Personalizing the learning environment for students from diverse backgrounds

The diversity of student needs has been shown to impact on their proficiency in the use of digital technologies and calls into question the popular rhetoric that students entering universities today are already literate in digital skills and thus able to engage effectively in technology enhanced learning. Personalized learning environments (PLEs) are seen to offer great promise in meeting the individual needs of learners from diverse backgrounds and learning analytics can play an important role in informing the design and development of curricula to accommodate such diversity. This paper draws on the literature and previous research undertaken by the author to outline a holistic model to the design and development of inclusive technology enhanced learning environments. A recently funded Australian learning and teaching project, which employs the proposed approach is outlined and a conceptual model of a personalized learning environment under development is described. The PLE under development aims to addresses the diversity of students learning styles, digital literacy, English language proficiency, access to technologies, and accessibility requirements through a responsive learning system that has been informed by and based on the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII)ii software and service enhancement project, which ‘aims to allow users to invoke and use the access features they need anywhere, anytime, on any device’ [1]. The final section of the paper discusses the proposed direction of the project and the potential benefits it affords in improving learning outcomes and promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning.