What is Adaptive Learning? Let’s Explore Its Benefits
As the education industry is evolving, schools and colleges need to take advantage of adaptive learning. Creating an environment that promotes learning, connection, and support should be created in the classroom itself. By doing so, students can learn faster and more efficiently.
What is Adaptive Learning?
Adaptive learning is an educational method that uses digital platforms and artificial intelligence to manage the interaction with the students and deliver customised resources as per their needs. In adaptive learning, the coursework progresses based on a student’s learning abilities. In today’s era, technology is increasingly being used by educational institutions to create strong interactions with students and better learning.
Adaptive learning includes Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Computer Algorithms. Online learning proves to be a useful tool since it focuses mainly on the student’s grasping pace and is customised for each individual. In this method, coursework adapts based on a student’s learning abilities. As technology evolves, adaptive learning fosters stronger student interactions and enhances educational outcomes.
Key Benefits of Adaptive Learning
The demand for adaptive learning has grown significantly, and new concepts of education have gained momentum, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Each student’s pace of acquiring knowledge is different, so adaptive learning can help create a personalised teaching experience for them.
Today, adaptive learning has become a major part of the ed-tech industry as it provides teachers and parents with a way to assess a student’s thinking and problem-solving abilities. Let’s explore some of the key benefits of adaptive learning.
Better and Faster progress
Increasing student enrollments and larger classrooms are some of the challenges students face in the traditional school system. To overcome this, adaptive learning can be useful. By using a variety of educational platforms and apps, teachers can divide students into smaller groups based on their learning potential, thus giving each group enough attention.
Enhanced Learning
A major advantage of adaptive learning is that it can assess students’ strengths and weaknesses in real time based on their learning graphs. By optimising and customising education apps, students can gain a thorough understanding of a topic before moving on to more complex material.
Knowledge Enhancement
In a conventional classroom, it is hard for teachers to ensure that students understand the topic equally. By using advanced technological apps, a personalised course of action can be created. As a result, students can learn at their own pace and are better prepared to grasp new information.
Engagement of Students
Today’s students are surrounded by technologically advanced devices. The use of adaptive learning technology can take advantage of the student’s love of technology. With the advent of mobile devices, students are more likely to engage with educational apps, which can facilitate their learning through tailored educational programs. Learning becomes exciting and engaging through these apps, which provide an excellent level of immersion.
Collaboration Between Students and Teachers
The benefits of adaptive learning extend beyond mobile screens to blended learning as well. Conducting one-to-one sessions with students would provide them with all the insights they need. Additionally, it improves the efficiency and effectiveness of teachers in imparting education.
Increasing Student Motivation
By offering students more control over their learning process, adaptive learning makes them feel more empowered. Furthermore, they have the freedom to decide which topic to learn at their own pace without waiting for others who are lagging or peers who are far ahead in the course. They gain confidence and learn more with this approach.
Identify and Address Gaps in Real-Time
In adaptive learning, the focus is primarily on student knowledge gaps, so identifying them is an important element of the strategy, which allows educators to address pain points. Moreover, this method allows for providing real-time feedback to students by analysing their academic performance and providing additional support when necessary.
Major Challenges of Adaptive Learning
There are several challenges that adaptive learning faces, which can limit its adoption by educational institutions. Some of them include:
Educators’ Perceptions
Due to a lack of proper training, many educators are unwilling to change their teaching style. Furthermore, teachers generally believe that modern technologies leave students at the mercy of unreliable algorithms. According to them, using educational apps only offers a limited level of personalisation, so if learners are having difficulties mastering a concept, they are likely to become discouraged.
Identifying the Best Resources and Solutions
In the absence of proper awareness and research, it can be expensive to offer education via adaptive learning. There are a number of factors that must be considered when designing an adaptive learning platform, including the right tools as well as the cost. Since there are many vendors on the market, institutes are taking a risk by using adaptive learning technology that is still unproven.
Selecting the Right ERP Provider
Educational institutions need to hire a team of developers or ERP providers who can help them transition to adaptive learning by providing easy-to-use AI-based educational tools. With many adaptive learning platform providers, selecting the right vendor can be time-consuming and stressful.
Managing Large Amounts of Data
By utilising adaptive learning platforms and educational apps, teachers can be faced with additional tasks such as analysing the data. Based on the graphs and patterns generated, faculty have to make deductions. It is necessary to provide them with additional training so they can analyse data and draw conclusions effectively.
Relying Entirely on Adaptive Learning
There is a tendency among teachers to confuse adaptive learning with total replacement of teaching, but the teacher’s role is equally important. In some cases, algorithms may not be able to measure all aspects of learning. As part of the adaptive learning process, faculty still play a major role in designing and analysing the information generated by the technology and helping students learn.
Building a Content Library
With adaptive learning, educators create multiple iterations of one-course topics since the content is tailored to the students’ needs. Active learning will be emphasised in some versions; visual learning will be in others; passive learning will be in others. For teachers, it can be a challenge to create different versions of content for students with different learning capabilities.
Confidently Moving Forward
Since adaptive learning is a new approach, and there are no sufficient research studies to prove its effectiveness, there is some uncertainty in the education sector as to whether it should be accepted. There are many schools that have spent a great deal of money developing algorithms for online adaptive learning platforms without fully understanding their implementation. Consequently, this approach has been hampered by confusion and limitations.
Conclusion
Institutes need to examine the above benefits and challenges associated with implementing adaptive learning technology before deciding and focusing on supporting teachers in offering the best-customised learning experience for every single student. By doing so, they can reach more than one hundred students at once with the benefits of learning.
At K.R. Mangalam World School, the Best School in Vikaspuri, we use a variety of learning activities to achieve high learning outcomes synergistically. Our adaptive technologies are designed to support online learning so that each student can do activities tailored to fit the learning abilities of individual students.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. What is adaptation learning?
Adaptive learning refers to an educational method which uses digital platforms and artificial intelligence to manage the interaction with the students.
Q2. How does adaptive learning help students?
Each student’s pace of acquiring knowledge is different, so adaptive learning can help create a personalised teaching experience for them.
Q3. What technology is used in adaptive learning?
Adaptive learning uses Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Computer Algorithms.
Q4. What is the limitation of adaptive learning?
Some challenges include teacher reluctance, managing data, and selecting the right tools.