Learning styles are a myth - so how do you make learning personal?

You've probably heard of learning styles. There are different theories about which learning styles exist. Thus, according to the Kolb's learning styles distinction made between a doer, thinker, or decision maker. But others suggest that students may have a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning style. The truth lies in the middle and we certainly all have our preferences when it comes to learning.

But research has shown that learning styles don't exist.

So far, did you think you had to adapt teaching materials and learning environments to the learning styles of the employees within your organisation? There is nothing wrong with that at all. The goal of every organisation is, of course, to help employees learn as efficiently, purposefully and motivated as possible. This simply does not work with an e-learning where the employee falls asleep after a 1.5 hour video. Way too long and boring. Indeed, you will have to work with personalised learning.

What is personalised learning?

Personalised learning, or adaptive learning, is about a teaching method that takes into account the individual differences between students. For example, based on interest, abilities, preferences, needs or age.

Or based on learning style so. But if learning styles don't exist, how can you make sure you speak to your employees personally so that they learn efficiently? Even though learning styles don't exist, you can still differentiating online education. In this blog, we provide some examples of how you too can apply personalised learning in e-learning for employees within your organisation.

Differentiating online education - tips and examples

1. Activate prior knowledge

The more actively we learn, the more likely we are to remember what we learn and actually apply it directly (or later) to our daily (work) life. A number of examples to activate prior knowledge include:

• Creating a mind map about the topic
• Writing down or recording a brainstorm about the topic
• Come up with an example where the skill/topic that the employee is currently learning about was relevant. It can be particularly effective to come up with an example where the skill/knowledge was missing and what emotions the employee felt about it: the more we activate emotions, the more motivated the employee is to participate in the e-learning and eliminate this “pain” or uncertainty!
• Identify which strategies the employee has previously used to solve a particular problem and what did not work properly.
• Using all senses. What did the employee feel before when it comes to the topic of the e-learning? What does he/she want to feel in the future, once they have completed this e-learning? What will this change for them in their daily life/daily work practice?

Read more about interactive teaching? Continue reading here!

2. Differentiate in the teaching material

Whether employees who follow your e-learning prefer to read, listen, or watch, the fact is that if you present the information in a way that activates the brain the most, the best learning outcome will be achieved.

For example, you want to depict something in an infographic. For some employees, this is sufficient - for example, if they already have a lot of prior knowledge about the subject. For employees who are new to the subject, prior knowledge must be activated first. They may need a little more background information, a refresher, or context. That is why, in addition to an infographic, it is useful to present the information in other ways, so that you paint a complete picture.

For example, record a podcast where you walk through the infographic, add a more comprehensive text that describes all the steps of the infographic in detail, or record a video explaining each of the parts of the infographic in more detail. This may seem redundant, but this way you offer a very complete learning experience. It has been proven that a combination of visual and auditory learning works best, this is also known as dual coding mentioned.

Also read: neuropsychology hacks that make it easier to remember content.

3. Facilitate adaptive learning

“One size fits all” no longer fits.

Online learning platforms are increasingly in line with the above principles. Due to the rapid technological developments in this area, online learning platforms are increasingly meeting the student's individual learning needs. For example, it is possible to let everyone go through a personal learning route. This is also known as adaptive learning mentioned: the learning process adapts to the progress of the learning process.

Do you have more prior knowledge than your colleague? Then you start at a different point in the e-learning so it's not “too basic” for you. Are you on vacation for a few weeks when the e-learning starts for your colleagues? No problem, you can start when you're ready. Do you prefer to learn while running in the morning or on the train on the way back from work? This is also possible - the various forms of content and the range of options for opening the learning environment (on phone, tablet, laptop) ensure that you can learn anytime, anywhere.

Personalised learning with Pluvo's personal learning paths

Offering content based on behavior, starting point, level of knowledge or interests? your Pluvo academy makes it possible! Take contact contact us via chat to discuss the options for your organisation.