GlassLab Games and the 2015 LRNG merger: what changed afterward
GlassLab made learning games that doubled as real-time assessments of student learning. In October 2015 it merged into LRNG, a new nonprofit effort started with $25 million in MacArthur Foundation seed funding.
Updated
What GlassLab did and why it merged
GlassLab explored whether digital games could serve at once as learning environments and as real-time assessments of what students know. In October 2015 it officially joined the LRNG movement, with launch events in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. LRNG's stated goal was to redesign learning for the connected age, and GlassLab was meant to scale up its reach to classrooms, businesses, community institutions and young people nationwide.
Under LRNG, GlassLab was to keep designing games for learning and assessment and to build the LRNG platform, a youth-facing website. Partners would place games in playlists that link gameplay to real-world outcomes such as systems thinking, engineering and design. By the end of 2015 GlassLab planned to publish a developer CMS, for integrating the SDK and defining reporting rules, and a developer portal for viewing gameplay metrics.
Where LRNG came from
That October the MacArthur Foundation spun its Digital Media and Learning program into a separate nonprofit called Collective Shift, with $25 million in seed funding. LRNG was its first endeavor. It aimed to connect schools, businesses, libraries, museums and city leaders into ecosystems of learning, and to expand demonstration projects in Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. under the name Cities of LRNG.
Connie Yowell, formerly the foundation's director of education, led Collective Shift as CEO. Jessica Lindl, the former executive director of GlassLab, served as COO. The team of about 30, including former GlassLab staff, was based in Redwood City, California, with satellite offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. Lindl said the same backend powered data and analytics for both GlassLab and LRNG, and that the plan reached beyond game-based assessment toward personalizing experiences outside the classroom. Yowell said earlier demonstration projects had set a strong direction but lacked the infrastructure to scale it, and that no single foundation or institution could supply that.
What is true today
EdSurge reported on December 12, 2018 that the GlassLab platform was scheduled to shut down on December 20, 2018. The platform had 15 games, and LRNG, a nonprofit in Redwood City, owned GlassLab's assets.
In November 2026 the GlassLab Games address, glasslabgames.org, does not load. The lrng.org address loads, but it shows an unrelated site in Korean.
Frequently asked questions
What was GlassLab?
GlassLab was an organization that built digital games used as learning tools and as real-time assessments of student learning. It merged into the LRNG effort in October 2015.
Is GlassLab Games still available?
Not as far as can be confirmed. EdSurge reported that the platform was set to shut down on December 20, 2018, and the glasslabgames.org address does not load in November 2026.
What is LRNG?
LRNG was the first project of Collective Shift, a nonprofit spun out of the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning program in 2015 with $25 million in seed funding. Its current web address shows an unrelated site.