PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 12, 2023 / — Today, Lumen Learning, the leading provider of higher education teaching and learning materials focused on improving student outcomes and removing race and income as predictors of student success, announced the launch of Lumen One, the first courseware built with a focus on equity to come to market. The announcement further solidifies Lumen’s leading presence as an innovative leader in supporting minority and underserved students in higher education and further champions the company’s partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to progress Lumen’s work in breaking barriers in education.

Using innovative machine learning and learning science, Lumen One builds on Lumen’s existing product suite, including its nationally recognized Waymaker and OHM programs. Lumen One takes the best of both Waymaker – OER combined with personalized learning tools, and OHM – a platform created by teachers to help students master quantitative skills, and combines the two for a best-in-class courseware with a distinct focus on helping all students succeed.

“The launch of Lumen One comes at a time when we’re seeing changing demographics among today’s college population where 56% of students are first-generation,” said Kim Thanos, co-founder and CEO of Lumen Learning. “Now more than ever, it is critical that we create courseware that meets the needs of all learners, many of whom are still experiencing challenging circumstances in the wake of the pandemic.”

By bridging the gap between equity and technology innovation at scale, Lumen One meaningfully moves the needle for historically underserved populations. The courseware offers a solution for administrators who are looking to cultivate a culture of belonging as well as decrease DFW rates and improve grades in specific course areas. Lumen One was piloted at 12 institutions across the country during the Spring 2023 semester by students and faculty.

“It’s hard to find courseware designed with equity in mind. Most products are either too expensive or not accessible enough for all students,” said Jeanette Koskinas, Chief Product Officer at Lumen Learning. “Students often feel lost and unsupported when trying to learn the material. It can be extremely difficult for educators to balance teaching course content and helping all their students. Lumen One is designed to level the playing field. The product’s content is developed specifically to help students see examples that are highly relevant to them, which is proven to drive better success and outcomes.”

For educators using Lumen One, they will not only have access to powerful tools that create an inclusive learning environment for everyone, but the platform is designed to make it easier for all students to feel supported and increase student engagement, retention, and persistence. From the moment the courseware is accessed, Lumen One provides the necessary resources, cutting-edge tools, and guidance to give students an optimal experience.

Last year, Lumen was awarded a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support its work in creating and implementing new courseware for Introduction to Statistics that focuses specifically on eliminating race and income as predictors of success for students. Lumen was chosen for the prestigious grant because of its long history of being a changemaker in the education industry. Since its founding, Lumen Learning has set industry benchmarks through its commitment to eliminating race and income as establishers of success through their products and services.

Lumen One is available for Introductory Statistics, Quantitative Reasoning (also called Liberal Arts Math), Introduction to Business, and Introduction to Psychology. For more details about Lumen One and receiving a demo, visit Lumen’s website here.

Inspired by the Lumen name, the new brand identity demonstrates the powerful and unique connections Lumen enables educators to make with their students to inspire learning and achieve individual goals.

The Lumen light wave, captured in both the logo and through a gradient design system, is the foundation of our new graphic language. Based on the visible light spectrum, it features solid wavelengths that intersect to create “points of connection.” These points represent the connection between educators and their students throughout their educational journey and the speed of learning that Lumen makes possible.

This concept of connected brilliance will be featured in our new brand guidelines for brand identity, look and feel as well as tone and messaging.

“While we are thrilled to launch Lumen’s refreshed brand, our core mission is not changing,” said David Wiley, Ph.D., cofounder and Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning. “We will always believe that every student – regardless of income, race, or any other characteristic – should be cared for and empowered to learn. And we will continue designing technology that puts people first and fosters the relationships that inspire learning.”

We’re excited to share our new brand with you and look forward to connecting.

• Bunker Hill Community College
• Northern Essex Community College
• Roxbury Community College
• Springfield Technical Community College
• Fitchburg State University
• Framingham State University
• Salem State University

The cost of courseware represents a very real obstacle for many students. This grant enables faculty at these institutions to select course materials for adoption immediately, whether for a complete course as a primary learning source or specific modules that can serve as supplemental learning materials to provide extra practice in areas critical to students’ success. This can include areas where students often struggle the most, like grammar and writing skills, or building study skills and life skills. Lumen’s course catalog is available here: lumenlearning.com/courses

For faculty who teach classes that have already started this semester, this grant offers a chance to experiment with the materials before deciding to use them in subsequent semesters.

