Whole Child Analytics Project
We are building AI-powered applications that recognize the experiences, skills and voice of learners. We then develop learner analytics that can be actionable by educators and institutions to support deeper learning experiences for students.
WCAP is a research project of the Design & Partnership Lab at the University of California, Irvine.
Current Partners and Funders
Platform Overview
WCAP is a platform that easily collects student reflections in real-time, short snippets. We then train our AI tools to recognize the deeper skills, experiences and perspectives that learners already possess, and then provide analytics to institutions and educators to help them provide educational experiences that build from learners’ strengths.
Students Reflect
Integrate our surveys and reflection tools into assignments or check-in activities. Students leave short, real-time reflections that take just a few minutes at the end of class or an assignment. We carefully design prompts that are mapped to key learning goals.
In the Anaheim Union High School District, we designed prompts to capture how students think about the district’s 5Cs: Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Character.
AI – Powered
Researchers at the UCI Design & Partnership Lab fine tune large language models to analyze student reflections and recognize each learner’s unique perspective on a skill or learning outcome. We draw upon theories from the learning sciences to design analysis engines that are built from research. We focus on capturing student’s skills across diverse cultures and backgrounds.
We use AI platforms that are hosted at the University of California, Irvine, and offer a high level of security and privacy protections.
Actionable Analytics
We partner with educational software and service providers to design school, teacher and student-facing applications that make our AI-powered analytics shine. There are many potential use cases of our assessment tool.
Our mission is to create learner profiles that effectively communicate each learners’ unique skills and experiences. Our profiles do not rank or compare students. Instead, we offer efficient and scalable ways to capture rich information about what makes each learner unique.
Our work is backed by years of expertise in the learning sciences, practical measurement, improvement science and learning analytics. Click the following links to see Dr. June Ahn and the Design & Partnership Lab‘s research.
Equity is at our core
We take a different approach to AI and Education. Equity to us, means amplifying the assets that students and teachers already have. So we create analytics that capture student voice. We develop AI tools that amplify teachers’ expertise, not replace them. And we focus on tools for systemic change across districts or universities.
See some of these ideas in action from Dr. June Ahn’s keynote at the 2024 National AI Deeper Learning Summit.