Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly present in children’s lives, yet few tools support developmentally appropriate AI literacy for grades K-3. This work examines the role of narrative in early AI literacy by directly comparing two versions of interactive game-based digital storybooks for children ages 6-9. The “Book+” condition combined an overarching story and characters with mini-games and scaffolded AI interactions, designed to be enjoyable, provide narrative context, and to give hands-on AI experience. We compared this with a “Game” condition that included the same learning goals, mini-games, and AI interactions but replaced the narrative with primarily instructional text. Across 57 participants, both conditions elicited high engagement, but “Book+” participants showed significantly greater learning gains and higher perceived knowledge. Qualitative findings revealed that while both groups enjoyed the creative AI mini-games, “Book+” participants more frequently used AI vocabulary in responses, connected concepts to the learning context, and expressed stronger emotional connection.

In this research-to-practice full paper, we present the third iteration of our educational framework that advances AI-informed leadership - a much-needed competency in this era of rapid AI transformation. Our study aimed to evaluate our proposed content and pedagogy and whether it can be made widely accessible to non-technical leaders. We focused on modifying our existing curriculum and research protocol based on the feedback and learnings from our previous workshops. Our current workshop is part of an AI-Education program developed by MIT aiming to provide AI education to the U.S Air Force, which is one of the largest organizations in the US. Previous two iterations of the workshop aimed to offer an introduction to AI to U.S Air Force leaders, while the current iteration's goals are twofold: offering the updated content to U.S Air Force leaders, and supporting their capacity building by preparing a cohort of workshop trainers, who will lead the future iterations of the program inhouse. We conducted the workshop with over 50 participants, including 10 facilitators who were trained to run future workshops internally. Our comprehensive educational materials, including fa-cilitator guides, student-facing documents, and digital resources, support this scalable model. The results demonstrate significant improvements in AI knowledge and leadership competencies, including AI mindset, culture, and ethos. Our findings affirm the effectiveness of experiential learning methodologies and underscore the potential for scalable, sustainable AI education within large organizations through the facilitators' feedback.

This innovative research paper presents a program that introduces entrepreneurship, innovation, and biomedical product development to engineering, computer science, and other STEM and non-STEM professionals to engage them into startup creation with the goals of preventing, diagnosing or treating substance use disorder (SUD), one of the US most pressing health and social challenges. For more than two decades, SUD has been affecting people from all ages, demographic and socio-economic groups in the US. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), as the lead federal agency supporting scientific research on drug use, has identified that current SUD research is not properly translating into commercial solutions for SUD. Seeking alternatives, NIDA is fostering the entrepreneurial spirit of SUD researchers, so they are the ones directly offering SUD-focused technologies into the market. This paper presents the MIT SUD Ventures program, a NIDA-funded project focused on training multidisciplinary teams of SUD researchers, engineers, healthcare, and management experts on how to commercialize their discoveries with the support of government funding sources. We introduce the learner profile, the content and skills deemed necessary to support their entrepreneurial efforts, the curriculum implemented and the program structure. We share results related to the learner expectations, experiences, and outcomes of this innovative practice, as well as future steps for the 2024 cohort and impact evaluation. Finally, guided by our results, we discuss the positive value of teaching entrepreneurial skills to academics and researchers to bridge the gaps between basic and translational research. We also make a call for action for all STEM professionals, especially engineers, computer scientists and technologists, to employ their scholarship and research capacity to have a positive impact on solving the SUD epidemic, where they are most needed.

This innovative practice full paper presents a novel educational program that aims to improve work readiness of emerging talent around the world through remote, paid, global apprenticeships, and human skills training for both apprentices and managers. In the last decade, multiple technical and socioeconomic factors, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, have radically changed the job market, the way companies interact with their employees and customers, and how universities train their students. In response to these changes, we have identified three core aspects of the modern workforce that need attention from academic institutions and industry to promote a more diverse, inclusive, and stable working environment for entry-level and emerging talent, across the world: 1) remote work readiness, 2) real-life mentored learning (apprenticeships), and 3) manager and supervisor preparedness. Remote work, when properly implemented, has presented advantages and opportunities to students, workers, and companies: it improves performance and facilitates innovation through cross-pollination of ideas between diverse groups and gives opportunities to emerging talent globally. Internships and apprenticeships are mechanisms implemented to promote a smoother transition from academia to the workplace. Both internships and apprenticeships promote real-life work experience but differ in that the latter includes a predesigned learning experience guided by a mentor (a seasoned manager). Senior undergraduates are frequently ill-prepared to face the difficulties of work because of a disconnect between their academic training and the needs of a job. This is especially critical in engineering students, who focus mainly on technical skills, leaving behind human and professional skills necessary to thrive in the workplace. Internships and apprenticeships offer opportunities to bridge this gap, though several evaluation criteria must be defined and met to consider them successful. To enhance remote work readiness, as well as success in internship and apprenticeship programs, manager and supervisor preparedness is critical for properly guiding engineering students, apprentices, and entry-level employees in their first job experience. With these core concepts in mind and using the Agile Continuous Education (ACE) framework, The Intern Group (TIC) and MIT Open Learning (MIT OL) created the Global Apprenticeship Program (GAP), an initiative focused on bridging the gap between talent and opportunities around the world. The program aims to 1) increase apprenticeship performance and facilitate full-time employment for students and diverse emerging talent, at a global scale; and 2) support how companies successfully recruit, onboard, and retain emerging talent. Innovation in this approach lies in the particular focus placed on the apprentice-mentor (intern-manager) dyad, including tailored training for managers and supervisors. In this paper we present in detail the different programmatic components of the learning tracks. These consist of a variety of individual self-paced asynchronous learning activities, group learning synchronous workshops, community building and cultural exchange events, and a real-life mentored learning experience (apprenticeship). We conclude with implementation challenges, opportunities for improvement, and lessons learned regarding content, pedagogies, and technologies used throughout the program, and effect on participation and engagement.

