Students, systems, and interactions: synthesizing the first four years of learning@scale and charting the future

We survey all four years of papers published so far at the Learning at Scale conference in order to reflect on the major research areas that have been investigated and to chart possible directions for future study. We classified all 69 full papers so far into three categories: Systems for Learning at Scale, Interactions with Sociotechnical Systems, and Understanding Online Students. Systems papers presented technologies that varied by how much they amplify human effort (e.g., one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many). Interaction papers studied both individual and group interactions with learning technologies. Finally, student-centric study papers focused on modeling knowledge and on promoting global access and equity. We conclude by charting future research directions related to topics such as going beyond the MOOC hype cycle, axes of scale for systems, more immersive course experiences, learning on mobile devices, diversity in student personas, students as co-creators, and fostering better social connections amongst students.