Personalized learning is learning experience designed with each student’s specific needs in mind. In personalized learning, learning components like pace of learning, content, sequence, technology, content, instructional approach, instructional content and other aspects are adjustable according to the needs and learning purpose of each student.

The aim with this more tailored education is to provide relevant learning opportunities that support students as they progress through the learning material. The end aim is to have more students succeed in their studies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to capture, aggregate, and analyze data from several different sources to build a student learning profile.

In the past, the only way to measure what students have learned was through tests, written and oral exams and assignments. However, these methods ignore much of what a student has assimilated over the years.

Over the course of many years of learning a student produces a huge amount of output in the form of assignments, class tests, and classroom participation that gets forgotten or lost in subsequent terms.

But AI forgets nothing. AI will analyse and store all this and more information, including seemingly irrelevant information to form a complete picture of the student as a learner: how and with what learning material they engage successfully as well as what material they struggle with.

AI will be sure to ferret out each student’s learning shortcomings. Having pulled together and aggregated all of the students’ data, the AI can suggest to the instructor how the learning material can be personalized to assist each student.

AI, through machine learning and pattern recognition, can look at a student’s educational data and spot trends that escape human eyes. For instance, AI can tell an instructor exactly which modality a student uses to assimilate information. Some students prefer reading assignments, while others learn best by listening to a lecture or watching a video.

By AI identifying these trends in a student’s data, the instructor can provide students with study materials that best suit their learning preference. This personalized learning experience can help more students succeed in their studies.

AI will also be able to give input on the quality of course materials. They will do this by analyzing students’ performance. Should the majority of a class do poorly on a specific assignment, the AI will notice it immediately and make corrective suggestions to the instructor. Through pattern recognition, AI can spot specific concepts that students fail to grasp and inform the instructor accordingly so adjustments can be made to the course material.

The MOOC provider, Coursera, uses AI to identify shortcomings in the course material. When a large proportion of students get an answer to a question wrong, the system alerts the instructor about the situation and also sends explanatory notes to the students, so students can attempt to answer the question.

By enabling personalized learning AI will help more students to succeed in their studies while helping teachers to be more effective as well.