Another perspective on the personalisation of learning online

I gave a keynote presentation last week at a large educational conference in the Netherlands, ‘Dé Onderwijsdagen’ (Education Days). I was asked to talk about the personalisation of learning. I agreed as I think this is one of many potential advantages of online learning.

However, the personalisation of learning tends to be looked at often through a very narrow lens. I suggest that there are in fact at least seven ways in which online learning can facilitate the personalisation of learning. This is a blog post version of my keynote, which can be seen in full here.

Why personalisation?

Personalisation is one of the buzzwords going around these days in educational circles, like experiential learning or competency-based learning. Sometimes when I look more closely at some of the current buzzwords I end up thinking: ‘Oh, is that what it is? But I’ve always done that – I just haven’t given it that name before.’

However, I think there are good reasons why we should be focusing more on personalisation in post-secondary education:

• the need to develop a wide range of knowledge and skills in learners for the 21st century;
• as the system has expanded, so has the diversity of students: in age, language ability, prior learning, and interests;
• a wider range of modes of delivery for students to choose from (campus, blended, fully online);
• a wider range of media accessible not only to instructors but also to learners themselves;
• the need to actively engage a very wide range of preferred learning styles, interests and motivation.

Clearly in such a context one size does not fit all. But with a continuously expanding post-secondary system and more pressures on faculty and instructors, how can we make learning more individualised in a cost-effective manner?

Seven roads to personalisation

I can think of at least seven ways to make learning more personal. In my keynote I discuss the strengths and weaknesess of each of these approaches:.

• adaptive learning;
• competency-based learning;
• virtual personal learning environments;
• multi-media, multi-mode courses and learning materials;
• modularisation of courses and learning materials;
• new qualifications/certification (badges, nanodegrees, etc.);
• disaggregated services.

There are probably others and I would be interested in your suggestions. However I recommend that you look at the video presentation, as it provides more ‘flesh’ on each of these seven approaches to personalisation.

An overall design approach to personalisation

Personalisation of learning will work best if it is embedded within an overall, coherent learning design, In my keynote I suggest one approach that fully exploits both the potential of online learning and the personalisation of learning:

• the development of the core skill of knowledge management within a particular subject domain (other skills development could also be included, such as independent learning, research, critical thinking, and 21st century communication)
• the use of open content by students, guided and supported by the instructor
• student-generated multi-media content through online project work
• active online discussion embedded within and across the different student projects
• assessment through personal e-portfolios and group project assessment.

Such an ‘open’ design allows for greater choice in topics and approaches by learners while still developing the core skills and knowledge needed by our learners in a digital age. Other designs are also of course possible to reach the same kind of overall learning goals.

The role of the instructor though remains crucial, both as a content expert, guiding students and ensuring that they meet the academic needs of the discipline, and in providing feedback and assessment of their learning.

Conclusion

With knowledge continuing to rapidly grow and change, and a wide range of skills as well as knowledge needed in a knowledge-based society, we need new approaches to teaching that address such challenges.

Also because of increased diversity in our students and a wide range of different learning needs, we need to develop more flexible teaching methods and modes of delivery. This will also mean understanding better the differences between media and using them appropriately in our teaching.

Making learning more personal for our students is increasingly important, but it is only one element in new designs for learning. There are in fact many possibilities, limited only by the imagination and vision of teachers and instructors.