Researchers develop a GPS for personalised eLearning

The core concepts of Gooru Navigator, a sort of GPS for learning, have been developed by the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) in collaboration with Gooru Labs.

While most content available on e-learning platforms is designed for an average learner, a new tool has been developed that will provide learners with personalised material.

The core concepts of Gooru Navigator, a sort of GPS for learning, have been developed by the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) in collaboration with Gooru Labs.

It assesses the learner’s knowledge, interests, and mindsets and recommends personalised learning activities. Its makers say it will guide the users to their learning destinations, identify personal learning gaps, and provide resources to bridge those gaps.

“In a fast-changing world, upskilling at scale is a global imperative. While several technological solutions exist to scale pedagogic practices over large populations, remote learning suffers from high dropouts and low learner engagements,” said Srinath Srinivasa, Dean (R&D), IIITB. 

He added, “It is currently assumed that most students are average and educational content is delivered accordingly. But there has been plenty of research to show that there is no such thing as an average individual. The focus should be on the learner. What a person is learning should neither be too easy nor too difficult; it should be at their level. Hence, locating the learner was the research problem we were working on.”

Similar to the concepts of latitudes and longitudes, which are used to locate entities, the researchers developed a concept called polylines, which would help in locating learners.

“Polylines have multiple dimensions. For instance, for any subject that is being learnt, many competencies are to be developed. Polylines put these competencies together. As it will be difficult to reason with so many dimensions, we came up with the concept to show (the student) on a 2D map. With the map, it can be recognised where the student’s learning level is and what they want to learn,” Prof. Srinivasa explained.