After the success of the workshop Adaptivity in learning and instruction during our last International Fall School in 2014, where it was rated highest on usefulness for current and future research, ICO is now offering it as a regular ICO course.

The course focuses on research and design of adaptive support in learning and instruction. Adaptivity promotes learning, but in order to effectively adapt instructional materials to learners’ needs, insight in a learner’s behavior is necessary. Instructional designers have long since relied on ‘traditional’ measures to gain this insight; examples include interviews, questionnaires, or observations. As most of these measures are taken ‘after the fact’, they cannot be used to adapt the learning and instruction process in real time. Another concern is that these data sources may not be valid. Measures like think-aloud protocols, eye movement registration, or neurocognitive indicators may be superior in this respect, but are equally difficult to implement in real time. This ‘real time’ problem can be solved by using log files which contain computer generated data of learners’ actions in an e-learning environment. Based on these data, a system can immediately determine and implement a next step. This can be selecting a suitable task, presenting useful information, and so forth. 

This course revolves around two key issues in the design of adaptive instruction. The first concerns the type of behavior or learner actions that forms the basis for adaptive instruction. So, what is adapted to what? The second issue is how such an adaptive learning process can be designed using educational data mining / learning analytics techniques. Said differently, how can patterns be identified from log file data, and used to realize effective adaptive e-learning?

More information on the course, and how to prepare can be found on the page www.ico-education.nl/education/course-archive/ico-courses-2016-2017/16-t1 . Registration will close early September.