How can we automatically determine which skills must be mastered for the successful completion of an online course? Large-scale online courses (e.g., MOOCs) often contain a broad range of contents frequently intended to be a semester’s worth of materials; this breadth often makes it difficult to articulate an accurate set of skills and knowledge (i.e., a skill model, or the QMatrix). We have de...

Having seen the Wachowski brother’s film The Matrix over a dozen times, I constantly wonder about the potential of technology and its collision with our traditional notions of physical reality. The Matrix offers a preemptive view of the intersection (or collision) between human culture and digital technology. It introduces the idea of simulation space and our ability to learn and refine skill w...

How can we automatically determine which skills must be mastered for the successful completion of an online course? Large-scale online courses (e.g., MOOCs) often contain a broad range of contents frequently intended to be a semester’s worth of materials; this breadth often makes it difficult to articulate an accurate set of skills and knowledge (i.e., a skill model, or the QMatrix). We have de...