Adaptive e-learning, taken to new levels by incorporating advances in other areas, such as interactive role-playing games, customizable avatars, guided presentation of content, just-in-time knowledge acquisition, CAT (computer adaptive testing), could bring about a total paradigm shift in online education. Imagine a truly individualized educational experience, with an AI mentor (in the guise of an avatar) that cues, requires feedback, research, and interactive just-in-time learning as students replicate the behaviors of successful games. Further, it could be the way to support the 500-student lecture experience, now a staple of bricks-and-mortar universities, without having to go to the labor- and cost-intensive online seminars, usually limited to 25 students, and crippled by low completion rates. Continue reading ‘Adaptive E-Learning: New Directions and Possibilities’
Archive for March, 2004
Contrary to conventional wisdom and expectations, the “early adopters” of the University of Oklahoma’s online Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree were not tech-savvy teenagers. Instead, in the late 90s, one year into our new online program, we found that the average age was 53, although we had many students in their 70s. The majority of the older learners were women, who returned to higher education for many reasons. We did not have much insight into those reasons at first, but, after observing the same perennial flowering year after year, we began to understand the nature of the passion for knowledge and self-actualization that so characterized older learners. Continue reading ‘Older Learners and Online Education Programs: Not What You Might Expect’
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