“Many faculty choose open textbooks in order to improve textbook affordability, but do so at the cost of resources that are critical for teaching and learning – things like automatically graded practice with immediate feedback for students and dashboards that help faculty identify struggling students in real-time,” said Dr. David Wiley, Chief Academic Officer and co-founder of Lumen Learning. “With Lumen’s courseware, faculty can choose OER that are integrated with all the additional resources they need to teach successfully so their students can learn successfully.”

“This program is a great opportunity and increases the choices of teaching & learning materials for faculty and students at the selected institutions. We hope it encourages faculty to try teaching and learning materials that increase student affordability, provide them day-one access, and can meet the faculty member’s disciplinary and course-specific needs without worrying about the cost to students,” says Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

For faculty and staff who are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact the Lumen team at lumen-mass@lumenlearning.com or visit https://info.lumenlearning.com/digital-pilot-ma

Portland, Oregon / January 26, 2023 – Lumen Learning, a leading provider of higher education teaching and learning materials focused on improving student outcomes and removing race and income as predictors of student success, today announced a collaboration with Digital Promise to provide independent implementation and efficacy research for Lumen’s new Introduction to Statistics courseware. The courseware is designed for a critical gateway course with the highest dropout and failure rates among underserved and minority students. 

Digital Promise is a global nonprofit organization that shapes the future of learning and advances equitable education systems by bringing together solutions across research, practice, and technology. Its initiatives have impacted over 4.4 million students and 180,000 teachers across 173 districts and in 27 countries to date.

With funding from a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Digital Promise will be studying the implementation and efficacy of the new introductory statistics courseware developed by Lumen. Researchers will investigate teaching practices, student experiences, and student outcomes in introductory statistics classrooms using a combination of classroom observations, instructor questionnaires, student interviews and surveys, a statistics concepts assessment, and course grade data. Digital Promise’s analyses will highlight course experiences and outcomes specifically for Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, and low-income students. Lumen will simultaneously conduct its own internal research to contribute to the company’s ongoing goal of improving the courseware experience for both students and faculty. 

Digital Promise’s first data collection in statistics classes not using Lumen’s courseware began earlier this academic year. Implementation research in classrooms using the new courseware commenced this spring, 2023. Current research partners include SUNY Empire State College, Tompkins Cortland Community College, SUNY Old Westbury and Onondaga Community College with the intention to expand to additional institutions in the fall of 2023.

“Mathematics has been a challenge for our students, and our faculty is very interested in new technology and pedagogy that will help us increase success in our courses,” said Sophia Georgiakaki, mathematics professor at Tompkins Cortland Community College and lead of the college’s introductory statistics course redesign. “Our mathematics department in its entirety is committed to investigating ways that we can make a difference in students’ experience with mathematics at the college level.”

In April, Lumen was awarded a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support its work in creating and implementing new courseware for Introduction to Statistics that focuses specifically on eliminating race and income as predictors of success for students. Lumen’s collaboration with Digital Promise complements Lumen’s courseware development grant by generating insights into how different instructor practices that occur outside of the courseware influence student engagement and learning within the courseware. The Digital Promise research will help Lumen identify where to focus the continuous improvement of its platform and content to best meet student and faculty needs over time. Lumen and Digital Promise are working closely together in an emerging collaborative design process that supports monitoring and tweaking as research is delivered.

Digital Promise will launch a large-scale randomized controlled trial in Fall 2024 to evaluate the impact of implementing Lumen’s Introduction to Statistics courseware with a set of supports to help faculty employ the teaching practices found to maximize the courseware’s effectiveness. The research aims to have a direct impact on how faculty adopt and teach, how students learn, and how institutions support educators in improving outcomes in gateway courses. 

“Collaborating with Digital Promise will allow us to assess student experience and outcomes in our Introduction to Statistics courseware with incredible rigor,” says David Wiley, Ph.D., co-founder and chief teaching and learning officer of Lumen Learning. “Digital Promise has unparalleled expertise in delivering insightful research results, ultimately enabling us to look at teaching practices in different ways to create equitable success for students.” 

Lumen has been on a mission to gain and use valuable insights to support the development of its Introduction to Statistics courseware and new platform. The company has established on-campus user student testing centers at Rockland Community College in New York and Santa Ana College in California to work directly with its target student demographic. Lumen has partnered with Howard University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Assessment (CETLA) faculty and staff who provide guidance and direction, and The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) to scale its courseware. Lumen also partnered with InScribe to integrate a digital community platform into its courseware to create spaces for students to find solutions, ask questions, and collaborate to better understand the content.

