Ithaka S+R worked with five campuses in the University System of Maryland to explore whether an adaptive learning product provided by Pearson could be used to offer more accessible, lower-cost summer programs. The Pearson product, MyFoundationsLab, enhanced with Knewton’s adaptive learning engine, aims to personalize study paths for students. Adaptive technologies enable students to identify specific skill gaps and work independently online to address those gaps with interactive instructional materials and assessments. We tested the hypothesis that technology could replace some or all of the traditional instructor-led class time required to help students improve their college readiness while substantially reducing the costs of the intervention.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs (CAST, 2012). UDL is included in COMAR and Maryland’s Teacher Technology Standards.
To shed light on how institutions of higher education can make sustainable improvements in who can learn what they learn by the time they graduate, we have studied a series of initiatives by the University System of Maryland (USM) to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of selected courses. These redesigns incorporated a variety of learning-centered practices, that is, teaching practices that were chosen and applied using evidence of student learning.