The History   

In 2008, two Professors from Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Ananda Gunawardena, a computer scientist and Dr. David Kaufer, a humanist partnered to create a learning platform that is unique. Their thinking was based on years of Research on online interactions, text analysis, machine learning and data visualizations. They realized that we can get great insights into human learning through interpretation of content by individuals and groups. The work is also based on the fact that when individuals and groups interpret content through annotations, we can capture them and analyse them using novel computer algorithms and text analysis techniques. When we apply these techniques to learning, we can design better and more effective courses and provide instructions that promote "deep" learning as opposed to shallow learning that are geared more towards test taking. Moreover, if the students are rewarded for their engagement, contribution, and social interactions, we can create better courses where we put learning first instead of assessment. This is the beginning of classroom salon. The journey continues as we begin to learn more about online interactions and group dynamics that makes our online lives richer.

The Founders

Dr. Ananda Gunawardena

Dr. Ananda Gunawardena was an Associate teaching Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and now teaches computer science at Princeton University. Prof. Gunawardena is an long term advocate of data driven learning where analytics play a major role in determining what we teach and not teach.

Dr. David Kaufer

Dr. David Kaufer was the head of English Department from 1994-2009 and is a Professor at English at Carnegie Mellon University. He has research interests in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of rhetoric, writing and written information, and technologies for text analysis and text collaboration.

Professors Gunawardena and Kaufer were assisted by over 20 Graduate and Undergraduate students in Computer Science, Human-Computer interaction and Humanities. Professors Joanna Wolfe and Alex Cheek also played a major role in the initial development of Salon. Classroom Salon is also supported by a professional development team from openarc systems.