Maximizing and personalizing e-learning support for students with different backgrounds and preferences

This paper aims to present a teaching approach to achieve the most personal support for students with different backgrounds and preferences in studying an Informatics course.

The presented methodology is based on the main principles of flexible and blended learning. The authors considered three main aspects: student’s background, the level of knowledge and the most suitable style of learning. At the beginning of the course, students were randomly divided into reference and test group. The test group students were continuously supported by different tools within an e-learning environment. The learning process for the reference group students was held in a traditional form.

The success of the experiment presented in this paper is demonstrated by comparing the results of the test group who were taught using the new strategy with the reference group who were taught in a common way. The statistical analysis shows that the test group students had better achievements compared to the reference group.

This presented study was carried out with non-IT first-year university students from social sciences, economics and technical faculties. Each year the number of students varied from 150 to 300.

Based on developed methodology, the model of individualization of the educational process in an e-environment was created and implemented in the course of Informatics in Tallinn University of Technology.