Adaptive learning is the use of technology to assist students in learning new material. It has four aspects: content management, instructor access, system security, and student activity monitoring. A strategy must be in place to address all four issues before implementing a solution. Adaptive learning has been successful in Europe and Asia since the mid-1990s, but has been slower to be adopted in North America.
Adaptive learning is the use of technology to assist students in learning new material. This is a growing area of research and development as more organizations turn to technology to overcome learning barriers, reduce operational costs, and deliver a consistent level of quality to users located in different geographies. Changes in technology have allowed many learning institutions to provide access to materials and courses to a wider audience by controlling access.
There are four aspects to adaptive learning: content management, instructor access, system security, and student activity monitoring. A strategy must be in place to address all four issues before an institution or organization can successfully implement a solution. This type of learning has been successfully adopted in Europe and Asia since the mid-1990s, but has received a much slower acceptance rate in North America.
Content management refers to the process of defining your course description, writing your course notes, and publishing them in the adaptive learning tool. The main barriers are the complexity of the tool and the level of willingness of academic staff to expand their skills to include electronic teaching tools. Studies have shown that a tool that is well designed, intuitive, and fully supported by the organization has a higher adoption rate than other tools.
Many students are concerned about the level of interaction with the course instructors. The ability to ask a question in both public and private settings and receive a detailed response from the instructor is an essential part of the learning process. There are several tools used to manage this process, such as discussion forums, instant messengers, and online chats. Well-designed, user-friendly tools have a much higher adoption rate than more feature-rich tools that aren’t user-friendly.
Security is an important part of the infrastructure behind adaptive learning tools. The common methodology is the use of security certificates and usernames and passwords to control access. The primary concern is not data manipulation, but access to controlled or restricted materials. Many multinational organizations use this technology to train geographically dispersed personnel in new business processes or technology skills. These programs are owned by the organization and are not expected to be available to the general public.
Tracking student activity is closely tied to a managed content system. Students should only see courses or materials that they have registered for and are requesting access to. In the background, the adaptive learning tool should keep track of how often the learner logs into the system, the actions they initiate within the tool, and the results of the various assessment tools. The security of this part of the system is very important, as confidentiality should be maintained.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
