Administratively Supporting Faculty Use of Adaptive Learning in Blended Learning to Increase Student Success

Abstract

Personalized, adaptive learning holds the potential of meeting students where they are at in terms of background knowledge and understanding. Learners needing extra support seamlessly can have review and alternative lessons provided at the same time that learners with previous experience can move quickly through already mastered content. Leveraging adaptive learning with a blended course may seem at first to limit this flexible delivery (as compared to a fully online asynchronous course). Several pilot courses at UW-Whitewater have actually used adaptive learning to make blended courses more effective for all students. This session will share the administrative approaches taken to support this experimentation and capacity building.

Speaker: Matthew Vick, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Dr. Matthew Vick is the dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education and a professor of science education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The School partners with the academic colleges to design, implement, and market online programs for credit and non-credit audiences. He has directed/co-directed two grant projects at UW-W: a two-year Wisconsin Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title IIA Improving Teacher Quality Grant entitled “Integrating Science and Literacy Learning with English Proficient and English Language Learners”; and a one-year UW System Outreach grant entitled “Collaboratively Implementing the Vision of the Next Generation Science Standards in the Mukwonago Area School District with Pre-service and In-service Teachers”. He has published research articles and a book chapter in science education as well as practitioner-based articles. He has presented at the National Science Teachers Association, the Association for Science Teacher Education, the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, and the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers.