As we approach the close of 2024, I would like to take a moment to express gratitude to our institutions, instructors, and students who partnered with us in our work and to reflect on everything we have achieved, none of which is possible without this amazing network!

I have had the privilege of serving as a co-principal investigator and research lead since 2022, and I am honored to now step into the role of principal investigator for the Collaborative and continue to build on all we have accomplished as we head into 2025. I have seen tremendous growth in our network, and I am incredibly proud of what we have all accomplished together over the past year.  

In 2024, we wrapped up early-stage testing of candidate strategies to improve students’ self-directed learning and success in online and hybrid STEM courses and found encouraging results about how these strategies can support students’ management of their learning processes, study skills, and academic performance. We worked with our partners to integrate those strategies into a cohesive and comprehensive instructional model that we will be pilot-testing in the spring.

We presented our work at national conferences and in a public webinar supported by Achieving the Dream, furthering our opportunities for knowledge sharing. We sought out diverse perspectives and prioritized the elevation of new voices through our flourishing Student Fellowship program and a series of interviews, Q&As, and feature articles published on the Collaborative Blog. We also expanded our website to offer a repository of curated, high-quality resources for practitioners, developers, and researchers.

As 2024 draws to a close, we celebrate our successes and look forward to an exciting year of growth, partnership, and collaborative effort in support of our nation’s learners. Below you can find some of Collaborative’s most recent highlights and some bookmark-worthy links for 2025.