The document discusses how personalized learning can help address educators' frustrations that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes three levels of personalized learning - differentiation, individualization, and personalization - with personalization being the most student-centered. The document recommends that schools address circadian rhythm issues in teenage students by reducing day length and starting classes later. It also argues schools must help provide devices and internet access to support equitable learning opportunities. Finally, it outlines five tactics educators can use to implement more personalized learning both in-person and remotely, such as using student feedback to guide instruction and giving students agency in assessing their own learning.

1. ACADEMIA Letters
Personalised Learning; an answer to some of the
educator’s COVID19 frustrations
Craig Trevor Hansen, University of Applied Research Development
With the sudden onset of COVID19, many schools and their teachers were forced to create
online classrooms, equip students and teachers with devices and quickly train both academic
and non-academic staff in digital citizenship, including online safety. For some, the transition
to teaching online for the entire day was smooth despite increased preparation time. For others,
it was and continues to be a nightmare (Kim et al., 2021) due to a lack of administrative
leadership, training, and resourcing.
Some key frustrations and challenges included, but were not limited to:
• Students with no device or being uncontactable - this reduced the family’s opportunity
to receive a school device or subsidized internet connection
• The changing circadian rhythm of students in their teens or older - many students pre-
ferred to stay up late at night socializing or playing games with little supervision during
the day to ensure students were ready and engaging with teacher-led classes
• Embarrassment or hesitancy on the side of both teachers and students as they were on-
screen with little online etiquette training - some students refused to turn on their camera
while others never turned their camera or mic off while they ate, used the bathroom, or
fought with their siblings, all live while in class
• Low-levels of interaction or coaching - teachers were unfamiliar with classroom man-
agement strategies in the online space, use of breakout rooms, and accountability tactics
The frustrations of teaching online during the pandemic have provided a rich list of prob-
lems that educators can seek to respond to in meaningful ways that may increase personalized
Academia Letters, August 2021
Corresponding Author: Craig Trevor Hansen, craig@uard.ac.nz
Citation: Hansen, C.T. (2021). Personalised Learning; an answer to some of the educator’s COVID19
frustrations. Academia Letters, Article 2514. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2514.
1
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

2. learning, student agency, and reduced teacher administration time. It is important to under-
stand that Personalised learning has three levels:
1. Differentiation - at this level, the amount of work or speed of work is changed based on
a student’s ability. They may be required to only complete questions 1 to 5 of a 15 item
test, or they may have 30 minutes to complete an activity that usually has a time limit
of 10 minutes. Students are taught the skills they need prior to needing them.
2. Individualization - while this strategy provides a variety of learning experiences with
student choice in the speed of completion, the learning materials and topics are still
generated by the teacher. Students may be taught the skills they need prior to needing
them by the teacher and may have a peer tutor assisting them.
3. Personalization - at the most student-centered learning level, students are included in the
design process with the educator. Students share their prior knowledge, create questions
to pursue and teachers identify the curriculum learning outcomes that are best suited to
the student-led context. The skills required by the student are taught as and when they
are needed by the teacher, who groups students according to the skills they need, and
usually students are co-educators.
In answer to the circadian rhythm changes in teenage and older students, schools can
choose to reduce the school day length. Additionally, the start time of classes can be set to a
later time that allows students to rest and be fully awake for classes. This is particularly im-
portant when large numbers of students may have no adult at home during the day to mandate
an early rise and reasonable bedtime. Lack of sleep, erratic bedtimes, and school start times
have been seen to impact negatively on academic performance (Wolfson & Carskadon, 2003).
Schools that established later class start times and shorter days during pandemic lockdowns
in response to student needs can systemize this approach through policies, procedures, and
training for educators. This approach may also have a positive impact on teacher wellbeing -
this is a worthy topic of future research.
While personal device ownership, insurance, and family internet access may have seemed
outside the purview of schools it is now directly related to equity and inclusion. The pandemic
has proven that schools and governments must directly intervene to support families to access
learning opportunities (Hipkins, 2020). One local community school, where the author leads
the development team connected with a commercial internet provider and now offers free
broadband routers with subsidized data connections. The increased availability of the internet
and school-funded and managed devices remove two frustrations for educators and increases
learning opportunities.
Academia Letters, August 2021
Corresponding Author: Craig Trevor Hansen, craig@uard.ac.nz
Citation: Hansen, C.T. (2021). Personalised Learning; an answer to some of the educator’s COVID19
frustrations. Academia Letters, Article 2514. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2514.
2
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

