DrUlrikChristensen

Go see a real doc. :-) My MD stands for MegaDangerous. I did not have LearnSmart going through med school, so I have forgotten a ton.

US is miles and miles ahead. 90%+ of all time spent in adaptive systems is in the US. The international appetite is growing, but we need to crack the cost issue. We will end up as misunderstood geniuses if the students cannot afford what we make.

I think the most important impact is the vehicle for delivery of what publishers are really good at: Bringing students with a need for learning in contact with excellent teachers - and mass producing that. What adaptive learning brings is a way to move from one size fits all to super-individualized learning experiences. But they are still heavily dependent upon the "old" craftsmanship of vetting subject matter experts, curating content (and YES it MUST be curated special to be delivered adaptively) and designing and testing learning tools that students are willing to use.

Research takes time - in the meantime, I would take the chance and use the something like learnsmart if it appears to keep their focus. I then promised to work as fast as we can profiling and tuning exactly how to do it. We may even change the techs quite a bit for some of these groups of learners.

The beauty of adaptive systems is that they are - at least the well made ones - not dogmatic in their approach. Therefore adaptive systems can actually help bridge the philosophical discourse that might lie behind your question. The adaptive systems can work in both standards based curricula and more flexible ones. Regarding the parents, I think that adaptive systems can bring two positive things: a) better insight into their kids needs for help and support, b) we might even be able to adaptively help the parents to prepare to help their kids.