Personalizing e-learning for learners sounds like a mammoth task at first, but that's not actually true! Find out now what you should pay attention to when creating personalized learning content and why the motto “one size fits all” does not apply in e-learning. After all, your learners are as individual in their learning behavior as their own fingerprint.
Personalizing e-learning is the key to sustainably successful further education, and most trainers and HR managers are well aware of this. But what exactly does that mean?
Definition: Personalized Learning
According to Wikipedia, personalized learning generally describes the learning practice that is oriented toward the individual learner – very much in the spirit of a new learning culture. The learning person therefore determines their own learning process, sets corresponding learning goals, and usually evaluates these independently as well. As a trainer or person responsible for further education, you usually accompany the learning process more passively.
Personalized learning is oriented towards
the learner themselves
prior knowledge
experiences
and interests.
Reading tip: In our blog, we have already explained in detail why personalized and individualized learning are not the same thing: Personalized and Individualized Learning – What's the Difference?
Why Personalization in E-Learning is So Important
Digital learning or distance learning has one major disadvantage: the direct exchange with other learners or the trainer is lost. As a result, e-learning quickly becomes impersonal and the actual learning performance decreases. And that is exactly the sticking point!
The solution to the problem comes from science: researchers like Richard Mayer and colleagues have found that conversational phrasing leads to better learning performance, especially in digital learning environments. This phenomenon is best known as the personalization principle.
Broken down, this means: people who feel personally addressed react more strongly to content and process it better. And as a result, they learn new things faster.
3 Techniques According to Mayer's Personalization Principle
Address your participants directly and avoid sentences with “one ...”
Example: “What you can take away from this course!”Supplement your learning content with supportive comments directed at the learner
Example: “Pay attention to your posture when performing the exercise.”For spoken texts, such as videos, the text should sound natural and, at best, be as accent-free as possible so that all participants can understand it
If you want to read more about the personalization principle, you can find the complete texts at Springer and the University of Trier.
In digital learning environments, such as e-learning, the presentation of documents and learning materials also plays a major role. After all, these should be stimulating and support the self-directed learning process. Pages of text and too much information quickly have a demotivating effect. That's why videos are a great way to make your course more diverse and personal.
3 Measures to Promote Personalized E-Learning
Of course, it's easier said than done, so finally, we would like to give you three expert tips so that you can actually succeed in implementing personalized learning.
1. Meaningful Preparation for E-Learning
As in other areas of life, the same applies here: preparation is half the battle.
In concrete terms, this means: establish a good foundation for your course success even before your course begins by gaining your learners' trust in advance. Get to know your participants better before the course starts to take strengths and weaknesses into account. Relieve them of potential anxieties beforehand and give them an initial overview of what to expect:
Discuss your intended curriculum.
Explain tasks to them in advance, for example, or
inform them about the final exam format.
All of this helps to strengthen your learning content and motivation to learn.
2. Microlearning as a Method
The principle of using small, self-contained learning units is nothing new in e-learning. Nevertheless, microlearning is still rarely used.
Microlearning is particularly helpful in personalized learning concepts: it allows learners to decide even better whether and how they want to work through which learning content. For optimal implementation, group topics and then pack them into small chapters with very short learning content. This gives learners a better overview of what to expect in the individual contents. In addition, motivation increases when a chapter is completed and closed. Learners thus have many small achievements and get a good feeling when working through your course.
Together with the first tip, you can specifically select content for your microlearning, remove, supplement, or replace content from the course – depending on how it fits your learners! Thanks to the small learning units in microlearning, personalizing your course is easier because you don't have to redesign the entire course.
3. Learner-Supported Learning
You have the best opportunity for more personal e-learning if you involve the learners directly in the learning process. Of course, this is not always possible to the fullest extent, but keep this advice in mind nonetheless.
If you involve the learners personally, you have the advantage that they can communicate their level of knowledge directly to you. You can incorporate their experiences from previous training courses, build on them, and adjust expectations accordingly. This makes it possible to set personal learning goals more realistically, and your participants will be more engaged and motivated in the learning process.
Conclusion
Personalized e-learning aligns learning content and learning paths more closely with the prior knowledge, experiences, interests, and goals of individual learners.
This does not require a completely separate online course for each participant. Even a personal address, appropriate learning goals, and small, flexibly combinable learning units can help make digital learning more individual.
It is particularly important to involve the learners themselves. Those who know their level of knowledge and expectations can select content more specifically and adapt the learning process better to their needs. In this way, "one size fits all" becomes a learning offer that takes different prerequisites into account.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
What does personalized learning mean?
Personalized learning aligns the learning process more closely with the individual learner. Among other things, prior knowledge, experiences, interests, and personal learning goals are taken into account.
How can e-learning be personalized?
E-learning can be personalized, for example, through direct address, individual learning goals, flexibly selectable learning content, and the involvement of the learners. A separate course does not necessarily have to be created for each participant.
Why is microlearning suitable for personalized e-learning?
Short, self-contained learning units are easier to select, exchange, and recombine. This allows learning content to be adapted more flexibly to different prior knowledge and learning goals.
Why should learners be involved in personalization?
Learners are best able to assess their own level of knowledge, experiences, and expectations themselves. This information helps to set realistic learning goals and select suitable content for the learning process.
