Personalized Education through Individualized Pathways and Resources to Adaptive Control Theory-Inspired Scientific Education (iPRACTISE): Proof-of-Concept Studies for Designing and Evaluating Personalized Education

Abstract

AbstractPersonalized educational interventions have been shown to facilitate successful and inclusive statistics, mathematics, and data science (SMDS) in higher education through timely and targeted reduction of heterogeneous training disparities caused by years of cumulative, structural challenges in contemporary educational systems. However, the burden on the institutions and instructors to provide personalized training resources to large groups of students is also formidable, and often unsustainable. We present Individualized Pathways and Resources to Adaptive Control Theory-Inspired Scientific Education (iPRACTISE), a free, publicly available web app that serves as a tool to facilitate personalized trainings on SMDS and related topics through provision of personalized training recommendations as informed by computerized assessments and individuals’ training preferences. We describe the resources available in iPRACTISE, and some proof-of-concept evaluation results from deploying iPRACTISE to supplement in-person and online classroom teaching in real-life settings. Strengths, practical difficulties, and potentials for future applications of iPRACTISE to crowdsource and sustain personalized SMDS education are discussed.

Keywords

• Adaptive assessment
• Control theory
• Learning heterogeneity
• Personalized education
• Web tools