Michael Mayrath, Ph.D.

“In August 2013, I officially joined the Knod team. I am truly excited to have this unique opportunity to collaborate with a top-notch team and work to improve the lives of thousands by providing an education-to-employment pathway.”

Personal info

Michael lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, dog and cat. He plays the drums and used to play in bands in the “Live Music Capital of the World,” but he is too busy these days helping to change the world through Knod!

• LinkedIn: Michael Mayrath, Ph.D.
• Twitter: @ed_innovation

About Michael

Michael believes that if you combine modern educational psychology research with innovative technologies then you can increase learning outcomes, motivation, and scheduling flexibility for the learner and instructor. A vision of 3-D simulated future learning environments led Michael to graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin where he completed a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and a Masters in Program Evaluation. He then moved to Boston for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education where he worked with pioneering researchers Drs. Chris Dede and Jody Clarke-Midura on the Virtual Performance Assessment project, which uses 3-D simulations to measure scientific inquiry skills.

After Harvard, Michael co-founded two start-ups focused on different segments – mobile learning/app development and matching algorithms for personalization. The latter start-up – Magellan Education, LLC - led to Michael’s introduction to Graham Doxey, CEO of Knod.

Michael joined Knod in 2013 as Managing Director – Learner Engagement. He leads technology development and instructional design for Knod. Michael has planned, executed, and evaluated R&D projects for the world’s leading institutions, including the U.S. Air Force and Cisco. Michael was lead editor of the book Technology-Based Assessments for 21st Century Skills published by Information Age Publishing in 2012. He served as an E-Textbook Reviewer in 2009-2010 for the Texas Education Agency’s Commissioner’s List adoption, and he is on numerous advisory boards for local, state, and national educational technology communities, including South-by-Southwest EDU (SXSWedu), Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Educational Technology Task Force, and Pflugerville ISD’s Career and Technical Education Business Advisory Board.