The result is a general eLearning course that does not take into consideration the learner’s past knowledge, their interests nor their personal and professional goals. It is no wonder that such courses fail to engage their learners, and thus fail to inculcate the required skills in them. What corporate eLearning requires is a learning system which adapts in real-time to the needs of every employee/learner. Adaptive learning is exactly that, which is why it is the need of the hour. In this article, we’ll further discuss why adaptive learning is exactly what corporate eLearning needs.
A lot of times the major part of what is taught in any eLearning course is already known to the learners that take them, which results in them skipping a lot of it, which sometimes includes relevant information ensconced in between that wasn’t known to them and could have been of benefit. Such a course would also waste a lot of the learner’s time, as nothing new of import is being learned. An eLearning course based on adaptive learning would take into account the existing knowledge of the learner, and therefore only fill the knowledge gaps that exist, saving time and adding value.
This is, perhaps, the most important aspect of adaptive learning, one which makes it such a wonderful learning system. Adaptive learning can determine what each individual learner needs, by determining what they already know, how much they do know about a particular skill or subject, whether they are engaged or disengaged at any point in the course and whether they are confident of their knowledge or not, and a number of other factors. This produces an optimal learning experience like no other.
Most eLearning courses require a learner to sit and take the course until its completion, internalizing and retaining all the knowledge contained within it. This is a very linear and passive way of learning. Actual learning does not happen like this. Actual learning is outcome-based, where each choice the learner makes helps them learn something. Adaptive learning is exactly that, modeled after formative assessment, which is the only way individuals learn.
It is quite obvious that adaptive learning is faster than any other learning methodology as it only delivers relative information required by learners. This saves time, which can be used to learn other skills. According to studies by multiple companies and education councils, adaptive learning is up to 50% faster than other learning methodologies.
Human beings are not perfect, and usually, have an inflated sense of their knowledge and selves. As a result, when asked if they know about a certain subject, they will tick “yes” even when they know only a little about it, or even if they are unsure about it. Sometimes, they don’t even know that they don’t know! This is something known as unconscious incompetence. An adaptive system is not so easily fooled and will check whether the learner actually knows about a topic in detail, and ensure that they learn what they need to.
Learning cannot happen without repetition. In order to truly internalize information, a person must be exposed to it repeatedly in intervals that get longer with time. Adaptive learning exposes its learners to the same learning content multiple times in exactly the way described above. Not only that but as an adaptive system understands what was hard for the learner and what was easy, it focuses more on the areas of need, helping learners retain what they have learned on a long-term basis.
Thus adaptive learning saves time, makes learning faster, better targets learners and ensures long term-retention of knowledge. What more could you ask of a learning system?
Originally published at cblpro.com.
