The Benefits of Personalized Content Development

Nowadays, personalized content is all around us. We have personalized feeds on Instagram, personalized Spotify mixes, and Netflix recommendations tailored to our interests. But where is the personal experience when it comes to content development?

This post will guide you through the meaning of personalized content development, help you understand the philosophy behind it, and introduce ways it can be integrated into your business and eLearning strategies.

Key Stakeholders and Employees Deserve a Personalized Approach

Personalized Learning Will Make You Feel Better: As a learner, you have probably encountered the traditional “one-size-fits-all” instructional strategy that takes on a predictable and often one-dimensional format. After a tedious lesson, it’s easy to feel uninspired and even depressed by the fact that you aren’t engaged.

According to a study by Gallup, disengaged workplaces yield higher depression, disengaged workplaces yield higher depression and anxiety rates amongst their employees and leaders. Personalized learning isn’t a quick fix to this issue, but it lays the groundwork for a happier and more engaged workforce. Here are a few characteristics of what makes a successful personalized learning strategy: 

• The learner can express their wants and needs
• The learner sets their own pace 
• The learner’s goals are a priority

At WeLearn, we personalize our instructional plans to the individual’s knowledge, skills, and mission. By taking this inclusive, human-centered approach our learners feel more involved in their knowledge acquisition, and as a result, more excited about the content.

A Learning Philosophy That Involves You

Collaboration In Instructional Strategy: Personalized learning instruction begins and ends with your learner. Understanding how the learner interacts with educational materials, and which materials will work best for a particular person is an important aspect of successful course design. But how do we get to know our learners? 

• Begin With Research: By considering the learner’s previous experiences and abilities, you can start building links between existing knowledge and new information. 
• Ask questions: Do they like video content? Perhaps they are more interested in text and mini-quizzes. For the answer to personal questions, you have to go straight to the source; the learner. 
• Encourage Feedback: At the end of a course module, ask clients how relevant they felt the content was to them or whether they found it engaging or not. The answers will allow both you and the learner to reflect upon the experience and prepare for future success. 

Recognizing how each learner achieves success is valuable in course development. Below are ways that personalized learning measures success: 

• Recurring check-ins: Assessments and quizzes are important, as they allow for feedback, problem-solving, goal restructuring.
• Frequent Games: using frequent games and interactive interfaces such as flashcards will help learners express their growth in a fun way. 
• Opportunities To Share Knowledge: by prompting your learner to share the knowledge they have acquired so far, they will solidify the concepts they have encountered.

Personalized Course Content Development Benefits

Personalized Course Design and Growth: While personalized learning has recently grown in popularity, it stems from concepts dating back as far as 450 BC. 

Chinese philosopher Confucius once wisely stated, “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.” His statement is more relevant today than ever before. 

As philosophers and content developers alike understand, a key element of personalized eLearning is that it actively engages learners to synthesize information and concepts, instead of relying on strict memorization. There are many benefits of personalized learning, both for a company as a whole and the learners as individuals.

• Develops self-management and leadership skills: when a learner is given the power to set their own pace, they will exercise their organizational skills and begin to understand how they operate. 
• Improves knowledge acquisition and retention: Employees that are allowed to learn new skills tend to be more satisfied in their work, and are less likely to seek out other opportunities.
• Promotes learning from other perspectives: Learners benefit from analyzing concepts from different points of view. 

Through defending their ideas, reimaging their positions, listening to other perspectives, and articulating their views, learners will gain a fuller understanding of a concept and begin to integrate it into their own lives. 

Conclusion

At WeLearn, we celebrate differences through personalized course content development. Every learner has their own life experiences, strengths, and personality that make them unique, and it is this individuality that makes the world exciting. 

Ask yourself how you integrate personalized learning into your strategic business models. What are the kinds of things that make you unique as a learner? Share your thoughts with us at WeLearn, and together we can work to create a more engaging and inspiring workplace.