2012-11-05 20:05:09 - For the first time ever, we're bringing together two of the biggest EdTech topics this year - MOOCs and Adaptive learning.

Unlocking the key to the future of education

How will education work in twenty years? Since the revolution of the information industry, many believe that education and learning will soon follow.

As the global demand for higher education increases, and universities can´t keep up, many are searching for how education delivery will evolve to meet demand. Thousands have subscribed in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), but many are saying that they lack assessment capacity – one teacher can’t keep up with thousands of students, and the tests offer too little feedback too late.

One New-York based startup claims to have the solution: Fuse MOOCs with adaptive learning platforms.

The MOOC has great scaling benefits for offering instruction – why do we need to be

in the same room as the professor when he is lecturing? It offers the benefits of the flipped classroom, students can study on their own time, and they can review lessons as many times as they need to. But how will they know whether they understand something? That’s where adaptive learning comes in.

The learner-centric adaptive learning platform assesses while students receive instruction. It uses thousands of data points to determine student understanding, and it can redirect learners to exactly the instruction they need. It even offers these analytics back to the professor in aggregate and for individuals. It fulfills the need for the students to receive feedback and be assessed, and does so instantaneously. An adaptive platform like this has been created for learning languages.

Instreamia, as it is called, is sponsoring the first-ever language MOOC, for first-year, college-level Spanish students. The course will be a combination of recorded video instruction, conversation practice with other students, and homework assignments given and evaluated through the integrated Instreamia learning platform. In these assignments, students will practice listening recognition, vocabulary understanding, context comprehension, and grammar usage. For the first time, adaptive learning will combine with MOOC methodology to offer an unparalleled experience to the masses.
Read more about the course and sign up at www.SpanishMOOC.com.