted virtual sessions at first, only to find that patients were often far more comfortable and forthcoming in a digital vs personal context; and it is becoming the same experience for learners.

Service Learning

It is impossible to underestimate the personal and social benefits experienced through service learning. Giving selflessly to others with no expectation of return transforms and enriches your life in unpredictable and illuminating ways. Service learning is a path to self-understanding and your place and responsibility as a citizen of the world.

We believe community service in all forms should be a foundation ethos of all meaning learning: Sharing what you know with someone in need completes the cycle of Why we Learn.

Connecting learners to their communities builds identity and agency; service shows that your actions can indeed make a difference, that you and your team can solve problem; that you can meet a need in your community by applying your unique skills. Solving problems in the real world evolves knowledge into understanding by using what you know in service to others.

Pervasive feelings of isolation, helplessness and “it doesn’t matter” are paralyzing young people. Service soothes that emptiness and fills the emotional vacuum with proof through experience that you can indeed make a profound difference in another’s life, even as you inspire and transform your own.

Model Programs & Schools

In any learning activity, it is best to first explore in search of a Model that is relevant to your theme, problem, or objective. We do not seek to invent; we do strive to build on what works, understand Why it works, and innovate viable and sustainable program applications in specific areas of need. Existing successful programs serve as proof of concepts for our programs: we achieve validation by association. Professionals who are delivering successful programs are ur best mentors in creating our own. Again, our task is to listen, learn and be inspired so we too can transform the lives of young learners.

02. EXL LAB Digital Creative Centers Network (EXL-DCN)

EXL-DCN: Transforming Education with Technology and Collaboration

The EXL Lab Digital Creative Centers Network (EXL-DCN) is a signature initiative of the EXL Lab. This program responds to the acute challenge of the “Digital Divide” in schools in underserved communities. The digital divide is concerned not only with those who have insufficient access to technology, but also with those who lack the knowledge of how to use it and has a potential impact on children for the rest of their lives.

The 2021 USC Understanding America Study – an ongoing panel of 13,000 respondents representing the entire United States - found that 65% of American families wanted some form of remote learning for their children. Students from lower-income, marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by the digital divide and can often fall behind if they don’t have the digital tools to be able to complete internet-based homework assignments.

Informed by its institutional, corporate, and academic partners, the EXL DCN provides, installs, and activates a regional and national network of state of the art, virtual learning technology i.e., DTEN video conferencing systems, integrated ZOOM software, teacher training and unique experience / making-based programs in locations within partner schools in underserved, Title One communities in South and East Los Angeles.

The technological foundation of EXL-DCN is the USC ITS Learning Environments Digital Creative Lab (DCL) at USC’s Leavey Library. This USC location will virtually connect with other Cohort Labs on the West Coast (Ednovate Charter High Schools), East Coast (Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC) to deliver the programming.

While the focus of our programs is to expand this unique network of schools, which connects higher education institutions with high schools, we are guided by the following principles of our program design and delivery:

It's about people, not technology: If all students are to thrive, virtual learning experiences must be designed with relationships at the center. Educators must know their students’ opportunities, challenges, strengths, and weaknesses to properly engage students and guide their virtual learning.

Good instruction is good instruction, regardless of the modality: Good instruction is how students learn, whether virtually or in person. And good instruction and good teachers are the foundation of quality virtual learning.

A culture focused on the success of all students is non-negotiable: Knowing if a student

is thriving in a virtual experience is vital. Formative and benchmark assessments and even

end-of-year assessments—when combined with teacher/student relationships and commitment to regular monitoring of students’ progress and achievement provide data

that guides a student-success culture.

EXL-DCN will feature real-life application projects, including projects developed in collaboration with and informed by industry partners, and shared/cross-curricular opportunities. The projects that we will offer touch upon STEM disciplines, design and design thinking, and multidisciplinary projects that explore topics from various academic disciplines. Our primary goal is to use state of the art hybrid learning technology to create opportunities for underserved students to learn from working on real-life projects by applying their academic knowledge, and to build real time and virtual relationships and mentorships with undergraduate and graduate students from USC and FIT.

High school and middle school students will be facilitated through age-appropriate, themed design challenges and short-term multidisciplinary projects. We will provide professional training to high school teachers and students in the use of technology and in educating students in proactive, experiential learning methodology and program design. Undergraduate students will experience longer term design projects (i.e., “capstones” as appropriate to each institution), completed with graduate student and faculty mentors/advisors.

FIT Graduate students will work on professional sponsored design projects with industry leaders and faculty advisors. All the projects will be concluded with “reveal” events, with marketing and funding, as appropriate.

A Disruptive & Evolving Landscape

Businesses are increasingly prioritizing and seeking out employment candidates with SEL and durable skills competencies over informational knowledge, especially in interpersonal communication, teamwork and networking skills, critical thinking, problem solving, resilience flexibility & adaptability, technical and digital literacy, and ethical judgement. These qualities are not prioritized, more often not taught, in traditional education.

The ability to “learn and re-learn” and a demonstrable commitment to continuous learning is essential for career and personal success as is the ability to accept and embrace change, solve hard problems, embrace new ideas, to ask important and relevant questions and the importance of context and consequence.

Learning is not an outcome (“education”) nor is it defined by a specific place (“school”); it is a personal and universal process that evolves based on the richness, depth, diversity, and challenges presented by the experiences of the learner.

