Implementing Personalized Learning in Higher Education

“Give a man a fish you will feed him for a day, but teach him how to fish and you will feed him for life”, this is the power of education. Education since time immemorial has been a key milestone in every individual’s life. It has evolved greatly over the years, embracing every technology ever developed. The global higher education market is valued at $477 Billion and is expected to double its value by 2030, according to verified market research. Now with personalization, this is set to take another leap forward.

With the emergence of new fields it has been observed that a one size fits all syllabus is a flawed system and universities all over the world have noticed this and are rewiring it to tailor every student’s interest. This allows a student to pursue subjects of their choice and is free to opt for themselves on what they like to learn and can opt out of what they do not desire. Here we cover the effective knowhows and advantages of personalized learning.

Analysis and Execution

Integrating a custom learning plan which can potentially cater to a lot of students is a rigorous task, this will require the university administrators to study the demographic of the region, the new emerging trends, decide on the relevant subjects and at the same time hire or employ new faculty who have experience in those new subjects. This is a two-way process in which the faculty and student must be kept up to speed.

And this should be simplified in a way in which a student can easily opt, try out a subject and if they do not desire to pursue it, they should be given a reasonable amount of time span and liberty to switch out of the program. A dedicated task force would be a good addition to perform this mammoth task.

Self Paced Learning

The university is a place with a variety of students, it is clear that every student has their own learning pace and has their own style of learning, the personalized learning system has the power to potentially cater to everyone's learning speeds and excel in their own fashion.

Furthermore, this gives more power to the student. If a student has power over their learning, they are bound to be more invested in education and the university can witness good overall grades along with satisfied students. This in turn would result in a domino effect which can do well in providing excellent contributors to society.

Tech Adaptation

The pandemic has changed the universities’ outlook on learning and they have skyrocketed their progress in adapting technology along with the traditional board and chalk lecturing. This adoption of technology can tremendously aid in personalizing the curriculum by having student resources which the students can access at will without the need for visiting a professor’s desk and have pre-recorded class lectures in case a student misses the class due to unforeseen circumstances, this approach can ensure a student can keep up with the class even if they are not physically present alongside their peers in the classroom.

This array of options can make sure that no child is left behind.

Catering to Different Kinds of Learners

As we all know there are auditory and visual learners, auditory learners would prefer learning by listening to text read out instructions and visual learners learn by watching practical demonstrations of what they are learning, accommodating visual type learners was previously very difficult in the standard mass education curriculum as there were barely any resources to cater to their needs.

But now with technology and the implementation of personalized learning, it is easy to tailor to the needs of both auditory learners and visual learners, the former can learn by listening to audio lectures of their class and the visual learner has video libraries with infographics and animation which the university has produced. This is a win-win situation for every variety of learners.

A personalized learning pathway can benefit both the university and its students, education is something that will be required for everyone irrespective of time, so it has to be made sure that its accessibility, and development must be carried out with no stops, it is an essential tool that can benefit everyone at all ages, knowledge acquisition is the end goal but the process is not linear and the ways are infinite.