Adaptive learning is expanding and being incorporated in a constantly increasing number of higher education applications. Welcome to an interview with Brad Parkins, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, where McGraw-Hill LearnSmart s a new offering designed for a personal experience.
What is your name and
relation to elearning?
I’m Brad Parkins, director of digital product marketing at
McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
How would you define
adaptive learning, given today's use of technology?
Adaptive learning is a method of education that seeks to
personalize learning by using sophisticated technology to continually assess
students’ knowledge, skill and confidence levels and design study paths that
are specifically targeted to help each student improve in the areas where they
need to the most.
Adaptive learning systems don’t just pay attention to
whether or not you answered a question correctly or incorrectly. McGraw-Hill LearnSmart, for example,
also weighs factors like how long it took you to answer the question, which
incorrect answer you chose (if indeed you answered incorrectly), and your level
of confidence in answering the question. That last part is key—for students to
improve in areas where they have weaknesses, they have to know where those
areas are. Students often get into trouble when they think that they know
something but actually don’t. [it’s the
system that based on a number of factors it identifies what they know and they
don’t know]
What are the benefits
of adaptive learning?
By allowing students to focus their study time on the topics
and concepts that are most challenging to them, adaptive learning has been
shown to help students study more efficiently, develop greater proficiency and—most
importantly— earn
better grades. That’s part of the magic of adaptive learning.
Adaptive learning also benefits instructors: By better
preparing students for class, adaptive learning enables instructors to spend
more time delving into advanced concepts and engaging students in high-level
discussion.
How do you use
adaptive learning? Which are the primary fields of study that you believe are
most amenable to adaptive learning?
In an adaptive learning environment, students use their
outside-of-class study time to review course materials and answer questions
that assess their knowledge and skill levels. Students can work in adaptive
learning systems on their desktop or laptop or on their mobile device. We’ve
designed the adaptive products in our LearnSmart
Advantage suite so that students can use them on their phones or tablets
even while offline and have their progress be automatically uploaded into the
system the next time they come online.
Beginning this spring, we’re offering our adaptive learning
products in more than 90 course areas, from American
government to organic chemistry to Spanish. I really think that adaptive
learning works in just about every area of study.
How do you motivate
learners who may feel anxiety about being assessed online? Can adaptive
learning help?
That’s a good question. In the vast majority of cases,
schools or instructors decide to use adaptive learning systems in their course
as a way of providing students with a more intelligent, more efficient way of
preparing themselves, both for in-class discussions and more formal
assessments. With all of the products in our LearnSmart Advantage suite, we’ve
tried to take the stress out of assessment.
What makes some
adaptive learning solutions better than others?
A few things come to mind, but probably the biggest
differentiator is the amount of student data that’s been entered into the
system. As students answer more questions within an adaptive learning system,
the system becomes more familiar with student learning patterns and becomes
better able to assess each student’s knowledge and skills to provide
personalized study recommendations. In 2012, we reached two important
milestones with LearnSmart: 1 million student users and 1 billion questions
answered. We’re not excited about these numbers just because they’re big—we’re
excited about them because they really speak to our ability to adapt to
students’ individual learning needs and improve student performance.
What are the next
steps for adaptive learning?
2012 was the breakout year for adaptive learning, but in 2013,
I think we're going to see personalized learning through adaptive technology
truly come into its own. By the end of the year, we’re expecting to see adaptive
learning systems will be in use at every higher education institution across
the country.
Where will adaptive learning go next? Already we’re seeing
it move beyond the realm of course study tools into new areas of the student
learning experience. Adaptive
e-books, adaptive
virtual labs – these are things that we’ve been waiting on for a long time,
and they’re finally here. Personally, I can’t wait to see how tools like these
start to improve the performance of students around the world. I truly believe
we’re onto something big here.
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| Susan Smith Nash |