If you are a college statistics instructor who would like to learn more, or get involved in Digital Promise’s research cohort, check out the project website here.

About Lumen Learning

Since 2012, Lumen Learning has partnered with colleges and universities to support teaching and learning innovation with a focus on improving affordability, access, and student success.

Lumen Waymaker and OHM digital courseware provide evidence-based learning design and data-driven content improvements to increase learning and student engagement using open educational resources (OER).

Lumen Circles provide faculty professional development to build skills and advance teaching practices. Grounded in research about how to increase learning and student success and delivered through peer-based virtual learning groups, Lumen Circles provide a supportive setting for faculty to expand their capabilities for teaching in dynamic educational environments.

Over 500 institutions across the U.S. are using Lumen-supported digital courseware for in-person, online, and blended courses. Materials created by Lumen are published under Creative Commons Attribution licenses and contributed back to the education community. Learn more at lumenlearning.com, and visit our course catalog at lumenlearning.com/courses.

About Digital Promise

Digital Promise is a nonprofit organization that builds powerful networks and takes on grand challenges by working at the intersection of researchers, entrepreneurs, and educators. Our vision is that all people, at every stage of their lives, have access to learning experiences that help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and continuously learn in an ever-changing world. For more information, visit the Digital Promise website and follow @digitalpromise for updates.

Press Contact:

RF|Binder

Jill Metzger

Phone: 212-994-7542

Email: jill.metzger@rfbinder.com  

The award was granted to recognize the 20+ RCC faculty members who completed the Belonging and Inclusive Teaching Fundamentals Fellowship, a professional development course offered through RCC’s Provost Faculty Scholars and  Lumen Learning’s Circles fellowship program that helps educators create inclusive learning environments and prioritize student voices. Over the course of nine weeks, Rockland educators collaborated virtually with other faculty peers to enhance their teaching practices with an increased focus on diversity and inclusion. 

The course had an overwhelmingly positive response from participating faculty members. For Peter Marino, lecturer of psychology at RCC, the fellowship directly impacted his approach to building inclusivity and community in the classroom. Marino highlights several strategies he implemented in his teaching practices, including assigning readings from diverse sources and voices and giving students space to consider and discuss their own identities in relation to course material. 

“I can say with confidence that my students benefited from greater personalization and caring provided by the brave and safe spaces that developed,” Marino shared. “Growing consciousness of belonging has enlightened my students as well as myself greatly.”

In addition to creating a deeper sense of belonging for RCC students, the Lumen Circles fellowship gave faculty the opportunity to build cross-disciplinary connections with one another.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Dr. Rebha Sabharwal shared that “it was extremely valuable to see how other disciplines deal with topics such as power, privilege, and intersectionality. As the world shrinks and our knowledge and empathy increase, we benefit from safe platforms where we can communicate our struggles and share successful techniques with one another.”

Rockland faculty’s participation in the Provost Faculty Scholars Program and Lumen Circles fellowships is part of an ongoing partnership between Lumen and RCC to strengthen the college’s teaching and learning center. The program evolved from Lumen’s broader partnership with SUNY to support implementation of wide-scale use of Lumen’s digital courseware, OHM, Waymaker, and professional development platform Lumen Circles.  Lumen Learning’s partnership with SUNY allows faculty to get the support they need through comprehensive faculty development experiences while also providing students and educators with access to equitable and inclusive digital courseware that will enable them to make higher education more affordable and accessible for all students.

Rockland’s HEED Award recognition comes as colleges and universities nationwide face enrollment declines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Community colleges in particular are struggling to enroll and retain students, and administrators have been left scrambling to find answers. Lumen’s work with RCC and SUNY can serve as a template for other institutions to not only recoup pandemic losses but further advance equity for minority and underserved student groups.

If you’re interested in learning more about Lumen Circles, visit lumenlearning.com/what/circles/

November 1, 2022 – Denver, CO and Portland, OR – InScribe, which delivers game-changing digital community solutions, today announced a partnership with Lumen Learning, a leading provider of higher education teaching and learning materials focused on improving student outcomes and removing race and income as predictors of student success. The companies will seamlessly integrate InScribe’s digital community platform into Lumen Learning’s new Statistics course and platform. This partnership aims to create new spaces for students to ask questions, find solutions, collaborate to better understand the content, and support and motivate each other.

