Personalized Adaptive Learning

Personalized adaptive learning is a software platform approach that provides each student with an individualized learning experience by allowing them to progress along their unique learning path through the course content based on their knowledge, skills, and learning needs. Adaptive learning systems customize the presentation of the content or present new concepts to the student based on their individual activities and responses. 

At UCF, Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) is a class attribute that may apply to any type of course (e.g. W, M, RA, P). Class attributes are displayed in the course description returned by the class search tool in my.ucf.edu. In a PAL course, a portion of the overall online content is delivered via an adaptive learning system that customizes objective-driven content and assessments to create a personalized learning path for each student according to their knowledge, skills, and learning needs. 

PAL at UCF

Currently, there are multiple personalized learning systems utilized by instructors from different disciplines at UCF. These systems are supported by instructional design and course development services offered to  instructors who  teach or desire to teach adaptive courses in Realizeit, ALEKS, LearnSmart and Pearson’s MyLab/Mastering, etc. In particular, CDL has partnered with Realizeit to build adaptive learning courses using institutional content, open educational resources (OER), publisher content and various media since Spring 2014. Adaptive learning has been piloted in the College of Business Administration, College of Education and Human Performance, College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Nursing, College of Sciences, and more. 

Who We Are 

The Personalized Adaptive Learning team at the UCF’s Center for Distributed Learning assist faculty members to design and develop courses using adaptive learning systems. The PAL team consists of Instructional Designers, PAL Assistants, and Webcourses@UCF Support staff.  

PAL Design & Development Services

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.

PAL Faculty Spotlight

Interested in how your fellow colleagues have incorporated personalized adaptive learning in teaching? View the featured spotlights for some examples PAL projects.  To view additional faculty spotlight stories, visit https://digitallearning.ucf.edu/ilab/cri/featured-projects/

PAL Learning Guides & Support

Webcourses@UCF Personalized Learning, or adaptive learning, uses a software application called Realizeit. This software allows students to progress at his or her own pace through a learning path that is created and adapted for each student throughout the course progression.

PAL Publications and Media Exposure

View awards, publications, and presentations pertaining to the PAL initiative at UCF.

Why Personalized Adaptive Learning?

Research has demonstrated the potential of adaptive learning to reduce dropout rates, improve learning outcomes, and expedite students’ learning journal to achieve their educational goals faster (Imhof, Bergamin, & McGarrity, 2020), especially when it is combined with a complete course redesign (Brown, et al., 2020). At the University of Central Florida, personalized adaptive learning (PAL) …