Traditional classroom based learning involves a standard theory based syllabus taught by teachers physically. The syllabus, classrooms and teachers are same for all the students’ in spite of the differences in their interests and grasping capacity. As the traditional classroom based learning is not customised pertaining to the needs of every individual student, it is becoming an old and obsolete.
Let us consider examples of online or on demand streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. These platforms provide us with personalized and on demand television experience. They are removing location, device and timing constraints. Television shows, sports events are being streamed in the personalized manner with the help of these platforms.
Similarly, education delivery or learning process must be personalized. Traditional classroom based lecture process may not be helpful for each individual. Every individual has some strengths, weaknesses and pace of understanding a particular topic. Different students would also have liking or interest in different subjects. These things are different for each individual. Due to these reasons, different students excel in different subjects. Some students also lag behind as theoretical learning is not their strongest suit.
But traditional classroom based learning ignores these facts and assesses students based on the marks they receive in each and every subject. When students acquire fewer marks in a particular subject, they tend to compare themselves with the ones who have received good marks. This leads to unhealthy competition among them which might affect their self-confidence in the long run. These are a few drawbacks of the traditional classroom based education which need to be addressed soon.
Personalized learning using technology is the only way which would help create syllabus or learning activities after considering every student’s strong and weak areas. Thus this is one of the trends that would dominate in the coming year.