Lumen Learning was recently awarded a prestigious competitive grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create new Introduction to Statistics courseware that will replace traditional textbook packages and provide students with a rich, interactive, and personalized learning experience, as well as a complete range of support for faculty members. Lumen saw an opportunity to enhance student support and engagement from directly within the courseware experience, and sought the expertise of InScribe to help make its vision a reality. 

“We understand the importance of just-in-time help and peer collaboration to create a truly interactive, inclusive, and connected learning experience where all students can succeed,” said Kim Thanos, co-founder and CEO of Lumen Learning. “We have followed the InScribe story and been impressed by the impact of its digital community platform. Our strategic partnership is enabling us to take the next critical step in the evolution of our courseware.”

The Lumen-InScribe integration means students don’t have to leave the courseware to receive the support they need. With seamless access integrated directly into the learning experience, students are now one click away from a space where they can easily connect, communicate, and collaborate with peers and faculty any time they need extra support.

Students accessing Lumen’s new Statistics course will have the opportunity to engage with the new digital community starting next semester, and plans are in place to roll out access as additional courses are available in the new platform. “We are setting the bar high when it comes to courseware centered on equity, and together we envision a teaching and learning experience that removes boundaries and extends support across courses and disciplines,” said Thanos.

“Digital communities remind students that they are not alone in the learning process,” said Katy Kappler, CEO of InScribe. “We’ve long admired Lumen Learning and the work it is doing to create high-quality, affordable options for faculty and students. We are excited to partner with the Lumen team to help extend their vision for interactive, collaborative learning even further.”

To learn more about InScribe’s partnership with Lumen Learning, click here.

About InScribe

InScribe is a digital student support platform that leverages the power of community and artificial intelligence to connect students with the answers, resources, and individuals they need to succeed. InScribe’s digital communities cut across the traditional support silos in higher education, giving students a single place to turn when they need help—no matter the topic or time of day. Students benefit from on-demand, peer-to-peer, and student-to-expert collaboration that helps them feel more connected, increasing student engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Learn more about InScribe at https://www.inscribeapp.com/.

About Lumen Learning

Since 2012, Lumen Learning has partnered with colleges and universities to support teaching and learning innovation with a focus on improving affordability, access, and student success.

Lumen Waymaker and OHM digital courseware provide evidence-based learning design and data-driven content improvements to increase learning and student engagement using open educational resources (OER). Lumen Circles provide faculty professional development to build skills and advance teaching practices. Grounded in research about how to increase learning and student success and delivered through peer-based virtual learning groups, Lumen Circles provide a supportive setting for faculty to expand their capabilities for teaching in dynamic educational environments. Over 500 institutions across the U.S. are using Lumen-supported digital courseware for in-person, online, and blended courses. Materials created by Lumen are published under Creative Commons Attribution licenses and contributed back to the education community. Learn more at lumenlearning.com, and visit our course catalog at lumenlearning.com/courses.

Media Contact: 

Kristi Emerson 

kristi@inscribeapp.com 

303-885-9896

Portland, Oregon / October 18, 2022 – Lumen Learning, a leading provider of higher education teaching and learning materials focused on improving student outcomes and removing race and income as predictors of student success, today announced its 10th anniversary since its founding by CEO and Co-Founder Kim Thanos and Chief Academic Officer and Co-Founder Dr. David Wiley. 

With 2022 as its most pivotal year to date, Lumen announced in April it was awarded a prestigious competitive grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further its groundbreaking work in creating and implementing equitable courseware focused specifically on eliminating race and income as predictors of success and establishing relatable courseware for underserved students of Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and low-income backgrounds. Lumen’s results-backed actions around effectively supporting minority students in this capacity is a first in the industry, something no one else is doing. Lumen was awarded the grant because of its long history of creating change in higher education and its promising strategy of integrating faculty professional development directly within its courseware. 

To further its work, Lumen has partnered with Rockland Community College and Santa Ana College, both with large minority student bases, to establish on-campus student testing centers. Lumen is also working with Howard University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Assessment (CETLA) faculty and staff who are providing guidance and direction for the courseware, as well as with The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to effectively scale the courseware to universities across the United States. To date, over 980 institutions have adopted Lumen’s courseware nationwide.

