John Mitchell

John Mitchell is the Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor, professor of computer science, professor of electrical engineering (by courtesy) and professor of education (by courtesy). He was previously appointed as Stanford’s inaugural Vice Provost for Online Learning in 2012 and inaugural Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning in 2015. His team worked with more than 500 Stanford faculty members and instructors on over 1,000 online projects for campus or public audiences; transitioned the campus to a new university-wide course evaluation and learning management systems, and initiated the 2015-16 Year of Learning to envision the future of teaching and learning at Stanford and beyond. As co-director of the Lytics Lab, Carta Lab and Pathways Lab, he worked to improve educational outcomes through data-driven research and iterative design. Mitchell’s past research has also focused on computer security, network protocols, authorization and access control, web security, and privacy.

Mitchell’s first research project in online learning started in 2009, when he and six undergraduate students built Stanford CourseWare, an innovative platform that expanded to support interactive video and discussion. CourseWare served as the foundation for initial flipped classroom experiments at Stanford and helped inspire the first massive open online courses (MOOCs) from Stanford. Professor Mitchell currently serves as Chair of the Stanford Department of Computer Science.

Maxwell Bigman

Maxwell is a Ph.D. student at the Stanford Graduate School of Education where he studies innovation and equity in CS education. He has 10 years of experience leading and designing student-centered technology efforts in K-12 and higher education at the Harlem Children Zone, Aspire Public Schools and Stanford University. A former Computer Science teacher, Maxwell’s research is focused on innovative pedagogical strategies and novel learning approaches in CS education. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an Ed.M. from Harvard University.