Learning and Teaching in Practice/Personalised learning

What is personalised learning?
Personalised learning is where some aspect of the learning is tailored for individual needs and preferences. In this example, the following might be customised to the individual learner.


 * What is learned (aspects of the curriculum such as learning outcomes or content).
 * How the learning will take place (pedagogy and technology). [OR add in - This also includes any technology that is used.]

At Otago Polytechnic, personalised learning generally incorporates agreement and negotiation of both these aspects.

Typically, the customisation of learning involves collaboration with the learner to identify needs and negotiation of a learning agreement which spells out the specific details of the personalised learning.

In a personalised learning context, the roles of teacher and learner both change:


 * The learner takes on a greater responsibility for learning than in a traditional educational context.
 * The teacher hands over some responsibility to the learner, while at the same time assuming a mentoring and facilitation role for supporting and scaffolding learning. It is important to understand what these different terms mean, and they are explored further in this module. Read more about student support at Otago Polytechnic and scaffolding learning in this article by Northern Illinois University (n.d.).