What is a Learning Ecosystem?

A learning ecosystem is a holistic approach to education that weaves together physical and virtual spaces to motivate learning and stimulate intellectual growth. Its creation begins with a simple question—how do you best learn? The answers—in a study group, in a lecture, one-on-one—will vary depending on the context, the course, and the individual learner, requiring a flexible network of connections among students and between students and faculty.

That’s where CIRC comes in. We are crafting a campus-wide Social-Academic Network that meets students where they live and, more to the point, how they live—in an interconnected, gamified world where distinctions between the virtual and f2f are less important than shared learning goals and academic ambitions.

Our Social-Academic Network will consist of a web of connections, facilitated by technology, that enables students to work directly with faculty and with each other in meaningful, targeted engagements that lead to subject mastery. Such a network extends a course’s reach far beyond the boundaries of the classroom/timeslot and into the very fabric of students’ daily live, guiding them to additional instruction and moderated study groups that are relevant to their needs. In the process, instructors will be able to deliver personalized instruction at scale so as to optimize the impact of face-to-face time with students.