The test in a Langston University chemistry class is about to change form. Instead of handing in a solved problem, a student will record a short video, two to four minutes long, explaining how the problem was solved and why that approach works. Faculty will watch for the exact point where the reasoning breaks down.
That method sits at the center of a $2,249,925 award the National Science Foundation has made to Langston University, Oklahoma’s only historically Black university. The university announced the five-year grant on Monday, October 26, 2026. The money comes from the NSF HBCU-UP Program and launches a program called ASCEND, short for Advancing STEM Competencies and Enhancing New Discoveries with AI-Assisted Learning Analytics. The award runs through August 31, 2031.
ASCEND takes aim at the courses where STEM degrees are often lost. Calculus, general chemistry and physics are the courses Langston calls gatekeeping classes, where gaps in mathematics preparation and quantitative reasoning can stall a student before the major has properly begun. The program is built to catch those gaps early, while a student can still recover the semester.
The instructional strategy has a name: Competency Performance Recording for Learning, or CPR-L. Dr. John Coleman and his team developed it through earlier NSF-funded work at Langston. Students must show they understand the reasoning behind an answer, not only that they reached it. Directional rubrics then help students name their own misconceptions and refine the work. AI-assisted learning analytics sit on top of that record, helping faculty spot patterns in student reasoning and return feedback while it can still change an outcome.
“This NSF-funded project at Langston University advances STEM student success through an innovative AI-assisted learning model that strengthens problem-solving, scientific reasoning and retention,” said Dr. Franklin Fondjo Fotou, acting dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. He said the project expands undergraduate academic support and interdisciplinary learning, and builds new resources for innovation and data visualization.
Coleman, a retired Langston faculty member and former interim dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, leads the project. His co-principal investigators are Dr. Lindsay Davis, Dr. Byron Quinn and Dr. Fondjo Fotou, drawn from the departments of chemistry, biology and technology. Ralph Grayson, chair of the Department of Computer Science, leads AI development and technology support.
The scale is specific. Coleman’s team estimates about 480 students will take part over five years, which works out to roughly $4,687 of grant funding for each participant. The money also pays for faculty professional development and uses Langston’s Data Visualization Center for the learning analytics and interdisciplinary work behind the student support.
Coleman is direct about what the recorded reasoning is meant to prevent. CPR-L creates a verifiable record of a student’s thinking, which makes it harder to copy a solved example, plug in new variables and bypass the learning, and harder to lean on an AI-generated solution without understanding it. “CPR-L enhanced by AI-assisted learning analytics has the potential to be a game changer for STEM education,” Dr. Coleman said. “We want to identify where students’ understanding breaks down and use that knowledge to help more students succeed and persist in STEM.”
Langston’s stated aims reach past a single grant cycle. The university wants better performance, retention and graduation in STEM, more undergraduate research, and an answer to a practical question: whether CPR-L and AI-assisted analytics can be copied across other disciplines and other institutions. If the videos work in Langston’s chemistry classes, the evidence will travel.
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