Chinmay Kulkarni: The Case for an Integrated Future of Learning and Work

Learning and work are at a tipping point: more than 20 million learners have enrolled in Massive Open Online Classes, and freelancers are expected to comprise 40% of the US workforce by 2020. My research explores a future where a dramatically larger number of people engage in lifelong learning, and where learning and work are increasingly intertwined. My talk describes recent research how freelance work can support learning.

It will also describe software systems and associated pedagogy used by 100,000+ learners in MOOCs, thousands of students in university classrooms, and freelancers on Upwork. These systems point to how leveraging peer processes at massive scale can address this societal challenge.

Chinmay Kulkarni is an Assistant Professor at Carnegie-Mellon's HCI Institute. In his research, he designs computational systems to help people work and learn better, together.