Education technology, especially Artificial Intelligence, will lead to massive changes in the education system. But what changes do we want? How can ed tech tools best support not just the students we have today but the students who will be coming in tomorrow? How do we ensure that everyone benefits?
Those questions are especially important in higher education for adult learners, where they receive far less attention and research from the education innovation industry. That’s why Calbright is filling the gap with equity focused research into what works, and supports new technologies that make it possible.
As a key sponsor of the Post-Secondary Learning track of the annual Learning Engineering Tools Competition, Calbright has helped award significant grants to develop new technologies addressing the unique challenges adult learners face in higher education.
Over 290 new technologies were entered into the 2025 contest, with 14 finalists and six winners selected to win a combined $1.5 million to develop their programs.
The ed tech Calbright supports creates equitable opportunities for working-age adults in higher education, improves their outcomes, and makes college intellectually rigorous but logistically simple – removing barriers that keep adult learners from enrolling and completing their programs.
One example is the new Tools Competition winner CourseWise, AI-powered software that will help adults manage the “higher education transfer system” that determines how much college credit they get for courses they’ve already taken, work they’ve already done, and experiences they already have.
By significantly reducing administrative workload while increasing credit acceptance rates, CourseWise can make college more accessible to adults, and help them succeed once they’re enrolled. It also removes significant amounts of bureaucracy and paperwork that adult learners would have to navigate in order to get the college credit they’ve earned.
Another example is Tools Competition Winner MyCoach AI, a conversational AI coaching tool designed to support first-generation and historically underrepresented college students. Students can go to it with academic, personal, and logistical challenges they face – and the tool will connect them with a human coach when they need that additional level of support.
Both tools can significantly increase college access, improve outcomes, and make the college process far less stressful, bureaucratic, and burdensome.
Other winners include:
- Lazuli, an instructional design tool that accelerates the creation of effective, research-based learning experiences. It enables educators to easily personalize and adapt their lessons to specific students.
- Sway, a chat platform that uses AI to help college students engage with each other more constructively, especially across moral, social, and political divides, with the goal of transforming disagreements into learning opportunities.
- SWBL, a work-based learning project tool students can use to demonstrate they have skills that are defined and needed by employers.
- MentorPRO, a mentoring platform that empowers organizations to deliver effective, scalable, and structured mentoring programs and supports mentors with AI, helping them reach more students more effectively in real time.
“Calbright College is committed to people-centered innovation and ensuring technology helps students achieve their education and career goals”, said Marisa Bold, Calbright’s Vice President of Sustainable Growth and District Development. “We’re thrilled to see these winning tools center the diverse needs of users, emphasize scalability to support more students, and develop technology that leads to measurable outcomes for students.”
