IOWA CITY, Iowa—David Kuntz, an internationally acclaimed expert in adaptive learning, will join ACT on July 31, 2017 as principal adviser to the CEO for adaptive learning.
At ACT, Kuntz will work on the design of a large-scale, cloud-based adaptive learning platform and on strategy and design for ACT’s adaptive learning initiatives.
Prior to accepting his position with ACT, Kuntz was chief research officer at Knewton. He previously served as Knewton’s vice president of research and adaptive learning.
“David Kuntz is a global leader in a field that promises to make education more effective and efficient than ever before,” said Marten Roorda, ACT chief executive officer. “Historically, teaching has been constrained by the inherent limitations of one teacher guiding many students, each of whom may be at a different place in their understanding. Adaptive learning overcomes those limits and gives teachers and students powers they never had before.”
Adaptive learning uses computers as interactive teaching devices, providing real-time, student-specific instructional information based on their responses.
In a properly designed adaptive learning environment, the system uses data generated by students’ interactions to understand both the students and the content and identifies what is most likely to help each student, moment-by-moment. This can mean, for example, providing a student with instruction on a particular topic, assessing his or her understanding of a particular concept or providing practice opportunities to strengthen skills.
“Each student arrives in the classroom with different needs, different skills, different backgrounds,” said Kuntz. “Adaptive learning is a data-driven way to help teachers understand these differences and provide them with student-specific resources to better support each student's mastery of learning objectives. An adaptive and personalized approach can put the goal of true mastery within reach.”
Kuntz has been awarded five patents, with a sixth pending. His patents have related to using technology to support and improve data-driven test assembly, performance scoring, and reporting. His current patent application is for technology that provides near-real-time personalized educational recommendations to students.
Kuntz earned his executive master’s degree (MSE/MBA) in technology management from the Wharton School of Management at the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree, both in philosophy, from Rutgers University and Brown University, respectively.
ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as a national leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality assessments grounded in nearly 60 years of research. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions designed to provide personalized insights that help individuals succeed from elementary school through career.