The 2021/2022 school year is coming to a close, and Alelo is wrapping up this year’s volunteer participation in Boston College’s Master of Arts in Learning Engineering program. The program teaches students to design engaging and effective learning experiences that are informed by the learning sciences and incorporate cutting-edge technologies.

To apply what they are learning and imagine career trajectories for themselves, Boston College students were able to shadow Alelo employees in real-world design projects – most notably projects for Alelo’s participation in the Future of Work Grand Challenge which aims to rapidly upskill and reskill 25,000 disadvantaged workers for living wage jobs by the end of the year.

Uhjin Sim entered the Boston College Master’s program to design quality learning experiences for each and every learner, especially with respect to their language, culture, and communities. “Shadowing Alelo has been my joy,” said Sim after several weeks with Alelo’s design team. “The team meetings gave me a lot of insights about collaboration; Alelo was unique in that people were doing individual jobs and constantly checking in with each other remotely which allowed them to work in a highly efficient manner. I was also impressed by how diverse the Alelo team was and thought this composition of different backgrounds and expertise is faithful to the nature of their work with cultural training courses. I highly recommend that other students shadow Alelo for practical experience in the learning sciences and for exposure to the collaborative work that goes into developing an interesting learning technology,” continued Sim.

Alelo plans to host more students from Boston College in the Fall. “We’ve enjoyed our partnership with Boston College,” commented Alelo CEO Dr. Lewis Johnson. “These bright students are the learning engineering leaders of tomorrow. Introducing our team to their fresh ideas and giving them a jump start on their careers is valuable to all.”

Boston College’s Master of Arts in Learning Engineering is led by Janet Kolodner and Brian Smith, both leaders in learning design and learning technology. Janet was the former director of the Cyberlearning program at the National Science Foundation.