The six winners of the Tools Competition awards will receive funding to develop tools that leverage technology and learning engineering to improve equity and access to higher education.
Sacramento, Calif., July 25, 2024 – Calbright College, an online community college in California dedicated to improving equity and access in higher education, today announced the winners of the Learning Engineering Tools Competition’s Engaging Adult Learners in Higher Education Track. The winning teams, which come from higher education institutions and innovation hubs, will receive between $50,000 and $300,000 to support their work. Calbright served as a leading sponsor of the competition alongside Axim Collaborative, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and OpenAI, among others.
“Adult learners require an equitable education model with tools that can mold to their goals and needs, not the other way around,” said Calbright College President and CEO Ajita Talwalker Menon. “I’m thrilled to celebrate the winners of the Engaging Adult Learners in Higher Education track, who embody the innovation needed to drive educational and career outcomes for adult learners . Calbright looks forward to working with the winners to catalyze progress, including co-designing and implementing some of these innovations to support our diverse student body and the higher education community more broadly.”
Winners in the Engaging Adult Learners in Higher Education Track presented proposals that leverage technology and learning engineering to improve equity and access to higher education, particularly for adult learners from high-need demographics historically underserved by current education and workforce systems. The submitted proposals included tools for:
- Supporting self-directed learning and providing personalized learning supports.
- Enhancing community and belonging in online learning environments.
- Personalized guidance and career navigation.
“The Tools Competition winners provide great examples of how technology innovation addresses critical needs of institutions that serve the majority of students in the US today,” Axim Collaborative CEO Stephanie Khurana said. “I am excited to see the impact their work will have—helping more students realize their full potential at a time when access to quality education is more critical than ever.”
The Tools Competition aligns with one of Calbright’s founding goals, which is to be an incubator of research and development for higher education innovation. Calbright’s competency-based learning model is already filling gaps in California’s higher education system by providing adult learners with career advancement opportunities that are customizable to their needs. Sponsorship of the Tools Competition is just one way Calbright is executing on its mission to improve equity in higher education.
The Engaging Adult Learners in Higher Education Track received 340 applications, 81% of which were first-time applicants to the competition. Entrants were assessed during three rounds of review, and expert reviewers chose sixteen finalists. Each finalist pitched their proposals to a panel of judges made up of higher education leaders, and six winners were selected. Two winners will partner directly with Calbright and receive an extra Implementation and Impact prize.
The competition offered three award levels based on the development phase of the tools:
- Catalyst Phase Awards ($50,000): For early-stage ideas or products.
- Growth Phase Awards ($150,000): For tools with some users and scalability.
- Transform Phase Awards ($300,000): For established platforms with 10,000 or more users.
Growth and Transform level competitors could qualify for the Implementation and Impact Prize, offering an additional $100,000 to partner with Calbright for piloting, testing, and validating their tool at the college. Two winners were selected for the Implementation and Impact Prize and will implement their tools in Calbright’s student-centered and equity-focused environment.
Winners of the Tools Competition’s Engaging Adult Learners in Higher Education Track:
Personalized, Timely, Proactive Faculty Support of Online Students | Western Governors University
Catalyst Level – $50,000
- Western Governors University designed three machine learning models to provide faculty with individualized, proactive, and timely feedback on their students’ academic progress within each course.
The AI Guide | CampusEvolve
Growth Level – $150,000
- The AI Guide maps the entire array of a school’s supports to each student, at every stage of their learning journey.
OATutor-GenAI | University of California, Berkeley
Growth Level – $150,000
Implementation and Impact Prize Winner
- OATutor-GenAI is an open-source, adaptive tutoring tool—driven by generative AI research—capable of covering all lower-division college STEM subjects.
Unlocking Opportunity: Tools for Incarcerated Learners | Unlocked Labs
Growth Level – $150,000
- Unlocked Labs’ tool leverages AI to provide competency-based education for incarcerated learners—offering real-time data insights for administrators and researchers to enhance program effectiveness.
Experience Translator | Wingspans
Growth Level – $150,000
Implementation and Impact Prize Winner
- Wingspans is an inclusive career navigation platform that forges brighter futures through storytelling—empowering individuals to succeed in work that is better paid and more highly valued.
Career Coach | Mainstay
Transform Level – $300,000
- Career Coach is a human-centered, AI-enhanced guide empowering adult learners to achieve their career goals through personalized support.
About Calbright
Calbright College is a new kind of community college designed to support the needs and goals of adult learners. Established in 2018, Calbright is a statewide, online, and flexible California Community College that offers accessible and career-focused programs—based on in-demand skills from IT to CRM Platform Administration to Data Analysis. Calbright’s free and flexibly paced model, which utilizes competency-based education, works within the schedules of California’s working-age adults to provide the rigor of higher education without the logistical hurdles of a traditional institution.
