Ways In Which Adaptive Learning Revolutionizes Corporate Training
We live in an era of personalization. People like it when something is customized to suit their needs, it gives them a special feeling. Most educators are warming up to the fact that there can be no one-size-fits-all approach in learning, and especially so in eLearning. When talking about personalized eLearning, the one eLearning trend that stands tall above all others is, without a doubt, adaptive learning.
Adaptive learning means creating customized learning experiences for learners which cater to their unique needs through personalized feedback, different in-course paths depending on the learners' choices as well as a number of resources (hints, documents etc.) they can take aid from.
How Does Adaptive Learning Work?
Well, adaptivity can be introduced into an eLearning course in two ways. One, by design, called 'designed adaptivity', and two, via an algorithm, which is known as 'algorithmic adaptivity'. Both of these ways work, and there is no 'better way', but rather which way an educator uses depends upon his/her needs. In a corporate organization, this is usually decided by conducting a 'need analysis'. Let's see what each of these ways encompass.
1. Designed Adaptivity
Designed adaptivity does not depend on an algorithm to give a customized experience to the learner, but rather is designed in such a way that it can take learners onto different paths based on their choices. It follows a kind of "IF THIS, then THAT" approach. What this means is that unique choices lead to unique learning experiences. For example, a learner moving too fast through the course might get a message to slow down, and a learner moving too slow may be asked to pick up speed. Likewise, a learner answering questions quite easily may receive harder questions, and a learner having a hard time keeping up with the questions may receive easier ones.
2. Algorithmic Adaptivity
Algorithmic adaptivity, like its name suggests, uses an algorithm to provide a customized learning experience to the learner. Algorithms can be created in various ways, but usually, an adaptive learning algorithm revolves around two questions: "What does the learner know?" and based on that, "What learning experience should be provided to them next?" The algorithm also gauges the rate at which a person is learning by repeating certain questions at certain times, and like designed adaptivity can adapt to advanced or weak learners.
What Benefits Does Adaptive Learning Provide To Corporate Learners In An Organization?
There are various benefits adaptive learning can provide corporate learners in an organization, let's go through them to better apply them in corporate training programs.
1. It Saves Time And Makes Learning Faster
When a course is customized and personalized for each individual learner, it is natural that it takes lesser time for the said individual to learn a skill, quality or information. Adaptive learning is focused on learning, and only provides learning experiences tailored to increase an individual's work efficiency, making learning faster.
2. It Improves Employee Competency
What is the need for corporate training after all? Most would agree that it is to increase each employee's proficiency in their job. What better way to focus on each individual employee and providing them with courses that sharpen their job skills? The best thing about adaptive learning is, perhaps, that it bridges any competency gaps a learner is troubled with by focusing more on them. Such modules usually have much clearer outcomes than other eLearning courses, which is what makes them effective.
3. It Gets Better With Time
It's called "adaptive learning" exactly because it "adapts" to the learner's requirements. Whether designed or algorithmic, both adaptive learning approaches collect data about what the learner knows, and doesn't know, and then filling those "doesn't know" gaps with information. This means that the more and more learners use an adaptive learning program, the bigger its database gets, and the better it gets at improving the learning experiences of all the individual learners in the group.
4. It's "Smart" Learning
Traditional corporate training programs need to be updated every once in a while. And even then, a lot of information in the modules gets repeated, a lot. Adaptive learning modules have a database, and thus "know" what each individual learner has already learned. This way, it always works on improving the areas the learners haven't mastered yet while refreshing the knowledge they already have.
