How We Work

Accelerator Studio

The Accelerator Studio provides technical, research, and partnership support to mobilize early-stage education projects with the potential to transform learning.

Reuben Thiessen chats with a group of people around a conference table.
Photo: Isabel Sacks

Great ideas in education that emerge from research often fail to impact the learners who need them most. Developing, testing, and realizing research-backed solutions requires a wide range of specialized skills, many of which are out of reach for academic teams. Through the Accelerator Studio, the Stanford Accelerator for Learning provides a critical boost at key moments in the development process to set research on a trajectory towards real-world implementation.

In contrast to a venture studio, which develops product ideas, the Accelerator Studio aims to mobilize research anchored in the science and design of learning. The Accelerator Studio’s in-house team of specialists work with affiliates within Stanford and select grant funding recipients at the initial stages of designing and developing learning solutions. Support takes the form of bursts, helping researchers launch their idea or overcome a hurdle, and ongoing thought partnership and resources to build momentum for solutions that are effective, equitable, and sustainable.

The Accelerator Studio specializes in four areas:

  • Technology. Enabling researchers to harness technology in the service of learning. Services include ideation, prototyping, instructional design, cloud architecture, and media production.
  • Research. Facilitating research conceptualization and measure design, execution of quantitative and/or qualitative research in the lab or field, data use agreements and storage, and guidance for working with Stanford’s Institutional Review Board.
  • Science and design of learning. Advising on the development of evidence-based strategies for improving learning experiences.
  • Partnership. Finding and helping to broker prospective participants and collaborators outside of Stanford.

Across the four specializations, the Accelerator Studio’s work emphasizes capacity building as a force to drive change. We strive to diffuse specialized knowledge and scaffold others’ abilities to launch promising research-borne solutions.

Contact

acceleratorstudio@stanford.edu

 

Project leads

Headshot of Reuben Thiessen

Reuben Thiessen

Emerging Technology Lead

Headshot of Josh Weiss

Josh Weiss

Director of Technology and Innovation

Headshot of Catherine Chase

Catherine Chase

Senior Research Scholar

Headshot of Joe Sherman

Joe Sherman

Digital Media Lead