Thought Leaders in Online Education: Stephen Spahn, Dwight Schools Group (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get a little bit more focused on the things you do. Especially in online education, what is it that you’re doing and what is unique and special?

Stephen Spahn: Because we’re leaders in the international baccalaureate (IB), we’re the first school to test online and work with other schools interested in becoming IB schools. We had to work with them on becoming IB schools.

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Stephen Spahn, Dwight Schools Group (Part 1)

Very interesting discussion on online methods of providing a well-rounded education to gifted kids who pursue Sports and Arts careers.

Sramana Mitra: If you could introduce yourself as well as Dwight Schools Group to start with, that would be awesome.

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: As I’m listening to you, there is something that is going on in my head that I want to brainstorm with you. It’s not part of our usual discussion, but just because you’re talking about an area that I have huge interest in.

It stirs something in my mind that may be very interesting to discuss. We do all our program as an online education program. We have a digital curriculum that has thousands of case studies and thousands of hours of video content, podcasts, transcripts, and video lectures.

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Can you answer the question from the point of view of artificial intelligence in online education?

Ann Marie Sastry: In terms of AI in education, there’s a tension right now. It’s palpable. There is one camp that believes that AI can teach a human being effectively. There’s another camp that decries the lack of humanism in that interaction.

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me about adoption trends you’re seeing in terms of colleges and universities working with you as well as alumni or those institutions adopting these kinds of courses.

Ann Marie Sastry: It’s been fast. I banned any design folks looking at existing online platforms for EdTech. My feeling was that they were woefully behind.

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Now that I understand a bit better of what your technology is capable of doing, can you go back and explain to me what is the usage model of your customers?

Let’s say a university buys your product. You started off by saying that universities don’t always have enough faculty to build an alumni education curriculum. How much of what you’re talking about is done by technology? What level of faculty involvement is there?

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Double-click down one more level for me and tell me how.

Ann Marie Sastry: So, we do this by selecting articles, ranking, and then training algorithms to select articles that are closely related either by hand selection or by other means. 

Sramana Mitra: What are the sources of content that you’re applying algorithms on?

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Part 1)

Artificial intelligence is applied to EdTech in creative ways. Ann Marie discusses her company’s work in this field.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself and Amesite.

Ann Marie Sastry: I’m the CEO and Founder of Amesite. We are an artificial-intelligence-driven designer and platform provider for online learning. We deliver courses, programs, and the whole curriculum for businesses, universities, and K12. Our mission is to improve the way the world works using better technology to create engaging and affordable learning experiences.