With the recent forays of artificial Intelligence (AI) in education there seems to be some confusion with how the terms adaptive and personalization are used. I am increasingly seeing the term adaptive learning used, but is the learning process really adapting, and if so, to what is it adapting? Even with an AI enhanced learning environment, the cognitive aspects of learning do not adapt. For example, the learner still goes through stages of comprehension, recall, integration with prior learning, and application.
AI uses the learner’s behavior, past, present, or both, to introduce alternative learning elements. Since everyone makes different choices over time, recommendations will be different for individuals across a group of learners. Thus, learning becomes personalized when the course content or delivery changes to meet individual needs or preferences. Personalized learning happens as a result of adaptive design.
Designing for Personalized Learning
How does one design for personalized learning? Trending topics might lead you to believe that AI is the only way to create adaptive training. Fortunately, since AI implementations can be confusing and costly, there are a few do-it-yourself methods available. Some old school methods such as branching and pre-tests provide a limited degree of personalization.
More recently, the Learner Intelligence (LI) approach is being used to create highly sophisticated personalized learning that rivals what can be accomplished with AI. The LI model provides the learner with options to personalize training at the point of need. The designer who masters adaptive design today will be strategically positioned to benefit from advances in AI tomorrow. In my next post, A Three-Step Approach to Adaptive Design, I outline simple design techniques you can start using immediately.
I prefer the term adaptive design rather than adaptive learning because it emphasizes that the designer determines the adaptive elements. I think personalized learning is more appropriate than adaptive learning because although the learning path may be unique, the cognitive learning processes do not change. What do you think? Your opinions can help shape how we refer to these issues moving forward.