Abstract:

Ad hoc political decisions for often sudden switches between face-to-face learning, emergency remote learning, distance learning and hybrid learning substantially affected not only teaching practices in higher education institutions, but also scientific viewpoints since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. While academic educators engage in producing digital subject-specific content for strengthening autonomous learning and keeping learners activated, students suffer from social isolation. Research about adaptive learning is in this regard promising, but still in its infancy. Findings reported so far are seldom being brought in relation to learning theories. This paper compares the existing theoretical knowledge about individual and collaborative learning, appearing as two disjoint constructs on the first look, and positions adaptive learning to be the key for the balance between them. Following a pre-study, in a pilot study - the second phase of a complete Design Research cycle, a prototype is being developed, tested, and evaluated. It consists of interactive virtual activities for hypothetical individual learning pathways (ILP) involving participants’ collaboration in a learning management system (LMS). Further on, I argue that quality design of combined activities in a virtual learning environment (VLE) that adjusts to students’ needs and allows them to make personal decisions and take responsibilities may be an optimal solution. Moreover, based on a framework about students’ knowledge, competencies, and skills according to a revised Blooms Taxonomy in formal curriculum - based settings in higher education, the paper offers illustrative contextual examples of such subject-focused designs e.g., combining the Moodle Quiz Activity with Moodle Forums for group discussions or group blogs, or with the Moodle Glossary Activity, or with the Moodle Student Quiz Activity. These possible combinations of the activities are thoroughly analysed thought the theoretical lenses of adaptive learning and ILP. Finally, I also discuss challenges related to sustainable (re)design, dissemination, and scale.

Keywords:

Individual learning pathways (ILP), collaborative learning, adaptive systems, learning management systems (LMS), COVID-19 pandemic, design research (DR).