Established in 2010, the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) is Georgia Tech's living laboratory for fundamental educational change.
Serving as a research arm of the College of Lifetime Learning, C21U's technologists and researchers support the Institute's innovation mission by pushing the boundaries of what is already done in higher education to bring learners the most impactful resources and technologies.
We serve as a nexus of collaboration and communication and a catalyst for innovation, bringing together an array of internal and external partners across various disciplines.
Through a sustained and systemic program of research, experimentation, design, prototyping, and implementation, C21U serves the Institute in thought leadership, educational technology design, community building, and support of Georgia Tech stakeholders of all ages.
Featured Research
Letters of recommendation (LORs) provide valuable insights into candidates' capabilities and experiences beyond standardized test scores. However, reviewing these text-heavy materials is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To address this challenge and support the admission committee in providing feedback for students' professional growth, our study introduces LORI: LOR Insights, a novel AI-based detection tool for assessing leadership skills in LORs submitted by online master's program applicants.
Recent News
Introducing Visiting Scholar Sanghyun Jang
C21U is excited to announce that Sanghyun Jang will join Georgia Tech as our visiting research scholar starting on October 20, 2025. He comes from South Korea, where he served as director of the education data center at the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS). For one year, he will be based in Atlanta, Georgia, to collaborate with C21U faculty and researchers to develop AI-based learning systems and leverage educational data to improve student outcomes.
C21U Announces Inaugural Bill Kent AI in Higher Education Fellows
The Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) has announced the inaugural cohort of Bill Kent Family Foundation AI in Higher Education Faculty Fellows for 2025–26. This C21U-led fellowship program supports faculty projects that explore innovative, ethical, and impactful uses of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning.
C21U Recognized with Best Paper Award at 2025 IEEE DEMOcon
We’re proud to announce that C21U’s paper, Leveraging Large Language Models to Detect and Summarize Cognitive Presence in Online Discussion Forums, was selected as one of five papers to receive the Best Paper Award at the 2025 IEEE Digital Education and MOOCs Conference (DEMOcon). This recognition highlights our work addressing a key challenge in online education: assessing the quality of student engagement in asynchronous discussion forums at scale.
Exploring and Understanding the Capabilities and Limitations of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Driven Tools in Education
C21U’s Executive Director Steve Harmon served as the keynote speaker and panelist at the 2025 Inaugural Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai AI in (Bio) Medical Education Symposium. (Pictured: Dr. I. Michael Leitman, José Antonio Bowen, Marta Filizola, Steve Harmon, and Dr. David C. Thomas)
How Industry Partnerships and Digital Credentials Can Close the Skills Gap
Learn how industry-focused credentials allow candidates to highlight skill sets to potential employers and enable individuals who may not have access to traditional higher educational pathways to display skills acquired over time.
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