Abstract:

Conventional teaching strategies, with static courses in which the same materials are used for all students regardless of their level of prior knowledge, their interests, and their goals, must give way to strategies that are focused on the student. In this sense, the concept of personalized learning refers to the need to adapt the pedagogy, curriculum and learning environment so that all students can adequately satisfy their different learning needs and preferences. Thus, the learning system should dynamically adapt to the characteristics and needs of each student, providing personalized support. In this sense, heutagogy is a teaching-learning approach that aims to promote the self-determined learning of students, and, to achieve this, it is necessary to enable students to decide their own paths for their training.

The objective of this work is to design a tool that allows for the most personalized learning possible for all students; that meets, on the one hand, the needs of students who show greater learning difficulties, but also, on the other, those students who are capable of maintaining a higher pace or who show interest in delving deeper into the content.

The computer application created for this experience would respond to an organization of the activities in the form of a subway map, providing students with multiple predetermined paths so that they can achieve their learning goals, respecting the student preferences and with consideration of the different speeds in student learning. Thus, the process of studying a topic begins when the student is provided with theoretical content through a recorded video lesson. Next, a multiple-choice question is presented, with only one correct answer. If the student answers the question correctly, demonstrating a proper understanding of the lesson, they progress to a point where they have the option to access additional related content or continue to the next subsection of the topic. These additional materials can consist of exercises related to the same content but with greater difficulty, or texts that promote reflection on the studied content. Conversely, if the students respond incorrectly to the question after watching the explanatory video, they receive a detailed explanation in video format, illustrating how they should have approached it. Afterward, a new problem of similar difficulty is presented, and regardless of whether the answer is correct or incorrect, the correct approach is explained again, and the student progresses to the next subsection. It's important to note that as this training is not exclusively online, if the student still has any doubts, they can seek assistance from their teacher.

The application has been carried out designing, developing, and using Open Educational Resources. The display of the different pages has been optimized for the use of mobile phones, so that students can consult the resources comfortably at any time and place through their personal devices, without having to resort to computers or tablets. It has been used with a group of 90 students of Microeconomics.

We have verified that the use of the application, along with the face to face classes, allows increasing motivation, commitment, understanding and finally the grades obtained by students in a statistically significant way. Furthermore, this methodology and the application created are easily replicable for other subjects.

Keywords:

Heutagogy, nonlinear learning paths, personalized learning.