Not all of us are born with the same abilities or intelligence. One may differ from another in learning capacities or cognitive abilities. Moreover, one’s background, life experiences, and inborn abilities have a huge impact on a person’s learning style. Because of these differences, the learning process for all must not be the same. This is where personalized learning comes into the picture.

What is Personalized Learning?

Personalized learning refers to the teaching model where the educational methods are customized as per individual learners’ needs and abilities.

In this type of learning, the learner’s background, knowledge, life experiences, and habits are taken into consideration to customize the individual learning plan. This student-centered and flexible learning process makes it easier for them to understand new concepts and perform better.

Benefits of Personalized Learning

Schools, colleges, and many organizations have started implementing personalized learning strategies to get the best learning outcome. Here are some benefits of those strategies:

1. Better Engagement

Personalized learning addresses social and emotional needs and helps an individual learn difficult or new subjects easily. So, it encourages the learner to be more interactive. Thus, the learning becomes more engaging.

2. Faster Learning

When you teach a person as per his or her needs or capabilities, learning becomes easier. Moreover, it focuses on students’ strengths, interests, and backgrounds when making their learning plan. Therefore, the learners can learn new concepts faster.

3. Academic Growth

Personalized learning helps the students to learn faster and improves knowledge retention. Thus, it helps them to improve their academic performance.

4. Personal Development

Personalized learning helps an individual to own his learning. This makes a person more confident and self-reliant. Also, it helps them to build self-advocacy skills. Unlike special education which focuses on deficits, personalized learning focuses on their strength.

5. Better Productivity

A personalized approach to training programs in an organization motivates them to learn well and boosts their productivity.

6. Career Growth

Since personalized learning focuses on learners’ interests also, a little encouragement helps them to prepare better for their careers. Besides, personalized training programs can help employees aim for a higher position by improving their performance.

7. Saves Time

Personalized learning cuts down on irrelevant topics or subjects. Since the learning strategies are as per the learner’s needs, it does not take much time for them to grasp new topics. Thus, it saves time for both the teacher and the learner.

8. Increases Motivation

Learning with ease builds self-confidence in people. It increases their motivation by making them believe in themselves. The same thing happens with the trainer or teacher as well. Positive learning outcome makes them confident about their teaching abilities.

9. Better Learning Outcomes

Personalized learning makes learning more engaging, meaningful, and supportive. As a result, positive learning outcomes are expected.

Some Personalized Learning Strategies

1. Flexible Classroom Environment

Making the classroom or seating arrangement flexible helps the students become more attentive and disciplined. One of the best ways to do that is through rotating stations. Likewise, changing the arrangement of desks and chairs from time to time also helps.

2. Goal-setting

Goal-setting is one of the most crucial personalized learning strategies. A teacher or trainer needs to set the goals for an individual after properly assessing him or her. While setting goals, it is important to discuss with the learner the goals and the steps to achieve them. The learning plan for each individual depends on goal-setting.

3. Allowing Students to Become Teachers

This one is one of the best-personalized learning strategies. Teachers allow every student to teach something he or she excels in. Give them proper guidance on how to teach and assess the rest of the students. This will help the learner to be confident and gains mastery over the subject.

4. Creating a Learning Playlist

Teachers should build a playlist for self-guided learning activities. The students have the freedom to choose the ones that work for them. These activities can be anything like peer-to-peer, online projects, or any other activities. Teachers can assign one point to each activity and set a minimum point requirement. However, the students can proceed at their own pace.

5. Using Ed Tech

Technology plays an important role in making personalized learning more effective. Some examples of these personalized learning strategies are game-based learning, using Google docs, online learning platforms, etc. Teachers can take the help of any of these educational tech tools to improve and expedite the learning process.

6. Flipped Instructions

Flipped instruction is one of the popular personalized learning strategies. This allows the students to watch recorded videos of lectures at home and learn at their own pace. In case of any questions, students can interact via online chatting.

7. Allowing Students to Demonstrate Knowledge

Constant and regular assessments of each student keep the teacher informed about their knowledge level and learning improvement. Teachers can use Google forms to allow the students to assess themselves. Besides, allowing students to conduct research on a subject they are interested in also helps.

Personalized learning strategies ensure that the teachers attain the desired learning results from the learners without much struggle from both sides. According to a recent report by Business Wire, E-learning Market in Europe is expected to grow by $53.27 billion during 2022-2026 with a growing emphasis on personalized learning. This clearly shows us the future demand for personalized learning.