Page 27 - Ideas

years, she now receives fewer queries from students Determined to enhance her International Economics

before examination periods. From her grading of the students’ learning experience, Swee Liang obtained for
examination papers, she also noticed that students them a subscription to the digital “SmartBook” version of
appeared better able to apply the concepts and with her prescribed course textbook, accompanied by access
greater confidence. to the Learnsmart® adaptive learning technology

platform, both developed by educational publisher,
Adaptive learning technology
McGraw-Hill Education. Through these, her students were
Turning her attention to another pain point, this time in able to access content and complete quizzes in the digital
her International Economics course, she noted that many textbook. Before students submitted their quiz responses,
of her students there were non-economics majors, with they would also be required to indicate their confidence
varying levels of prior knowledge and confidence in around the knowledge by choosing one of four options:
approaching economics concepts. That made it hard for “I know it”, “Think so”, “Unsure”, and “No idea”.
them to keep up with peers who were a bit more familiar
with economics terms and concepts.

Swee Liang was curious to find out if she could harness
advances in learning science and technology to provide
each of her student with a more personalised educational
experience, one that is tailored to the individual’s learning
needs and preferences, specific interests and rate of
progress. She had come across this idea of personalised
learning (or adaptive learning, as it is sometimes referred
to) from her research and encounters with educational
technology publishers and vendors. For her, it
represented a shift in teaching paradigm away from the
“one-size-fits-all” teaching approach used in traditional
mainstream education of delivering standardised
instructions, assignments and assessments to a class as a
whole.