Special Issue of the IBM
Journal of Research and Development
Education
worldwide is in a state of transition, enabling unprecedented levels of
personalization. Additionally, devices used in learning settings are
proliferating, and information is being digitally gathered. Worldwide demand
for education often exceeds the capabilities of standard brick-and-mortar
institutions, which increases the necessity of online and blended learning
options.
As
noted by our guest editors Sara Basson, Satya V. Nitta, and Bikram Sengupta, the
digitization of learning environments also creates opportunities to better
gauge and improve student outcomes. Through advanced analytics regarding a
student’s abilities, preferences, and learning styles, appropriate learning
materials can be suggested to students. Learning materials can be automatically
classified, clustered, and tagged to improve targeted learning and to eliminate
redundancy.
Language understanding and dialog-enabled systems can serve as
automated tutors to provide additional training and game-like interfaces for
students. Analytic tools can predict areas of future growth and opportunity,
inform students about careers that are well suited to student abilities, and
provide detailed guidance to help students to achieve career success. With the
availability of digital student records, digital learning materials, and
advanced analytics, personalized education is expected to change traditional
educational models and improve educational success.
This
special issue of the IBM Journal ofResearch and Development present ways that learning environments are
incorporating digital models—and explores the impact of analytics to increase
personalization and improve performance. We note that this is the first special
issue of our journal devoted to technologies for educational transformation,
and this reflects the increasing importance with which IBM is viewing this
transformation and the intent of IBM to help shape efforts in this area.
Editor-in-Chief
IBM
Journal of Research and Development
Labels: education, IBM Journal of R&D, personalized education
