Learning is shaped long before outcomes tell the full story. 

Research across engagement, motivation, active learning, and learner agency suggests that how people experience learning influences participation, persistence, and connection to the learning process over time. But many of these signals remain difficult to see while learning is still unfolding. By the time disengagement becomes measurable through grades, attendance, or performance indicators, important opportunities for understanding may already have passed. 

Vzable was designed in response to this timing gap. It applies established research on engagement and learner experience to help make emerging patterns more visible earlier within the learning process itself. This includes research describing engagement as multidimensional — including cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and agentic dimensions — along with research suggesting that learner voice, active participation, and meaningful autonomy can strengthen engagement over time. 

Research informing Vzable, including the work of Amanda Felkey, also suggests that learners often engage more deeply when their experiences are acknowledged, and that educators benefit from earlier visibility into how learners are experiencing learning environments while those experiences are still taking shape. Vzable reflects a broader shift in how learning systems may evolve: 
from systems that primarily record outcomes, 
to systems that help make learning more understandable while it is happening. Earlier visibility creates more room for connection, responsiveness, and informed human judgment before patterns become harder to change. 

Primary Research Reference 

Felkey, A. J. (2025). The Power of Preference: Eliciting and Sharing Student Preferences for Engagement to Strengthen Academic Achievement.