Stakeholders’ Experiences with Digital Personalized Learning Platforms in the Dominican Republic 

• In Event: Enabling teachers to harness digital personalized learning to accelerate learning outcomes

Proposal

This qualitative study explored the perceptions and experiences of students, parents, teachers, and other education stakeholders involved in Prográmate, a project that uses a digital personalized learning (DPL) platform to develop secondary school students’ math skills and knowledge in the Dominican Republic. It builds on the quantitative data to try and understand the implementation process and the enabling and constraining factors that shaped student engagement with the platform. It draws on interviews and focus group discussions with 231 students, parents, teachers, school leaders, and other education stakeholders.

Some enabling factors for successful implementation were access to reliable internet, electivity, and devices. Teachers and students both had to have the digital skills to navigate the platform. Teachers specifically needed to be able to monitor student engagement and progress by accessing the data analytics. Successful DPL requires involvement from all members of the learning team, including school leaders, pedagogical coordinators, and parents.

The study found that students and teachers thought that the platform engaging and fun to use. Teachers learned new strategies to use with their students, and valued the data analytics, which allowed them to monitor student progress. However, teachers generally agreed they needed more pedagogical and technical support.

Students enjoyed being able to watch their progress and compete with their peers on the platform. Some students mentioned how they learned new skills, including critical thinking and problem-solving, digital literacy, or reading skills. Yet, many students preferred to learn directly from their teacher, because they felt teachers could more easily adapt the feedback and support that they provide compared to the platform. Both students and teachers also felt frustrated by technological challenges.

Based on these findings, the report offers six key recommendations for designing and implementing effective DPL programs. First, school-based DPL programs should be co-designed with teachers and other education personnel. This will help ensure that project goals, content, and structure are relevant and aligned to teachers’ workloads and school conditions. Second, implementers should ensure adequate timing and sufficient duration of project implementation. Consideration for academic calendars and extracurricular activities is critical, and ensuring teachers and students have sufficient time to familiarize themselves with the DPL platform will help maximize impact on learning. Third, teachers should be provided with ongoing support, so they can better support students. They must be equipped not only with an initial training or workshop but also with ongoing support, so that they are better able to facilitate implementation and student learning. Fourth, there should be an enabling technological environment. A key challenge was access to devices and reliable Internet connectivity in school and at home. Fifth, learning content should be diversified by modality, as well as level. DPL platforms should consider students’ low literacy levels and provide support in not just written text but also through audio and images that can enhance understanding. Finally, the report has a call to action to fund, commission, and conduct more DPL implementation research, including in formal school settings.

Author

• Juan David Baron, The World Bank