What Is Personalized Learning? How Does It Impact Students?

By Dr. Kathleen Tate  |  03/25/2025

Personalized learning is a phrase that is used increasingly in K-12 and higher education. Modern notions of personalized learning emerged less than two decades ago in the U.S. Department of Education (ED) Office of Educational Technology's National Education Technology Plan 2010. This plan focused on approaches to engage and empower students to have successful learning outcomes through instruction tailored to individuals, especially by leveraging technology.

In the same year, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Consortium published an important report with its definition of personalized learning. This report also included key elements of personalized learning and examples of personalized learning environments.

There are various definitions of personalized learning beyond what is provided by the Department of Education and SIIA. At times, it may be challenging to navigate what is involved with using a successful personalized learning model for a classroom.

Defining Personalized Learning

A good starting point for understanding personalized learning is considering the Department of Education’s 2010 definition, which says that it is “instruction that is paced to learning needs [i.e., individualized], tailored to learning preferences [i.e., differentiated], and tailored to specific interests of different learning. In an environment that is fully personalized, the learning objectives and content as well as the method and pace may all vary.”

Individualized learning and differentiated instruction fall under the larger, more expanded scope of personalized learning. The Department of Education’s plan highlighted key components of the personalized learning journey, which include using technology-based learning and related student data to help teachers plan customized learning based upon students' interests, diverse needs, and learning styles.

By getting to know students better, instructors may help children learn through a student-centered approach. Knowing students’ unique educational needs and strengths are critical for personalized instruction, which is especially useful in early childhood education.

More recently, Robyn Howerton of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) explained that personalized learning is the purposeful design of instruction “to combine face-to-face teaching, technology-assisted instruction and student-to-student collaboration to leverage each student’s interests for deeper learning.”

Technology tools should assist with engagement, motivation, learning, and skill development and be scalable. It is important to employ digital technologies that help learners pursue their own customized path, based on each student’s learning choice and a learning pace that suits their learning preferences.

Technology connects students to resources beyond their classroom, experts in the field, and peers locally and globally. Access to technology expands learning opportunities for today’s students to better attend to their unique and collective needs and interests.

The Five Elements of Personalized Learning

In its report, the SIIA Consortium echoed the Department of Education’s need for educational equity and targeted instruction to support an optimal path for students to learn and grow. They identified five key elements of personalized learning:

• Flexible, anytime/everywhere learning
• The redefining of the teacher role
• Authentic project-based learning
• Student-driven learning pathways/learning processes
• Mastery/competency-based progression (where students have their own pace)

Flexible Learning in a Personalized Learning Environment

Technology empowers students to not only access content and resources beyond traditional classroom and school library walls; it opens learning via mobile and other devices before and after school hours. For example, learners may access space telescopes, virtual museums, historical archives, authors’ blogs and other sources of educational content at any hour of the day.

Redefining Teachers’ Roles and Using Authentic Project-Based Learning with Student-Driven Learning Pathways

Teachers have an important role to play in helping students feel excited about their education through more choices and some voice in the curriculum. In an ocean education unit, for example, all students do not need to research the same sea creature. Individual students should pursue their own learning journey within the parameters of a lesson or unit.

All these students can learn and apply their information literacy skills while engaging in personalized learning. For instance, one student may complete a project about sharks in a format of his or her choice (e.g., multimedia project) while another student does the same in another format (e.g., skit) about starfish.

Through presenting projects to the entire classroom, all students are then exposed to information beyond what they personally studied. Teachers need to allot time planning for instruction by using student data, a variety of teaching strategies, and offering various choices to students.

In addition, teachers must collaborate with subject matter experts in their communities or by reaching them online. These subject matter experts may include artists, scientists, engineers, and other experts.

Insights and resources from experts strengthen classroom instructional approaches. Teachers who are better equipped with knowledge across different content areas may better structure and support deeper, wider learning experiences for learners.

For teachers who are more traditional when it comes to student learning, they will need to shift to focusing on pre-planning, followed by supporting and guiding students through classroom activities. Direct instruction to a whole class is not as effective for student engagement and student success.

As more and more students use digital technologies, teachers should use real-time data, subject matter experts, and instructional resources to give students better, more informed learning experiences and personalized feedback. Teachers need to be comfortable and savvy with:

• Collaborating with others, including students
• Analyzing data
• Integrating technology
• Guiding – rather than directing – learners to help those students create their own learning experience

Along with differing pathways for learning, teachers must use various assessments to determine the effectiveness of their instruction. However, measuring student outcomes does not have to be accomplished through assigning the exact same homework or standardized tests to all students.

Projects should attend to certain learning objectives, but they may utilize different formats based upon student choice and the type of learning environment. For an oceanography unit, children might complete and present a voiced-over PowerPoint® about sharks or a puppet show skit about starfish. Assessment criteria can address either format in an equal manner.

Ideal projects are authentic tasks for students. The shark and starfish presentations could include environmental aspects and be shared more widely within a grade level or school campus.

A child may prefer to create an informative poster and send a letter to a legislator about endangered hammerhead sharks after displaying the poster for a while in a school hallway. Another child might create a digital movie about endangered green sea turtles and safely post it on a school blog site to share the information and steps for helping such animals widely across the web.

Helping Students Master Knowledge through Individualized Learning at a Pace That Suits Their Needs

Projects can be transformative. A single student may make a significant difference locally or globally by producing work based on needs and interests.

Ideally, instructors concentrating on providing differentiated instruction should allot sufficient time, opportunity, and support for students’ strengths to be explored and developed at a pace they prefer. Through this educational style focused on personalized learning, students will likely thrive and progress. An exciting learning experience that encourages students to participate at their own pace and in their preferred ways should result in mastery and competency-based success.

Considerations of the Personalized Learning Process

Personalized learning work incorporates educational approaches – such as individualized instruction and differentiated learning – and builds upon them to transform students’ education. Schools and districts will need to take steps such as:

• Providing some training to teachers to help them create a personalized learning environment
• Helping teachers connect to community and other subject matter experts across fields connected to grade level subjects and curriculum
• Allocating funding for technology

Teachers should be supported by educational leaders when those instructors collaborate with others, use data to inform instruction, and serve as guides in the classroom. They need to be equipped with personalized learning strategies that help different students with different needs.

More and more technology tools are appearing in classrooms. As a result, school districts must create or update policies that ensure student safety, ethics, privacy, and protection.

Clearly, various organizations and individuals define personalized learning in different ways. Ultimately, educators and educational leaders should work toward applying personalized learning strategies to learners, whether students are inside in-person classrooms or receiving their education online. Such a change has the potential for transforming education.

The Master of Education Degree at American Public University

For adult learners interested in acquiring the skills and knowledge to seek a career path in education, American Public University (APU) offers an online Master of Education in Teaching. Taught by experienced faculty, courses in this program include the professional educator, classroom management for the 21st century, and maximizing student achievement through effective assessment. Other courses include personalized and individualized online learning and powerful technology applications for the active learning environments.

Students may choose from one of nine concentrations to suit their professional interests. In addition, learners may also opt to pursue the undergraduate certificates or graduate certificates.

For more details, visit APU’s education degrees and certificates program page.

Note: This program has specific admission requirements. This degree does not award professional licensure, nor does it qualify you to apply for teaching licensure. You should become familiar with the licensure or certification requirements in the state where you wish to be employed. Some programs may have specific admission requirements.

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