Nearly 80 million U.S. students use digital learning tools, yet most platforms collect data for technical purposes, not to understand learning. Without better testing methods, effective strategies remain hidden, slowing educational progress.

Breakthrough solutions would build infrastructure to rapidly test and refine learning tools in real classrooms. By using AI to analyze results in days, not months, solutions made it possible to match proven approaches to the students who benefit most.

The $1M XPRIZE Digital Learning Challenge set out to modernize how we evaluate education technology—transforming a slow, fragmented process into one that keeps pace with evolving student needs. Teams were challenged to design infrastructure capable of running real-world classroom experiments at scale, delivering rapid, actionable insights.

The winning team, Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator, created the MOOClet toolkit—an open platform that empowers teachers, students, and researchers to submit instructional ideas and test them in real time. Their AI-driven system adapts experiments within days, rather than the months required by traditional methods, dramatically accelerating the cycle from idea to impact.

By rethinking how we measure learning, the Digital Learning Challenge opened the door to education systems that are more responsive, personalized, and effective for millions of learners.

Launched in 2021, the competition concluded in 2022. After real-world testing of finalists’ tools, Adaptive Experimentation Accelerator was named the Grand Prize winner for their MOOClet toolkit’s ability to rapidly identify effective learning strategies in classrooms.