“Over the past decade, one constant remains: We’ve stayed true to our roots of creating and delivering courseware that helps students and faculty achieve their greatest potential,” says Kim Thanos, co-founder and CEO of Lumen Learning. “We could not have achieved outstanding success without the dedication of our talented team and the support of our customer community. Our passion for finding solutions and pioneering innovative user- and equity-centered learning comes through in everything that we do.”

Lumen Learning was founded with the overarching goal of achieving better results for students by working closely with faculty while simultaneously reducing costs for its users. Over time, recognizing more could be done for students, Lumen transitioned its focus from cost savings to tackling more difficult and complex issues to advance equity for all students. The company has set industry benchmarks through its commitment to increasing equity, access, and affordability in higher education while addressing the issues faced by students of underserved and underrepresented backgrounds. Since its founding, over 12,600 faculty have adopted Lumen’s courseware, and its open educational resources have garnered over 1 billion views.

Another major focus for Lumen is its faculty professional development platform, Lumen Circles, which uses virtual learning communities to connect faculty members with peers to help them hone their expertise as student-centered teachers. Lumen has created timely and relevant materials that are grounded in evidence-based practices to enhance effective teaching and learning, ultimately increasing student success. Over 1,000 faculty fellows have completed Lumen Circles; the most popular program to date is Belonging & Inclusive Teaching Fundamentals where over 300 fellows have completed the program. 

For the 2022 fall semester, Lumen Learning has hit its largest enrollment milestone thus far with over 150,000 enrollments. Over the past 10 years, total savings for students has topped over $160 million as more than 1.6 million students have used Lumen’s courseware, reinforcing Lumen Learning’s significant role in the edtech space and its overall mission to support and help students through equitable courseware. 

“I am extremely honored to be on a mission of enabling unprecedented learning for each and every student who uses our courseware as we continue to sharpen our focus on eliminating race and income as predictors of success,” said Dr. David Wiley, co-founder and chief academic officer for Lumen Learning. “Our entire team is committed to eliminating the gap that has historically affected so many students in higher education, and I look forward to the exciting work ahead as we pioneer solutions to create equity for all.”

Since its inception, Lumen has been building a world-class team to deepen understanding and accountability of evolving the student learning experience and meaningfully impacting the predictors of success. Most recently, Lumen created a unique team that is primarily focused on tackling both internal and external equity and inclusion initiatives. The company is entirely remote and currently has 79 employees spanning 28 states. Of all its employees, 57 employees live outside of Oregon, showcasing its desire to hire and retain top talent across the United States. 

Dr. David Wiley was recently nominated for EdScoop’s Industry Leader of the Year for pioneering change in higher education with unique solutions and a commitment to the industry. 

About Lumen Learning

Since 2012, Lumen Learning has partnered with colleges and universities to support teaching and learning innovation with a focus on improving affordability, access, and student success.

Lumen Waymaker and OHM digital courseware provide evidence-based learning design and data-driven content improvements to increase learning and student engagement using open educational resources (OER).

Lumen Circles provide faculty professional development to build skills and advance teaching practices. Grounded in research about how to increase learning and student success and delivered through peer-based virtual learning groups, Lumen Circles provide a supportive setting for faculty to expand their capabilities for teaching in dynamic educational environments.

Over 500 institutions across the U.S. are using Lumen-supported digital courseware for in-person, online, and blended courses. Materials created by Lumen are published under Creative Commons Attribution licenses and contributed back to the education community. Learn more at lumenlearning.com, and visit our course catalog at lumenlearning.com/courses.

Press Contact:

RF|Binder

Rebecca Epps

Phone: 925-451-3126

Email: rebecca.epps@rfbinder.com

Portland, Oregon / August 23, 2022 – Lumen Learning, a leading provider of higher education teaching and learning materials focused on improving student outcomes and removing race and income as predictors of student success, today announced a partnership with The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to effectively scale Lumen’s new Introduction to Statistics courseware to more universities across the United States. The courseware is designed for a critical gateway course with the highest dropout and failure rates among underserved and minority students. Current pilots for the program through the new partnership include Florida International University, Georgia State University, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and South Texas College. 

APLU is a research, policy, and advocacy organization whose 250 members are comprised of public research universities, university systems, and affiliated organizations across all 50 U.S. states, Washington, DC and several territories as well as in Canada and Mexico. Lumen and APLU convened with institutional partners in Charleston, South Carolina earlier this month to run initial sessions around scaling courseware and developing the Intro to Statistics pilot program.

