Last week, in part 1 of this three part blog series on Adaptive Learning, we looked at activity access restrictions and completion conditions. In part 2 we will look at the lesson activity using branches and clusters.
2. Lesson activity using branches and clusters
Moving up a step on the adaptability scale we have the lesson activity. We can even use several lesson activities along with activity restrictions and completion criteria to give a very personalised experience for your users. In the following example two different lessons have been created to cater to a large range of student abilities.
Learner A
The learner has failed the pre-lesson knowledge quiz so they are granted access to a slower paced version of the main lesson which contains detailed explanations and lots of examples. The learner will then answer questions and receive a complete summary of the lesson.
Learner B
The learner has passed the pre-lesson knowledge quiz and moves on to the faster paced version of the main lesson.
Administrator
Here we see that a learner gains access to one version or the other of the lesson according to whether they pass or fail the pre-lesson quiz. In order to see the post-lesson review the learner must complete whichever lesson was assigned to them.
The lessons themselves can be as complicated or as simple as you choose to make them. In this case the Fail version of this lesson has a simple structure. If the student answers a question wrongly they are sent back to the first page to try again. Once they reach the second section of the lesson they get sent back to the first page of that section until they get the correct answers. The students are therefore given every opportunity to gain enough knowledge to complete the lesson successfully.
The structure of the Pass version of the lesson is much more complex because it takes into account all the different answers a student can give and adapts to those answers giving a highly personalised experience.
For an even more personalised experience, students can also receive positive or negative feedback for each answer before being sent to the appropriate next question. In the first part of this example lesson, students are allowed to get zero, one or two questions wrong consecutively and still move on to section two. If students get three or four questions wrong consecutively the lesson closes and they fail.
In section two, students are sent back to the information page of section two if they answer a question wrongly so they have multiple tries until they reach the end of the lesson.
Students must receive a grade of 80% to pass the lesson. If they do not reach the end they are marked incomplete and failed. If they reach the end with less than 80% they are marked complete and failed. If they reach the end with 80% or more they are marked complete and passed.
Below is a diagrammatical representation of the Pass version of the lesson.
We see that the combination of activity restrictions, completion conditions and the lesson activity can produce some very interesting course material which can be highly adapted to each learner’s level and progress rate.
All this, used with rewarding Moodle gamification elements such as badges, can really encourage motivation among your learners who will appreciate a course tailor made for their needs.
Next week, in part 3, we’ll see how quizzez can be used in Moodle to add adaptability to courses. In the meantime, feel free to drop me in an email if you have any comments or questions.
