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== History ==
[[Herbert A. Simon|Herbert Simon]], a [[Cognitive psychology|cognitive psychologist]] and [[economist]], first coined the term “learning engineering” in 1967.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Simon|first=Herbert A.|date=Winter 1967|title=The Job of a College President|url=http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=33692|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=Carnegie Mellon University University Libraries - Digital Collections}}</ref> However, associations between the two terms “learning” and “engineering” began emerging earlier, in the 1940s<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Watters|first=Audrey|date=2019-07-12|title=The History of the Future of the 'Learning Engineer'|url=http://hackeducation.com/2019/07/12/learning-engineers|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-07-21|website=Hack Education|language=en-US}}</ref> and as early as the 1920s.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Wilcox|first1=Karen E.|last2=Sarma|first2=Sanjay|last3=Lippel|first3=Philip|date=April 2016|title=Online Education: A Catalyst for Higher Education Reforms|url=https://oepi.mit.edu/files/2016/09/MIT-Online-Education-Policy-Initiative-April-2016.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=MIT Online Education Policy Initiative}}</ref> Simon argued that the social sciences, including the field of education, should be approached with the same kind of mathematical principles as other fields like physics and engineering.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1978|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1978/simon/biographical/|access-date=2020-07-21|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
 
Simon’s ideas about learning engineering continued to reverberate at Carnegie Mellon University, but the term did not catch on until Bror Saxberg began using it in 2014
<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hess|first1=Frederik|last2=Saxberg|first2=Bror|date=2014|title= Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age: Using Learning Science to Reboot Schooling |publisher= Corwin Press |isbn= 9781452255491}}</ref>. A clear line can be drawn from Simon to Saxberg. In 1978, Herb Simon helped bring [[John Anderson]] to Carnegie Mellon and Anderson soon began to test his theory of cognition within intelligent tutoring systems. In 1998, [[Carnegie Learning]] was spun off producing the first widespread use of intelligent tutoring systems in K12 schools. In 2004, [[Kenneth Koedinger]] and [[Kurt Vanlehn]] started the [[Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center]], or LearnLab for short. Bror Saxberg brought his team from Kaplan to visit CMU. The team went back to Kaplan, armed with LearnLab’s KLI framework <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Koedinger|first1=Ken|last2=Corbett |first2=Albert|last3=Perfetti|first3=Charles|date=2012 |title=Knowledge-Learning-Instruction (KLI) framework: Bridging the science-practice chasm to enhance robust student learning |url=http://pact.cs.cmu.edu/pubs/Koedinger,%20Corbett,%20Perfetti%202012-KLI.pdf|journal=Cognitive Science |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=757–798|doi=10.1037/a0031955}}</ref>, a theoretical framework linking cognition and instruction. They began executing what we now call learning engineering to enhance, optimize, and test their educational products. Bror Saxberg would later co-write the 2014 book using the term “learning engineering”. It caught on this time.
 
Subsequently, the term “learning engineering” has come to emphasize a focus on applied research (rather than foundational or theoretical research), as well as incorporating learning science research in order to improve real-life learning outcomes.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lieberman|first=Mark|date=|title=Learning Inch Toward the Spotlight|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/09/26/learning-engineers-pose-challenges-and-opportunities-improving|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-07-21|website=Inside Higher Education|language=en}}</ref>
 
== Overview ==
Learning Engineering is aimed at addressing a deficit in the application of science and engineering methodologies to education and training. Its advocates emphasize the need to connect computing technology and generated data with the overall goal of optimizing learning environments.<ref>{{Cite document|last=Saxberg|first=Bror|s2cid=12156278|date=April 2017|title=Learning Engineering {{!}} Proceedings of the Fourth (2017) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale|language=EN|doi=10.1145/3051457.3054019}}</ref>