Education is going through a paradigm shift, moving away from normative teaching forms and towards adaptive learning. In this new paradigm, learning plans are adjusted to the needs of individual students, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all curriculum. The making of individual learning plans is a monumental task for teachers, but the rapid digitalisation of education is opening new doors. As Norway's biggest edutech player, Conexus holds many of the cards needed to make adaptive learning a reality. We helped them align their capabilities to achieve it, mapping out a new platforms strategy in the process.
Education is digitising at a rapid rate. Many players are still catching up and the industry is rife with startups. Each player generates key data about students and schools, often in proprietary formats. Whether it's insights into how a students complete exercises or a simple grade database, bringing this information together is key to enabling adaptive learning.Conexus faces the challenge of creating a platform ecosystem where everyone benefits. An ecosystem where Conexus continues to be the processor of data, and the other players are motivated to share data to realise the vision of adaptive learning.
Conexus faces the challenge of creating a platform ecosystem where everyone benefits. An ecosystem where Conexus continues to be the processor of data, and the other players are motivated to share data to realise the vision of adaptive learning.
Adaptive learning is not only a new concept in the edutech industry, it is also a new way of teaching. In the classroom context, the use of technology is not novel, but using it to automate learning plan creation certainly is. From a design perspective, it will be important to build trust between Conexus software and teachers. What does adaptive learning look like in the day to day workflow of a teacher? How should the rationalisation of automated decisions be disclosed? How can we ensure technology lowers the administrative burden on teachers, rather than raise it?
What does adaptive learning look like in the day to day workflow of a teacher?
Portfolio strategy in data products requires a combination of two approaches. The first is a platform strategy to understand how stakeholders within the world of edutech exchange value. The second is a design research approach to understand how teachers envision the use of technology to make lesson plans. Combining the two approaches brings us to a desirable and business viable vision for adaptive learning.
At their core, platforms facilitate the exchange of value. In the world of education that is an exchange of learning material, data, and money. Together with Conexus, we reflected on their role as a platform owner, and how their exclusive access to schools could be used as a value proposition.
Three key stakeholders are needed to complete the adaptive learning feedback loop: teachers, students, and publishers of learning material. In the ideal platform blueprint, teachers have a range of learning material to choose from in a content library. Conexus matches this content to the needs of individual students and the curriculum, brining it down to a shortlist of suggestions. Teachers select the appropriate learning material, the publishers get paid, and the student receives a personal exercise. Completing this loop generates new data every time and exercise is completed, and the suggestions provided by Conexus are improved every round.
Of all the platform stakeholders, teachers are the most important user group to please. Their participation is what makes it attractive for publishers to participate. To help Conexus on its way with their platform strategy, we provided design research insights into this key group.
By employing the 'expert involvement' process in design, we allowed for teachers to use their own expertise and experience to envision a future. The designers role is simply to facilitate creativity and to translate this into concepts and prototypes.
This process undergoes several iterations of the same steps. The first half (steps 1-2-3) take place as a workshop between the teachers and designers. Based on a set of prompts, teachers are encouraged to think about adaptive learning, and how this might take shape in the future. What challenges do they foresee? How could these be circumvented, assuming technological feasibility plays no role? How does the role of a teacher change? Exploring the context of adaptive learning provides teachers with the insight - and confidence - to convey their envisioned future.
After the workshop, the designers comb through their learnings (step 3-4-5), identifying pain points and opportunities the teachers may have missed. This is where design expertise really comes into play, as the designers have to translate the envisioned future of the teachers into something tangible. This tangibility can take all kinds of shapes, from process diagrams to fully fledged digital mockups. When completed, this tangible artefact can be introduced to the teachers in a new round of workshops. It kick-starts a new round of the 'expert involvement' process, except that now the teachers are faced with their future vision from the previous sessions. The cycle can repeat itself, iterating towards the most desirable future.
Conexus's future product portfolio. A portfolio that enables adaptive learning by meeting the needs of teachers, harmonising with their existing workflows and automating time consuming pain points.
