Personalized Instruction: Questions to Ask

From the University of Pittsburgh Strategic Plan  GOAL 1: Advance Educational Excellence  Strategy: Serve as a leader in personalizing educational experiences…  Implementation: …diversify expertise in personalized learning…

What does personalized instruction mean to you?

Richard Culatta, Deputy Director, Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education

P E R S O N A L I Z E D I N S T R U C T I O N A D A P T I V E L E A R N I N G Class Groups Self selected projects/papers Pre- tests Pre-tests & Placement Formative Assessment & Remediation (branching) Scaffolding Mastery/Competency Based Instruction/Courses Self-pacing Traditional, Classroom Instruction Machine Driven Computer based adaptation Algorithm driven adaptation Mastery for progression Learner Analytics Clinical Instruction Competency Based Evaluation Competency Based (CB) Testing Partial CB Testing Increasing cost, efficiency, and scale Decreasing instructor’s role THE ADAPTIVE/ PERSONALIZED LEARNING CONTINUUM Dashboard Analytics C. Washburn, Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education, 2016

National Ed Tech Plan “Technology gives students opportunities for taking ownership of their learning. Personalized learning is paced to student needs, tailored to learning preferences, and customized to the specific interests of different learners.”

In an Introduction to Psychology Course, UPACE taught students outperformed conventionally taught students (see handout)  Disadvantaged vs. not disadvantaged  Prepared vs Underprepared  Performance on cumulative exam  Six month retention performance

2014 University of Maine – Presque Isle  Before : Political Science Course, Intro to Political Science – lecture + readings. 3 exams and 2 papers  With Proficiency Based Course : “Integrated Learning Community of 12 credit hours that meets specific proficiencies in Understanding Government with a multidisciplinary team of faculty. Your project (that you may choose to work on) would focus on some aspect of the American Political System that would connect an historical perspective where you would demonstrate competencies in oral or written communication as well sociological experiences and how that impacts the American experience.” University of Main, Presque Isle, Ray Rice, Vice Provost

Lessons From Five Years of Funding Digital Courseware 12 awardees, including:  Monterey Institute of Technology  Carnegie Mellon  National Center for Academic Transformation  Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching  Educause  Rice University  Massachusetts Institute of Technology  University of Maryland

Courseware has only a modest impact on completion rates From: SRI Lessons from 5 Years of Funding Digital Courseware. content/uploads/2014/10/SRI_Lessons-from-5-Years-of-Funding-Digital-Courseware1.pdf

Changing the Equation and the Pathways Project produced large positive impacts re learning outcomes.

What Aspects of Digital Courseware Have More Positive Effects on Learning?  Breadth  Learners’ preparation  Subject area  Pacing  Dominant student role  Individualized  Mastery based  Adaptive  Blended

Downloaded from the website: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Postsecondary Success, on March 8, 2016, ( Sources: The Open Leaning Initiative: Measuring The Effectiveness of the OLI Statistic Course I Accelerating Student Learning, and lesson from Five Year of funding Digital Courseware: Postsecondary Success Portfolio Review.

Questions to Begin the Conversation  What problem needs to be solved? (What problems will it solve?)  How will we know if the intervention is successful?  What factors contributed to the development of the problem?  What population/characteristics is the program targeting?  What is the evidence that the goals can be achieved with the targeted population?  What implications can develop as a product of the intervention?  What support will be needed?  What infrastructure changes need to be addressed?