“We are extremely aligned with Lumen Learning in improving teaching and learning for student success, particularly minority and underserved students,” says Karen Vignare, Ph.D., APLU Vice President, Digital Transformation for Student Success. “Our partnership is uniquely using high-quality digital tools that provide faculty with enhanced courseware designed for more equitable outcomes, improved instruction, and more student preparedness and engagement for those participating in gateway courses like Introduction to Statistics.”

“I am very excited to be partnering with Lumen Learning on this important initiative,” said Timothy Huber, associate professor and graduate program director for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “It’s clear to us that this innovative courseware will go well beyond excellent content, and the holistic emphasis on student engagement, inclusivity, and equitable outcomes set this initiative apart.”

Lumen is taking every opportunity to engage its target audience in the development of groundbreaking courseware. In April, the company was awarded a significant grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support its work in creating and implementing new courseware for Introduction to Statistics that focuses specifically on eliminating race and income as predictors of success for students. 

Lumen and APLU have successfully created more understanding around how faculty can use courseware to implement active and adaptive learning approaches. As part of this partnership, APLU will connect Lumen with key member institutions to help both Lumen and potential academic partners adopt and scale the new courseware to further establish the program’s impact. APLU’s network of institutions is focused on supporting large populations of students and this partnership will connect Lumen with institutions that it may not have engaged with otherwise. 

“Collaborating with APLU will allow us to bring our diverse capabilities together in support of a common mission in creating equitable success for students of all races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic status across the country,” says David Wiley, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Teaching and Learning Officer of Lumen Learning. “APLU has great expertise in helping institutions implement and scale innovations like this, and combined with Lumen’s innovative solutions together we will drive increasingly equitable results for students.”

Lumen Learning has established on-campus user student testing centers at Rockland Community College in New York and Santa Ana College in California to support the development of their groundbreaking courseware, allowing Lumen to gain valuable insights and work directly with their target student demographic. The company is also working with Howard University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Assessment (CETLA) faculty and staff who are providing guidance and direction for its Statistics courseware. 

Portland, Oregon / June 29, 2022 – Lumen Learning, a leading provider of teaching and learning materials focused on improving student success, affordability, and access, today announced a partnership with Howard University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Assessment (CETLA) to develop courseware to increase the effectiveness and cultural relevance of Lumen’s solutions for Black students as well as Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students across the United States. 

After successful previous engagements, Lumen Learning is partnering with Howard University in Washington, D.C. to learn from Howard’s rich history of success supporting Black students. Howard is one of the nation’s leading historically Black research universities and highly sought-after institutions for students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. 

Through this partnership, Howard’s faculty and CETLA staff are providing information that will be crucial to Lumen Learning as it develops equity-centered learning solutions for its new statistics course and platform. 

“Our partnership with Lumen Learning is helping to address learning experiences and environments for underrepresented students, with an intentional focus on students of color,” says Morris Thomas, Ph.D., director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Assessment. “I am confident the insights we’re learning in partnership with Lumen will provide direction for enhanced courseware design leading to more equitable outcomes for underserved students who are participating in gateway courses, such as Introduction to Statistics.”

To date, Lumen has gathered broad and varied feedback on its courseware development process through its partnership with Howard, from addressing actual courseware features and how faculty and students might use them, to discussing best practices for supporting faculty through the implementation of new teaching tools. Insights from faculty and CETLA staff on how to create inclusive and supportive student learning environments are informing the way Lumen designs specific features within the new platform. The collaboration with CETLA has helped Lumen understand how it can build features to share timely information about students’ engagement within the course, simplifying the process of identifying students who may need additional support. 

“We are so grateful for the opportunity to partner with the renowned faculty and staff at Howard University to create future courseware that will meet and exceed the educational needs for all students,” says Kim Thanos, co-founder and CEO of Lumen Learning. “Howard has long led the field in creating learning experiences that engage and empower Black students, with inspiring results. Having Howard’s voice at the table is instrumental to guide our design processes, creating solutions that incorporate and build on Howard’s expertise. This is central to our goal to improve outcomes for all students in key gateway courses, and to ultimately eliminate race and income as predictors of student success.”

“We have gained tremendous insights from our partnership with Howard that have been instrumental in helping us create courseware that will support unprecedented learning for all students,” says David Wiley, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning. “When we collaborate with students and faculty, incorporating their input into our courseware from the very beginning of the design process, we dramatically increase the likelihood of creating something that will support success for both faculty and students.” 

