The Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) team at the UCF’s Center for Distributed Learning assist faculty members to design and develop courses using adaptive learning systems.

What Services Do We Offer? 

The PAL instructional designers facilitate the design and development of adaptive courses through a combination of face-to-face consultations, just-in-time training, and ongoing professional development. We work very closely with faculty members to design adaptive instructional strategies, develop course content and assessment, and provide technical and pedagogical support during course delivery. 

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Design an Adaptive Course

Following a systematic approach, course instructors collaborate with PAL instructional designers to incorporate adaptive features in the course design using commercial adaptive platforms, such as Realizeit and Acrobatiq. The PAL design process follows a sequence of 1) chunking content into objective-based learning bits/lessons, 2) authoring personalized content and assessments with detailed feedback, and 3) creating an adaptive learning pathway that includes prerequisite learning materials—an acceleration or remediation capability that adapts to students’ knowledge. More advanced adaptive features could include alternative content and procedurally generated questions using variables and conditions.

Adopt an Existing Course 

Existing adaptive courseware is available for UCF instructors to adopt through various commercial vendors, such as ALEKS, Knewton, and LearnSmart. Instructors work with PAL instructional designers to evaluate existing adaptive courseware and effective adaptive features are incorporated in teaching. These courses are credential as PAL so students understand what they are registering for in the course schedule. 

Teach an Adaptive Course 

Regardless of the instructors’ choice to create their own adaptive content or adopt existing courseware, teaching with an adaptive platform involves deliberate planning and management. PAL instructional designers work with course instructors in faculty training to highlight adaptive pedagogy so both students and instructors understand how adaptive systems work and personalized student interventions can be administered by the instructor based on student performance analytics. 

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Faculty Professional Development 

PAL6000 

PAL6000 is a self-paced course offered every semester on the topic of designing adaptive learning activities. Participants must complete the required activities to obtain a Certificate of Completion and a PAL credential, which enables them to teach adaptive courses using Realizeit. 

Activities include meetings with their instructional designer, online course readings, and completion of their chosen projects. 

Course objectives include: 

• Activities include meetings with their instructional designer, online course readings, and completion of their chosen projects. 
• Compare existing teaching strategies to a more personalized, adaptive approach. 
• Formulate student-centered learning objectives and course outcomes for your course. 
• Create content and assessments for your course based on your learner outcomes. 
• Design a grading scheme for your course based on your learner outcomes and your assessment strategy. 
• Develop instructional strategies based on adaptive analytics to address course management issues. 

PAL5000 

PAL5000 is a faculty training course focusing on teaching with adaptive learning technologies using existing courseware. Based on the selected platform, instructors work with PAL instructional designers and relevant vendor support to complete the course activities. 

Course objectives include: 

• Compare existing teaching strategies to a more personalized, adaptive approach. 
• Design a grading scheme for your course based on your learner outcomes and your assessment strategy. 
• Develop instructional strategies based on adaptive analytics to address course management issues. 

If you are interested in adopting adaptive technologies in your teaching, please contact pal@ucf.edu for more information.