Students who don’t succeed struggle for a variety of different reasons. As educators, we owe it to them to understand why. And to see if there are specific problems that we can address.
Perhaps they’re first-generation college students who didn’t have anyone to teach them how to succeed in school. Maybe there are challenges at work or at home. Or they have a specific weakness, like memorization, that affects them in one class, but not all classes. Maybe they just lack confidence and give up on themselves too quickly.
These students aren’t stupid. They simply need help with certain skills to succeed in your class. Skills we call “Self-Regulated Learning”
Diagnosing these problems and helping your students solve them can be difficult. And it’s time-consuming.
But tools like Learning Analytics and Adaptive Learning can help identify struggling students, clarify the reason for their problems, and offer solutions.
Learning analytics can help students get better at self-regulated learning by allowing them—and their instructors—to become more aware of when they’re struggling.
And adaptive learning can provide students with extra coaching.
These technologies aren’t a panacea and some work better than others. But when the right tool is integrated into a class by an instructor who understands what it’s good for, it can help students by supporting and strengthening their study skills. (see more blogs about education technology)
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