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Technology in the Classroom for Personalized Learning

March 18, 2013 •Higher Education • 2 Comments

By Connie Johnson, Ed.D., Chief Academic Officer

CTU Academic Leadership - Personalized Learning - InnovationI recently attended the Council on Higher Education’s (CHEA) annual meeting where I listened to a presentation about private universities that primarily serve online students. One meeting attendee noted aloud that institutions similar to CTU were innovators as demonstrated by the early adoption of online learning. But the attendee further asked: What was next?

I’m delighted that CTU is at the front line piloting new technology such as personalized learning to enhance the educational experience of CTU’s students.

What is personalized learning? During the last several years, there’s been a movement to provide students in the classroom with the specific information they need through technology, rather than making students read content and sit through lectures they don’t need. Instead of working with material that’s either too advanced or not advanced enough, what if students could use material that was just right for them?

If you ask CTU’s Dean of Information Technology, Dr. Myles Vogel, he’d say that data analytics are making leaps and bounds toward knowledge needs assessment. It’s bringing us closer to technology’s ability to determine not only what knowledge is needed, but also to predict the knowledge needed for success in the online classroom. CTU is working on methods to provide exactly that in a number of classes offered in 2013. As the year progresses, our academic leaders, faculty and students will be sharing their classroom experiences with personalized learning. Stay tuned.


CTU Faculty - Connie JohnsonConnie Johnson, Ed.D., is the Chief Academic Officer/Provost working with both online and ground degree programs. Dr. Johnson is the leader of CTU Academics and Student Affairs and brings over 20 years of experience in academics. Connect with Dr. Johnson on Twitter @DrConnieJohnson.


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Image credit: Flickr/Hampton Roads Partnership

Comments

Connie Johnson •May 04, 2013 at 07:50 AM

Thank you for your very thoughtful comment Julius. You speak a very important impetus for this innovation in the classroom. To directly answer your question, the technology does provide the ability for students to excel through the material and for students to take additional time. All will be measured against the same course outcomes. What may be different for students is the amount of time that they spend with course content. Although, if a student does want additional material, that will be available as well. We are gathering feedback through surveys and direct feedback to instructors as we implement our new learning tools. It is very affirming for me as an educator to receive your student feedback and dialogue!

Julius Cannon, CTU Student •March 29, 2013 at 05:13 AM

Personalized learning (PL) is an idea for which the time has come. There are a number of advantages that I can see using PL and making the adaptable approach a reality. I have longed believed that students should be given material that is appropriate for where they are academically. I know when I taught classes I had to dumb-down my instruction for those who were behind the more advanced student. In dumbing-down my instruction I realized that I was treating my more advanced students unfairly because I was stifling their growth. Nevertheless, I had to do that to keep a high retention rate. PL, if I understand what is being saved, sounds like the ideal approach. The only concern I have with it is, will it bring both the academically advanced and the academically challenged to the same point at the same time? If that can be achieved by PL then that would totally be awesome.

What do you think?

 
 
 

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