I support adaptive learning, especially the applications of AR/VR, AI, gamification, and micro-learning for a more personalized experience that helps overcome the Forgetting Curve. I typically incorporate technology, micro-learning, social media, texting, and gamification into my trainings. (See the below videos for a few examples.) For adaptive learning to truly be effective, digital technologies should not be used as a “crutch”. Instructional designers and curriculum developers should familiarize themselves with a variety of technologies and learning models, carefully choosing which technologies or teaching tools to incorporate. Even before concepts like “gamification” became buzzwords, these techniques were used to improve engagement, learning, and retention. I experienced this as a student myself and I also witness it among my students.
Of course, I’m also a realist. In digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), I’ve seen Google create search algorithms to “predict” what people searching for. While personalized search results have taken off, especially after the success of social media, these “personalized” results are not always as accurate as one might hope. There is still much work to be done to improve the accuracy & effectiveness of AI & “personalized” technologies. I truly hope that AI can be implemented for learning in a more useful way than it was for personalized search. There’s much potential if we can properly harness and effectively implement the full capabilities of this technology.
Adaptive Learning in Action:
For this project where I’m teaching middle school girls how to write computer code, I could implement adaptive learning might include gamification. Organizations such as Treehouse.org, iD Tech and others do a great job of gamifying coding content by giving learners points for each topic they complete. Sometimes, those points can be redeemed for prizes to make learning even more fun, engaging and rewarding.
If something like that is too difficult to implement, I could also use Articulate Storyline to create an interactive game based upon my course content. Articulate Rise would be an ideal option for creating mobile-responsive micro-learnings.
I already plan to implement social media video trainings (Instagram and YouTube) into my upcoming coding curriculum for middle school girls. I believe the interactive and gamified elements will be particularly effective for this target audience. Further, I could personalize the learning experiences by having more advanced coding challenges that my learners could “unlock” once they get a good grasp on more foundational coding concepts. I’ve experimented with this in some of my previous courses with great results; beginners can focus on learning foundational concepts and those who are intermediate to advanced do not get bored because there is more advanced content that they can “unlock” in order to stay continually challenged. This more thorough understanding of the course content can be assessed through their final projects, which will involve building their own websites for a business or nonprofit idea. Depending upon their grasp of the content, their projects might be more basic, intermediate, or advanced but each learner will complete his or her own website by the end of this course.