Traditional learning systems must evolve in response to the dramatic political, economic, and social realities of our time. Learners should be afforded more agency and social capital in their process, with a focus on case-based problem solving (ideally within the community), difference making and relevance and impact of their work product.

Teacher roles must evolve from conveyors of knowledge and managers of testing to mentors and guides in the learning process. To do so, they must receive the support they deserve from administrators and peers. Parental participation is more important than ever in similar roles with the same level of respect and support.

“Why do I have to learn this? … what am I supposed to do with this??” are constantly asked by learners in traditional education because of the increasing “gap” between academic work and real-life work environments. It is our responsibility to close this gap by making learning more reflective and relevant to the context and process of real life.

This disconnection between school and real life and the pressures of testing and social media are taking a severe toll on our youth. We are experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of loneliness, anxiety, and isolation at all levels of education. An authentic and sustained experience of Belonging within the learning community can produce significant personal, emotional, and academic benefits.

The Role of Technology

The growing accessibility and sophistication of educational technologies opens increasing possibilities for students to explore, share and create content. Access to learning technology is valuable; we will focus on delivering stat-of-the-art hybrid / distance learning technology to provide high-quality education the adoption of pedagogical practices that encourage student participation.

Technology can support ﬂipped classrooms through the following aﬀordances:

Capture content for students to access at their own convenience and to suit their pace of learning (e.g., lecture material, readings, interactive multimedia),
Curate content for students to gather their own resources.
Present learning materials in a variety of formats to suit diﬀerent learner styles and multimodal learning (e.g., text, videos, audio, multimedia),
Provide opportunities for discourse and interaction in and out of class (e.g. polling tools, discussion tools, content creation tools),
Convey Timely information, updates, and reminders for students (e.g microblogging, announcement tools),
Provide immediate and anonymous feedback for teachers and students (e.g., quizzes, polls) to signal revision points,
Capture data about students to analyze their progress and identify ‘at risk’ students (e.g., analytics).

Program Outcomes

Build technical capacity in participating network schools through state-of-the-art virtual / connected learning technology and systems that decreases the digital divide in low-income communities.
Advance the technical and digital literacy of students by the acquisition of critical skills in working with technology and applying these skills in engaging and presenting their ideas and projects to peers and teachers.
Show how “Process” is essential to learning and that thinking/knowing how to approach a challenge or problem can be more valuable than finding the answer.
Deliver Core Experiential Learning skills: Research, Curate, Communicate, Collaborate, Compose, Design, Present, Defend, Activate, and Evaluate their ideas.
Foster global thinking and community engagement: faculty-to-faculty, student-to-student, and industry-to- college
By building a community of high-school and undergraduate students, who will be engaged in real-life projects, we will expand the horizon of professional opportunities to students, and thus, support them in exploring more and different professional opportunities.

Why is EXL-DCN Different?

The unique partnership: The main beneficiaries of this program, the Ednovate charter schools, are in some of the most impoverished communities in greater Los Angeles. This program specifically targets the “digital divide” communities where support is most needed. Located at the heart of this community, USC is uniquely positioned to deeply engage with the Ednovate schools through technical support, programmatic development, mentorship provided by the USC undergraduate students, and the high-quality education it provides.
The addition of FIT to the EXL DCN network makes this program even more unique – as we contribute to reducing the “digital divide,” we are also building a national network allowing for academic and expressive exchange between students from diverse backgrounds from the East and West Coast.

The content of the programs: we are not limiting this program to the technology and training of teachers and students. We go a step further by developing programs with the dual goal of 1) providing high-school students with technical and digital education and access and 2) making them part of high-quality programs which aim to give them skills and real-life projects which will help them expand their horizon of opportunities, interface and work with undergraduates, become comfortable with STEM disciplines, and acquire essential durable skills such as project research and development, presentation, teamwork, etc.

The ability to scale the program: once we establish a programmatic portfolio and deliver strong online / hybrid experiential learning content to our students, we will expand the network to include more high schools from Los Angeles as well as schools local to FIT and other network schools.

This program will be the first phase of a larger network of schools, where high-school students acquire skills and are mentored by undergraduate and graduate students from LA and NY.

Program Benefits

Close the “Digital Divide” in schools in underserved communities:

Support students to access this technology at school and home (the Digital Divide) by providing skills that integrate learning experiences to build lifetime learning habits.
Provides the foundation of a national digital network of schools at HS, and college, nationally and that captures, shares, and enhances peer to peer learning experience.

Be a thought leader and activator in VL through informed use of technology on Project based, "making" contexts that prioritize communication, co-creation, and teamwork, best reflecting the actuality of the workplace.
Increase student sustained engagement, literacy communication and collaboration skills.
Demonstrate and innovative approach to DEI that gives student the creative, technical, and social emotional skills to succeed in their life choices.

Deliver student training and needed professional development for teachers.

Deliver access to education/teachers/professionals/peers regionally and nationally that is possible only through this technology, change the trajectory of their education and life.
Provide underserved students access to superb training, design challenges, and STEAM and IT training to support them in their career choices and orientation and skills acquisition.
Delivers specific professional, presentation, communication, and personal network opportunities, all of which will support their economic mobility, to expand their horizon of life opportunities.