What Is Adaptive Learning?

Adaptive learning is the use of technology to assist students in learning new material. This makes it more accessible to all students regardless of their economic status, gender, or race. This is a growing area of research and development, as more organizations look to technology to overcome the barriers to learning, reduce operational costs, and provide a consistent level of quality to users located in different geographical areas. For instance, more tutorial agencies try to use adaptive learning to make it easier for learners of all ages to absorb as much information as they can in the easiest and most convenient way possible.

Changes in technology have allowed many learning institutions to provide access to materials and courses to a broader audience while controlling access. This type of learning makes it easier for students to learn concepts permanently and increase their chances of success in entrance examinations or

. As a parent, it's wise to find a school that utilizes this teaching method for your child's benefit.

There are four aspects to adaptive learning: content management, access to instructors, system security, and tracking student activity. These four aspects help prepare students for challenging phases in their schooling anywhere from finals, to inter school competitions, to scholarship qualifying tests. A strategy must be in place to address all four issues before an institution or organization can successfully implement a solution. But institutions and organizations aren't exclusive providers of adaptive learning. Private online tutors and yes, even parents can do this for their kids to supplement traditional learning at school. This type of learning has been adopted successfully in Europe and Asia since the mid-1990s, but has received a much slower acceptance rate in North America. And this isn't just limited to big organizations anymore. In fact, some tutorial agencies are beginning to incorporate this method into their teaching models and teaching styles.

Content management refers to the process of defining the course description, writing the course notes, and publishing them in the adaptive learning tool. If a person wishes to learn enough to get scholarships or get into good schools, this method might just be what they need. The primary barriers are the complexity of the tool and the level of willingness of academic staff to expand their skills to include electronic teaching tools. Which is quite troublesome since technology is a crucial part of this model. For instance, medical classes like nursing or chemistry will be difficult to teach without advanced learning 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.

That's why it's important to design it in a way that's going to be easy for both the learner and the teacher.

Many students are concerned about the level of interaction with the course instructors. Some students, especially freshmen, are more likely to hesitate to ask questions and may end up missing on crucial details because of their apprehension. 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. Even some junior and senior students can still feel anxious about making clarifications which isn't good because these missed questions also result to missed learning opportunities. There are different tools used to manage this process, such as discussion boards, instant messaging, and online chatting. These tools can also be adjusted to accommodate disabled students. Tools that are well designed and intuitive have a much greater adoption rate than tools with more functionality that are not intuitive.

Security is an important part of the infrastructure behind adaptive learning tools. The common methodology is the use of security certificates and user names and passwords to control access. The primary concern is not one of data manipulation, but of access to controlled or restricted materials. Especially in senior students, it's always better to have access to more advanced lessons right away. These roadblocks make this impossible and can affect a student's learning pace. Many multinational organizations use this technology to train staff in geographically dispersed areas in new business processes or technological skills. These programs are proprietary to the organization and should not be available to the general public. This may be inconvenient but the restriction does give a certain level of exclusivity to your kids' learning, whatever grade level they're in.

Tracking student activity is closely linked to a managed content system. Students should only see courses or materials that they have registered for and require access to. If your goal is to ace the finals or to pass a scholarship test, consider getting access or modules to the subjects relevant to your goal. In the background, the adaptive learning tool should track how often the student accesses the system, the actions they initiate within the tool, and the results of various evaluation tools. The security of this part of the system is very important, as confidentiality should be maintained. If you want to track your child's progress and have access to this data, instead of relying on these systems, consider online tutoring instead. More and more tutoring companies are now making this data available to parents for complete transparency.