Podcast alert! Listen to our CEO, Jeffrey Katzman, talking to Rod Murray on The Pulse Podcast. Jeff and Rod discuss Core Learning Exchange, the future of career connected learning, and more.
Topics Covered
The conversation addresses Jeffrey's professional background and the organization's history. Key subjects include the mastery-based instructional model utilizing badges, micro-learning playlists featuring video, simulations, readings, and assessments that power our CTE platform.
The episode explores career and technical education (CTE), highlighting the platform's "Over 300 courses for grade 6 through community college" and industry-recognized certifications. The speakers discuss COVID-19's impact on workforce skill gaps and teacher shortages.
Additional topics include lifelong learning and skill portfolio development, the National Catalyzed Challenge Grant award, and the motto "Natively Digital for Digital Natives." The discussion covers emerging technologies, specifically AI for extracting assessment items and LMS integration with school systems—topics that foreshadowed our recent launch of the AI tutoring system.
The episode concludes by examining trending fields: AI, robotics, and logistics.
Update, October 2026: where those ideas led
Several themes from this 2022 conversation now shape how Core Learning Exchange works.
- Mastery, not seat time. The mastery-based model discussed on the show still runs through every course. Students move on only after they show they've mastered a skill, and they retry only what they missed.
- AI that teaches. The episode touched on AI and LMS integration. That work became Socrat Tutor Agent, an AI tutor that uses the Socratic method: it asks guiding questions instead of giving answers, works in more than 30 languages and runs inside the school's own LMS. Read our approach to AI and Socratic learning.
- Careers and credentials. The focus on career-connected learning and industry certifications is now diagnostic, prescriptive test prep for more than 90 certifications and exams, including ACT WorkKeys, the GED, TSIA2 and the ASVAB. See certification test prep.
Today each course is fitted to a program's state standards, labs and teachers. Learn how we build a course for your program.