Lumen Learning was recently awarded a significant grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support their work in creating and implementing new courseware for Introduction to Statistics that focuses specifically on eliminating race and income as predictors of success for students. Lumen has established partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions across the United States. Lumen Learning is working with Howard University’s faculty and CETLA staff, who are providing guidance and direction for its statistics course and platform. 

Additionally, Lumen Learning has partnered with Rockland Community College in New York and Santa Ana College in California to open student user testing centers on their campuses, allowing Lumen to gain valuable insights and work directly with their target student demographic in co-creating relevant courseware materials.

If you’re interested in being part of the development or piloting process of the new Statistics course and/or platform, please visit info.lumenlearning.com/statistics.

Portland, Oregon/ April 13, 2022 – Lumen Learning, a leading provider of teaching and learning materials, today announced it has been awarded a significant grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further its work in creating and implementing equitable courseware. Lumen was chosen as a result of its long history of creating change in education and providing innovative, high-quality and affordable digital learning courseware to students and educators nationwide. Since its founding, Lumen Learning has set industry benchmarks through its commitment to increase equity, access and affordability in education. This grant will extend this work, focusing specifically on eliminating race and income as predictors of success for students. The selection process for the grant was highly competitive and included dozens of publishers, edtech organizations and institutions of higher learning.

Today’s announced grant will support Lumen Learning to create new courseware for Introduction to Statistics that can serve as an exemplar of courseware centered on equity that makes a meaningful difference in student success. To achieve this, Lumen has established partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions across the United States, allowing Lumen to work directly with their target student demographic in co-creating relevant courseware materials through student-led user testing centers. Both Rockland Community College in New York and Santa Ana College in California have opened user testing centers on their campuses to assist Lumen Learning in gaining valuable insights and helping establish relatable courses for Black, Latino/a, Indigenous and low-income students. Additionally, Lumen Learning has a partnership with Howard University to gain guidance and feedback on course and platform development, learning from Howard’s rich history of success supporting Black students. This game-changing approach will set a precedent for how to better personalize education for students of the future.

“We are extremely grateful to have received this incredible grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This will allow Lumen Learning to aggressively and purposefully advance racial and socioeconomic equity through rapid innovation of our proven courseware and faculty professional development experiences,” says Kim Thanos, Co-Founder and CEO of Lumen Learning. “This grant will propel us faster to our goal of implementing more relevant digital learning and improving outcomes for Black, Latino/a, Indigenous and low-income students. Improving outcomes for these students, whose needs have not been met by existing solutions, is an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ challenge.”

Specifically, the grant will provide funds to create new Introduction to Statistics courseware that will replace traditional textbook packages and provide students with a rich, interactive, and personalized learning experience, as well as a complete range of support for faculty members. Introduction to Statistics has been identified as one of 20 “gateway courses,” which are foundational, lower-level courses that large numbers of students are at risk of failing and that lead to significant dropout rates between the first and second year of college. Introduction to Statistics has both high annual enrollments and a high failure rate of 24% nationally. The implementation of Lumen’s unique model in this critical course can have a strong impact on increasing efficacy for all students.

The grant is part of the Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success strategy, which is dedicated to ensuring that many more of today’s students complete their certificates and degrees and eliminate race, ethnicity, and income as predictors of student success. This goal directly aligns with Lumen’s mission to advance racial and socioeconomic educational equity. The foundation’s approach is built on research showing that active learning, including through digital courseware, reduces drop, fail, and withdraw (DFW) rates when compared to the traditional lecture format. Further, blended learning courses that combine classroom instruction with digital courseware generate the most impactful results for students. Lumen’s evidence-based programs are proven to build not only more effective learners, but more impactful teachers.

“Key insights from this work will inform subsequent courseware development and help us advance our mission to support unprecedented learning for all students across a broad range of gateway courses,” says Dr. David Wiley, Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning. “Investment from this grant will deepen our expertise in equity-centered design. We believe that the best courses foster community and connection and promote a sense of belonging where all students feel represented and appreciated.”

Additional partners in this endeavor include Digital Promise and The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). Lumen’s Introduction to Statistics courseware will be ready for piloting in January 2023 and will be broadly available in fall 2023.

If you’re interested in being part of the development or piloting process, please visit info.lumenlearning.com/statistics. OR, if you’d like to see a demo, sign up here.