Human systems engineering lab advances online learning research

August 7, 2020 (Last updated: April 17, 2024)

Identifying best practices for effective online learning has become especially significant in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But even before the coronavirus outbreak, the Arizona State University Advanced Distributed Learning, or ADL, Partnership Lab was busy evaluating methods to improve the functionality and effectiveness of learning in an unconventional setting.

The ASU ADL Partnership Lab, established in 2016 and housed at The Polytechnic School, one of the six Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, conducts most of its research to advance learning initiatives in the public sector. Led by the U.S. Department of Defense ADL Initiative, it is one of three academic partnerships based in the United States that are part of the ADL Global Partnership Initiative involving 17 U.S.-allied governments around the world.

The idea for the lab was formed after the Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense of Readiness decided to expand its Global ADL partnership initiative to include more learning science expertise and human system evaluation capabilities — skills considered essential to the mission to support military readiness.

“The ASU ADL partnership lab advocates reliance on evidence-based practices and policies to make decisions about technology adoption and implementation,” says Scotty Craig, human systems engineering associate professor and program chair and head of the ASU ADL Partnership Lab. “We actively seek to identify these practices by identifying other’s work and conducting our own research.”