Designing adaptive learning technologies for personalized education

Adaptive learning, also known as adaptive teaching, is a learning experience customized for an individual’s or group’s unique needs. It often involves real-time feedback, a variety of resources and pathways that evolve with the learner.¹

This kind of personalization advances modern education by better engaging students and aligning motivation with someone’s personal interests and learning style. It makes education more meaningful, fostering deeper understanding and helping learners make the most of their time.

Read on to learn more about adaptive learning and the technologies that help create personalized education.

Core principles of adaptive learning

Adaptive and data-driven learning rests on three core principles:

• Data-driven decision-making: Collecting data, such as academic performance, assessment scores, graduation rates and course completion rates, helps educators and administrators make well-informed decisions based on quantifiable student learning and behavior, rather than relying on one-size-fits-all models²
• Student-paced, individualized instruction: Countless factors influence a student’s learning pace, and adaptive learning helps educators adjust courses to match that pace and provide a fluid, more self-driven learning experience 
• Real-time feedback and continuous assessment: Adaptive learning sciences encourage frequent assessments and feedback to provide ample data for decision-making. Feedback, given to students and educators, helps everyone stay on the same page and improve productivity

Components of adaptive learning technologies

Modern adaptive learning technology helps create personalized education experiences, streamlining this customization. These technologies support the core principles of adaptive learning.

• Learning management systems: These software systems manage administration, tracking, reporting, documentation and automation in education. This helps educators create and deliver content and solid education plans that align with student performance and needs using data³
• AI algorithms and machine learning models: AI in education can be an amazing tool, streamlining customization by analyzing data and curating personalized education plans. These systems can work on learner modeling, content customization and feedback mechanisms, making adaptive learning more efficient and accessible in a variety of educational settings⁴
• Content delivery and analytics dashboards: These interconnected technologies help optimize learning experiences for individuals. They can help tailor content based on data and provide real-time learning analytics that inform educators. This includes teaching aspects such as order of information, pace and visual versus auditory resources 

Benefits of personalized education

Adaptive learning improves student engagement and motivation. When students feel that they are learning at their own pace and have the tools and resources that align with their learning style, they are more likely to be excited and interested in the content. There’s a continuous flow to the education experience that makes it easier to connect with the material.

And that connection also means better retention and understanding. For example, if a student is taught a subject too quickly for their natural pace, their understanding of the material will be flimsy, and they’re less likely to retain the core principles of the topic.

Ultimately, adaptive learning sciences are remarkable because they accommodate a diverse range of learning styles. There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to learn something, as long as the end result is the same level of understanding. With modern learning analytics tools and custom learning plans, people can learn in a way that makes sense to them.⁵

Designing adaptive systems

To build an adaptive system, you have to start at the finish line and work backward. That means clearly defining the end goals of an education experience and determining what criteria meet the standard for success.

Once those goals are solidified, you can use technology to create modular and flexible content that can easily be adjusted as needed. This is best done by utilizing a wide array of tools and resource types, including textual, audio, visual and beyond. The content also needs to be able to be expanded, condensed or rearranged.

Finally, feedback is everything. A learning system cannot be adaptive if it’s not ready to accept feedback and evolve based on that feedback. Whether it’s too fast a pace or overly simplified explanations that don’t dive deep enough, continuously utilizing student (and even instructor) feedback is what makes adaptive learning effective.

Role of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)

AI and ML in education can do much of the legwork involved with adaptive systems. These technologies can predict learner behavior, quickly identify gaps in understanding and offer solutions to make content more digestible.

For example, it would likely take an instructor hours to sift through a large batch of student tests and identify patterns that show concept misunderstandings or the correlation between performance and an element of the learning model. AI and ML can detect these patterns and correlations in minutes.

These systems need data, so the more you give them, the better they can create learning models that generate real results. Constantly providing these systems with information, from how many students raise their hands to answer a question to which individuals are struggling with a certain module, helps them better predict behavior and facilitate success.⁶

Best practices for effective design

To create learning systems that deliver favorable results, you need to prioritize collaboration, feedback and objectives.⁷ Each system should be designed with impact, equity and innovation in mind, as well. The models should make a strong impression to engage students and be flexible enough to help all students learn, not just ones who thrive in traditional education settings.

• Collaboration: The best adaptive systems are designed in collaboration with instructors and students. Before beginning, collecting surveys that ask about preferences and learning/teaching styles can be incredibly helpful
• Feedback: To optimize any learning system, data collection, communicative feedback and deep analytics are necessary. This informs the system of strengths and weaknesses in the design that can be addressed. There must always be room for innovation to improve the equity of education
• Objectives: It’s essential that these designs align with curriculum standards. If they don’t, it’s all for naught. That’s why we start at the finish line. Everything must lead toward the final goals, and those must be woven throughout the system design

Future trends in adaptive learning

Adaptive learning sciences are in their infancy, and there is so much room for growth and innovation. We expect to see large leaps in the advancement of learning sciences in the coming decades. Some future trends to look out for include the following:

• AR/VR
• Gamification
• Mobile apps

Furthermore, adaptive learning has potential in lifelong learning and professional development. It can improve corporate training solutions, inform conferences and workshops and even help people engage with new hobbies and skills.

Learn how to revolutionize education with a Master of Science in the Learning Sciences

Adaptive learning can transform education, making an incredible impact on how students absorb information and how instructors collaborate with learners. These flexible systems can improve educational equity and efficiency, while making it more enjoyable and enriching for everyone.

If designing learning models that can innovate and engage excites you, Southern Methodist University’s online Master of Science in the Learning Sciences is the perfect program for you.

Become part of the mission to make learning accessible for every kind of learner. Contact us to learn more about our admissions standards and process. You can also talk to one of our admissions outreach advisors if you have any questions or need guidance.