Gautam Yadav

Senior Learning Engineer · Carnegie Mellon University

gyadav@andrew.cmu.eduLinkedInGitHubPortfolio

Learning engineer with 6+ years designing and scaling technical learning experiences. I translate complex content into curricula, hands-on practice, assessments, and learning assets, working with subject-matter experts and using learner data to guide improvement.

Experience

Senior Learning Engineer

November 2022–present

Carnegie Mellon University · Human-Computer Interaction Institute

Learning Engineer: September 2020–November 2022
Research Assistant, Learning Engineering: May–August 2020

  • Launched LearnLab’s professional certificate initiative through a three-course EY pilot and led its expansion to issue 600+ certificates annually. Adapted the model across CMU departments and Mastercard Foundation’s 21 African learning centers.
  • Partner with subject-matter experts and enterprise stakeholders to identify learning needs, define objectives, and develop aligned instruction, practice, and assessments.
  • Lead learning projects from storyboard through launch and revision; standardize scripts, diagrams, slide-to-video assets, and production workflows for reusable learning materials.
  • Designed and facilitated Author Your First Skill, a hands-on workshop where professionals in edtech, military education, and community colleges built and tested reusable agent skills.
  • Built reusable agentic AI workflows for assessment quality review, instructional alignment, content-gap analysis, and learning-objective development, reducing curriculum design effort by more than 10 hours per week.
  • Use learning curves to guide course improvements. Estimated cumulative mastery increased from 71% in the initial offering to 88% in later iterations; these estimates compare course offerings.
  • Built and evaluated a retrieval-grounded GenAI feedback system using instructional assets. A within-subject study found no statistically significant difference in learning outcomes versus expert-authored feedback.
  • Created the curriculum for Tools for Online Learning and supported three years of remote instruction; partnered with faculty to redesign six additional CMU courses for blended delivery.

UX Engineer Assistant

January–May 2020

Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools · Carnegie Mellon University

  • Researched, designed, and developed a web-based tutor-authoring interface, informed by eight stakeholder interviews and four usability tests.
  • Built behavior-graph interactions that connect solution paths and common errors with targeted feedback and branching learning experiences.

Volunteer Teacher, Summer Camp

May 2016–July 2019

MSA Excellence Academy

  • Taught Scratch programming and Microsoft Office to 6th–8th grade students, translating technical concepts into hands-on activities for novice learners.

Web Development Intern

July–November 2018

MotivateBox

  • Developed backend features for a startup’s shopping dashboard using Django, partnering with the product manager to implement product requirements.

Selected work

Author Your First Skill

A workshop and interactive lesson built around authentic workflows, authoring decisions, explanatory feedback, and testing.

LearnLab certificate courses

Course and catalog development, curriculum alignment, production processes, SME collaboration, and improvement through learner data.

Algebra Equation Solving Tutor

Co-designed diagram-based self-explanation and rule-based tutoring informed by cognitive task analysis and learner testing.

Selected research

Beyond Repetition

The Role of Varied Questioning and Feedback in Knowledge Generalization. Learning @ Scale, 2024.

Gautam Yadav, Paulo F. Carvalho, Elizabeth A. McLaughlin, and Kenneth R. Koedinger

ActiveAI

The Effectiveness of an Interactive Tutoring System in Developing K-12 AI Literacy. EC-TEL, 2024. Co-author.

Education

Carnegie Mellon University

August 2020

M.S. Educational Technology and Applied Learning Science

Indian Institute of Information Technology, Jabalpur

May 2019

B.Tech. Computer Science and Engineering

Methods and tools

Learning design: backward design, needs analysis, cognitive task analysis, instructional alignment, storyboarding, and assessment design.

Research and evaluation: learning analytics, learning curves, experimental design, mixed-methods evaluation, and usability testing.

Program delivery: stakeholder collaboration, project management, and production standardization.

Development and authoring: Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Git, agentic AI workflows, Figma, Open Learning Initiative, Canvas, Articulate Rise, Adobe Captivate, and DataShop.