The Learning Systems Institute (LSI) at Florida State University (FSU) has been a leader in the educational technology space for four decades and that leadership continues in adopting and integrating AI responsibly and efficiently into classrooms worldwide. Our faculty and staff are already training teachers across Northwest Florida Gulf Coast to incorporate AI into their schools as part of the $400M InSPIRE project, while LSI’s Director, Rabieh Razzouk, has emerged as an international leader in the use of AI in education.
Over the last two decades, our team has built applications and solutions used by millions of educators and students. One of the most successful projects has been utilized by tens of millions of people around the world. The CPALMS platform was developed and built at LSI. It is an online toolbox of information, free vetted resources, and interactive tools to help educators effectively implement teaching standards. More than 20 million students relied on CPALMS during the global pandemic, and more than 3 million teachers and students in Florida actively use the platform. Since CPALMS started offering educational resources, more than one billion resource views/downloads have been delivered.
In 2006, when the Florida Legislature competitively awarded the Florida Center for Research in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (FCR–STEM) to FSU, it was LSI that was entrusted with the mission to help the State of Florida improve STEM teaching and learning in grades K-12 and prepare students for higher education and STEM careers in the 21st century. Among FCR-STEM’s significant accomplishments are the impacts of professional development on teacher and student outcomes, the design and delivery of intensive professional development for over 40,000 teachers in Florida, and the development of CPALMS.
“AI can support teachers with customizing lessons to student needs, quickly analyzing data and summarizing where students are struggling, it gives teachers back time. That time goes directly to students through deeper conversations, better questions, and more personalized instruction. AI can help make teaching even more human by eliminating time-consuming tasks, improving efficiency, and rapidly brainstorming ideas and developing content.” -- LSI Director Rabieh Razzouk
Highlights of LSI's Ed Tech Work
FSU InSPIRE
FSU's InSPIRE project is a 10-year $400M initiative led by the President, VP of Research, and the Office of the Provost, in partnership with the FSU Office of Research, College of Engineering and Learning Systems Institute (LSI). LSI is leading workforce and educational development on the project.
CPALMS
The online toolkit developed by the FCR-STEM group at LSI now serves as the State of Florida’s official source for standards information and course descriptions. More than 260,000 educators have an active CPALMS account.
CPALMS - Career and Technical Education
Florida State’s Learning Systems Institute (LSI) is leading the integration of career and technical education (CTE) into Florida’s classrooms. The team at LSI is designing and migrating a complex process and a massive dataset to modern, efficient, and usable tools and resources for all educators. By the end of the project, the CPALMS platform will include a CTE application to help the state manage all programs, courses, and standards data, along with software tools and educational resources for teachers across the state.
FIRE: An Integrated AI System Tackling the Full Lifecycle of Wildfires in Hurricane-Prone Regions
Researchers in Florida State’s Department of Computer Science have received a $2.3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop artificial intelligence tools that will help manage wildfires fueled by hurricanes in the Florida Panhandle. Rabieh Razzouk, Director of the Learning Systems Institute (LSI), Jim Reynolds, LSI’s co-Director of STEM Research, and Rob Legnacher, an associate in research at LSI, will all contribute to the project, which is the largest research award ever for FSU’s Department of Computer Science.
Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Professional Learning Certificate And Badge
Florida State University and Microsoft joined forces on an Artificial Intelligence Educator industry certification and badge. The industry certification is earned via a 35-hour training called “Engaging Elementary Students Using AI-Powered Storytelling," which is part of the FSU InSPIRE project and led by the Learning Systems Institute.
Uzbekistan Education Reform Program
LSI built a digital platform to support the Standards Based Educational Approach for all Uzbekistan's teachers and students in grades 1-11.
Florida Civics Seal of Excellence Course Platform
The Florida Department of Education's Civics Seal of Excellence course is hosted on a portal developed by LSI. Florida teachers have spent over 1.3 million hours learning in this course. The process to build the portal involved 50,000 requests, 20,000 course completions, and the review of more than one million assignment submissions.
MySTEMKits
LSI led the development of MySTEMKits, an educational platform offering hundreds of lessons and ready-to-print 3D models that enable educators to create classroom kits for hands-on experimentation and demonstrations in K–12 math and science education.