This Research to Practice Full Paper presents an AI Education program. In January 2021 MIT entered into an agreement with the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to design and offer a new educational research program focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) training. The goal of this collaboration is to design and advance educational research activities that promote maximum learning outcomes at scale for learners with diverse roles and educational backgrounds, ranging from Air Force and DoD personnel to the general public. This program is expected to offer different learning tracks addressing different groups of USAF employees based on their unique professional needs and backgrounds. The first pilot is currently underway and will provide the research team with data and insights that will inform the next iteration of the program, with the ultimate goal of formulating recommendations for the USAF and general public on how to reach large numbers of learners at scale in an optimum way. Currently, the program offers three different learning journeys for each of three different cohorts of USAF employees (i.e., leaders, developers, and users). These learning journeys span from online asynchronous and synchronous courses to in-person activities. Our research goals focus on exploring and understanding the learner experience via the study and analysis of AI content and curriculum, pedagogical approaches, learning modalities, and technological innovations to deliver learning experiences at scale. Key research activities involve evaluating a range of existing digital AI courses, mapping out the landscape of educational needs and competencies, and developing and piloting experiential learning experiences (to advance innovative technology-enabled training and learning technologies and methods). This paper discusses how preliminary research findings from this first pilot are informing the design and implementation of the next program iteration. The research provides insights that will benefit AI learners across the US while supporting the DoD’s objective to develop elite and world-class AI-ready services.

This Innovation to Practice, Work-In-Progress Paper discusses efforts toward building a community for educational transformation in Higher Education led by the department of Open Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT has a long history of implementing hands-on, science-based, problem-focused engineering education by working on authentic real-life problems. Within this context, sustainability has been and remains at the core of the MIT curriculum. In addition, Open Learning has a core mission to support educational transformation within the institution as well as around the world. In order for these goals to be fully achieved, institutional partnerships and global input are critical.In 2017 Open Learning, with support from Community Jameel, founded the Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL), a consortium of global members. Through J-WEL, MIT works with member organizations to promote excellence and transformation in education at MIT and worldwide. This paper focuses on the work taking place through one of three J-WEL subgroups, a collaborative focusing on higher education that is primarily composed of universities. By design, the J-WEL higher education collaborative members actively engage throughout the year via both online and in-person mechanisms.There are currently 20 higher education members who are working on 20 different goals regarding education transformation. Our future work includes building research partnerships between members through an innovation in education grant program, and assessing the outcomes of the collaboration facilitated by the consortium.

In 2010, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began a collaboration with the Singapore Ministry of Education to develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), a new engineering-oriented university in Singapore with programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. As a component of this collaboration, MIT staff members sought to "transfuse" MIT's cultural norms of student leadership, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship to the new university in Singapore. To this end, MIT-SUTD Collaboration staff initiated two exchange programs to introduce and promote student leadership within the SUTD community. In conjunction with MIT's efforts, SUTD launched the Design Opportunity Program (DOP) in 2013. Through this program, SUTD students had the opportunity to initiate, design, and execute the first student-run science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach workshop at SUTD, forge relationships with local high school students, and support the Singapore Ministry of Education's broader goals to reform and enhance pre-college STEM education. This paper presents an overview of the theory tying K-12 outreach with student leadership, the design and implementation of the inaugural student-run component of the DOP initiative, and the challenges SUTD students and staff faced in developing and implementing this project.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singapore Ministry of Education to help develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). One element of this collaboration, the Global Leadership Program (GLP), aims to provide SUTD students with the opportunity to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT's academic culture, while at the same time participating in programming to assist with the development of leadership skills. This paper describes a curriculum combining the pedagogies of design-based learning and wilderness education that was implemented in the summer of 2014 as a component of GLP. Wilderness education was selected as a pedagogical framework for this program as it may be well suited to create effective learning environments for engineering education, cross-cultural learning, and fostering conceptual change. Through design activities both for and in a natural environment, students were encouraged to develop competency in engineering science while exploring the diverse attributes essential for success as an engineer.