The Learning Genome (whoa)

Hey -- check out this article from from Inside Higher Ed called The Thinking LMS (this is the same site Gia pointed us to for the Blackboard/eCollege comparison). Basically, the University of Phoenix wants to build an LMS that will automatically present course content in the modality that best suits each learner... kind of like how Amazon, Netflix and iTunes can predict what we like to read, watch and listen to.

That's a pretty provocative idea, given our current model of "the course is the course" which basically hopes that one size does fit all. How many of us have had a conversation with a TCS SME about building in some flexibility for different students' learning preferences? While the idea of "learning style" has become pretty cliché in our field by now, there's of course a lot of truth to it, and I'd encourage us to bring up the idea with our more engaged SMEs... even if it's just to gauge their understanding of the concept and how online learning supports it.

I recently came across a workbook called Empowering Online Learning, which offers an ID approach called "Read-Reflect-Display-Do" that's designed to hit 4 major learning styles: verbal/auditory, reflective/observational, visual, and hands-on. Check it out if you're interested.

As always, I'll end with a disclaimer: I know that with some of our SMEs, we're lucky if they return our calls or send us content when we need it, let alone take the time to brainstorm with us about how to make their course more responsive to individual learners. :-)

But if online higher education is going in this direction, our team is in a great position to help TCS start moving. There are a few SMEs in my programs who I think may be willing to have this kind of a conversation, but I haven't brought it up yet. Anyone else?

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TCS Instructional Design

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