Making Step Forward Adaptive Learning — Another Way For LMS Upgrade

Incora
7 min readApr 27, 2022

The popularity of eLearning increases every day. It is hard to estimate its relevance. Modern tendencies require the improvement of existing technologies and the development of new approaches. For example, current learning management systems are unquestionably great tools for creating and moderating courses and individual training plans, but there are new market demands to be satisfied. One of such demands is a possibility not only to track the activity of every user but to create an environment for each of them to keep up with the group and learn the material not only faster but to give a chance for everyone to master the needed skills or information. These goals are easy to achieve simply by implementing and improving adaptive learning approaches. Check out the guide on how to develop an eLearning software.

What Is Adaptive Learning?

Adaptive Learning (AL) is the form of personalization of education and one more way of learning new material. Its goal is to provide all users with the most pleasant learning environment possible. Usually, it exists as tailored training, so every student or user has an individual approach during the studying process. It allows creating an environment, which helps to assimilate the material for everyone at his own pace. Therefore, the system gives easier tasks to people who find it difficult to study the material. Vice versa people who easily learn get harder tasks to consolidate and improve their skills. As an example of how exactly Adaptive learning works, let’s use the EduTailors project. It is an online platform for finding tutors and conducting online lessons. It enables the division of students into 2 groups: private tutoring and group classes. The first one is a great example of adaptive learning because every learner from each group has a teacher, who monitors the learning process personally and adjusts it if needed. The main point is that Adaptive Learning is not confronting the usually in-class form: it works as an addition for group classes as well, so every student can ask the tutor for further help or explanation.

The Combination of AL and AI

Before the growth of the IT sector, AL required a lot of resources and time, since it was embodied in the form of tutoring and coaching. However, nowadays, due to the improvement of modern software, as well as the creation of educational platforms, the Adaptive Learning process becomes easier. Learning management system development allows using AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the eLearning sphere to improve tailored training. Given all the above, we can say that AL is a step into the future. With the LMS implementation, it could be used both for individual learning curves and in the MOOCs (Mass Open Online Courses). It provokes learner engagement by personalization of education even within any massive established course. Hence, generally speaking, AI in eLearning is growing its potential today. Moreover, it is used to simplify the working process of platforms by completing different tasks, operating huge data information. With learning management systems development allows visual customization of the final product as well as integration of modern software. It saves time and human resources, giving them the chance to reorganize themselves for other tasks. On one hand, the major problem of using AI in eLearning or other spheres is the creation and adjusting of artificial intelligence that require time and other resources. On the other, the correct implementation of AI into your product gives a great advantage for it on the market, especially in the education sector.

What are the alternatives?

First of all, let’s talk about customization. It is one of the most common components that is used during LMS implementation if we speak about web or mobile versions. It is easy to change the majority of the visual components using UI/UX Design technics to create the most comfortable user experience of using the site or an app. There are also several add-ons, such as user-oriented push alerts, that help learners stay engaged by reminding them of upcoming assignments. Also, there are different types of bonus programs for the clients which are created as a reward for certain actions, such as the successful ending of the course, sharing referral links, etc. But to be honest, all of these customization and engagement tools are not exactly opposite or confronting the Adaptive learning experience. Moreover, the combination of AL and such tools has an even greater effect. Such combination allows creating a comfortable user’s space for mastering a new skill set not only at learners’ own pace but giving students all the needed customization tools, plus full personalization of education experience.

How To Improve LMS Using Adaptive Learning?

As we have already outlooked the full concept of Adaptive Learning and even outlined it within the LMS scope, let’s find out how to make LMS pop with the AL integration. But first, we need to define the term LMS. This way it will be easier to understand how to combine those two.

What is LMS?

A learning management system is software to create, organize and track courses or private learning plans. It is used by tutors, institutions, and individual users who are willing to improve their studying progress. It simplifies the whole learning process giving all the needed tools and collecting them in one place. The key distinction between LMS and, say, MOOCs is that the former is more of a tool for generating courses, while the latter is a finished product. In other words, LMS is used to create courses and manage them. Learning management system development is very important for the success of the modern eLearning sphere because it is one of the main instruments for creating high-quality educational products. As it was said before, the top priority LMS implementation nowadays is creating and improving tailored training with personalization of education using existing AI in the eLearning field, which helps to improve learners’ engagement.

LMS implementation: Adaptive Learning

For correct work, adaptive learning needs to have some background. Moreover, AL works better when combined with some additional options such as customization. So here are some tips for high-quality learning management system development.

  • Understand your user: make sure you know your target audience and understand its requirements. Create feedback forms and surveys, encourage users to use these functions, and help you improve your product. Do not forget to detect bugs and errors and to fix them.
  • Comfort: make sure your users are comfortable using your product. It’s a fantastic concept to design a unique Android/iOS app as well as a web page that’s simple to use and change or edit. Create a great user experience as you can. Make sure there are no bugs and everything works fine. Correctly working product improves learners’ engagement.
  • AI in eLearning: use it. Gather information on what your users look for, what mistakes they do, and the most common problems they struggle with, then find out what they are good at. The more data you have — the better your AI works. Every piece of information today will help to provide needed content in the future and help to continue learning management system development. AI in eLearning saves a lot of time and resources dealing with data if it works correctly. It is one of the greatest modern tools to create an individual approach to each student from a group.
  • Personalization of education and communication: make sure every user has an individual approach and needed assistance from a qualified tutor if needed. Also, you may encourage learners to share their knowledge by giving them communication opportunities such as chats or in-app messages as well as specified groups. Such an approach is confirmed to be effective, for example, SkillShare is a MOOC system, where every user can share his/hers skills with others, which is its main feature.

Summing-Up

Adaptive learning is indeed a step into the future. There are dozens of different ways how to realize it in the educational sphere. As a matter of fact, tailored training has already proven its effectiveness in learners’ engagement which impacts the understanding and mastering of education material and needed skills. Moreover, Learning Management System development is a top priority in eLearning, because it is one of the main tools for the creation of courses and educational programs used by different groups: from students to professional tutors and different educational institutions like schools or universities. There is no need to explain that the better instruments people have — the better product they can create. It means that if Adaptive learning will be implemented into main tools for creating eLearning products, it will not only give the opportunity to create better-tailored training and empower learners engagement but also make an impact on learning management system development, as well as expand the variability of quality teaching methods. Personalization of education combined with correct UI/UX design technics simplifies mastering educational materials. Moreover, increasing the number of Adaptive learning methods, like using AI in eLearning, makes your product more competitive in the education sphere. This gives you an advantage over possible rivals, who have been established in the market for a long time and are not able to quickly rebuild the architecture of their product in accordance with new requirements. And we would be glad to be a part of this process in order to help you stand out over others. Since Incora Team has already delivered successful projects in the EdTech sector, we are always ready to accept new challenges and apply even more innovative solutions. Do you want to know how? Let’s have a call and find out!

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Incora

A software development company that turns ideas into products. https://incora.software/