3. Daily classroom practices need to reflect lock-down strategies to ensure a smooth transi-
tion from learning at school to learning at home and indeed, learning everywhere with per-
sonalized programming. How can this be achieved? The following tactics may assist:
1. Start with the end in mind: plan using shared online tools with other teachers in the
same department or grade level using a backward design approach (which is proven
to create effective learning experiences, (Graff, 201), with a focus on assessments first
(evidence of learning). This ensures the wider pedagogical content knowledge in the
team is captured in one place for novice teachers and senior leaders to implement (Gess-
Newsome et al., 2019) and creates a community of practice through online tools not
limited to a physical school meeting.
2. Organize classroom learning using a learning management system (LMS) such as Google
Classroom, with links to online collaborative documents such as Google Sheets, Docs,
Forms, Slides, and Google Drive to host short videos and student resources (Embrett et
al., 2020). Ensure a mobile-first approach (Khaddage et al., 2016)by having less text,
more video, and audio learning experiences through applications that students already
use with security features.
3. Use Flipgrid.com, Google Forms, shared online documents, and similar tools to capture
the prior knowledge of students and their ‘big questions’ which drive deep learning
(Abendschein et al., 2018) about the topics to be covered before teaching. This allows
teachers to groups students according to:
(a) their expertise that can be shared with other groups,
(b) their big questions to drive inquiry and teacher support,
(c) the order, time of day, or working style they want to use to find answers to their
questions, and
(d) the particular online, collaborative technologies (video, slides, animations, etc.)
students decide to use to demonstrate the way they found answers to their big
questions, so teachers can support teams and individuals to both discover and
present with increasing effectiveness.
4. Embed reflection and journaling into every assessment, assignment, quiz, test, or exam
that measures student learning. Reflection allows students to discuss their learning jour-
ney, the value of their own big questions, the effectiveness of their teamwork, and the
depth of their own learning (Módra, 1989).
Academia Letters, August 2021
Corresponding Author: Craig Trevor Hansen, craig@uard.ac.nz
Citation: Hansen, C.T. (2021). Personalised Learning; an answer to some of the educator’s COVID19
frustrations. Academia Letters, Article 2514. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2514.
3
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

4. 5. Increasingly allow students to view their assessment data so they can plan what they
need to learn, schedule time with peers and teachers, and commit to the technology
they will use to develop, answer and demonstrate their own learning; this is the heart of
student agency and undoubted impact on academic performance and perceived learning
experience (Luo et al., 2019).
The five tactics above are by no means exhaustive, but they do provide a process by which
educators can increasingly implement personalized learning for each student both in the phys-
ical classroom and during times of restricted physical instruction. The frustrations of teachers
impact their wellbeing, which no doubt impacts the quality of instruction that students receive.
What was unknown in terms of learning during a pandemic is now more known. Educational
leaders need to lead with the worst-case scenario in mind, training, equipping, and supporting
teachers to personalize learning both inside and outside the classroom, in the community, and
at home.
References
Abendschein, B., Giorgio, G., Roth, A., & Bender, J. (2018). Engaging Students in the Basic
Course By Asking Big Questions. 30(6). https://ecommons.udayton.edu/bcca/vol30/iss1/
6
Embrett, M., Liu, R., Aubrecht, K., Koval, A., & Lai, J. (2020). Thinking Together, Working
Apart: Leveraging a Community of Practice to Facilitate Productive and Meaningful Re-
mote Collaboration. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 10.34172/ijhpm.2020.122
Gess-Newsome, J., Taylor, J., Carlson, J., Gardner, A., Wilson, C., & Stuhlsatz, M. (2019).
Teacher pedagogical content knowledge, practice, and student achievement. International
Journal of Science Education, 41(7), 944-963. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2016.
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Graff, N. (2011). “An Effective and Agonizing Way to Learn”: Backwards Design and New
Teachers’ Preparation for Planning Curriculum. Teacher Education Quarterly, 38(3), 151-
168. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23479622
Hipkins, C. (2020, April 8). Covid19: Government moving quickly to roll out learning from
home. The official website of the New Zealand Government. https://www.beehive.govt.
nz/release/covid19-government-moving-quickly-roll-out-learning-home
Academia Letters, August 2021
Corresponding Author: Craig Trevor Hansen, craig@uard.ac.nz
Citation: Hansen, C.T. (2021). Personalised Learning; an answer to some of the educator’s COVID19
frustrations. Academia Letters, Article 2514. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2514.
4
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

5. Khaddage, F., Müller, W., & Flintoff, K. (2016). Advancing Mobile Learning in Formal
And Informal Settings via Mobile App Technology: Where to From Here, and How?
Educational Technology & Society, 19(3), 16-26.
Kim, L., Leary, R., & Asbury, K. (2021). Teachers’ narratives during COVID-19 partial
school reopenings: an exploratory study. Educational Research, 63, 1-17. 10.1080/00131881.2021.1918014
Luo, H., Yang, T., & Zuo, M. (2019). Impact of student agency on learning performance and
learning experience in a flipped classroom. British Journal of Educational Technology,
50(2), 819-831.
Módra, H. (1989). Critical Reflections on Distance Education (1st ed.). Routledge.
Wolfson, A., & Carskadon, M. (2003). Understanding adolescent’s sleep patterns and school
performance: a critical appraisal. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 7(6), 491-506. https://doi.org/
10.1016/S1087-0792(03)90003-7
Academia Letters, August 2021
Corresponding Author: Craig Trevor Hansen, craig@uard.ac.nz
Citation: Hansen, C.T. (2021). Personalised Learning; an answer to some of the educator’s COVID19
frustrations. Academia Letters, Article 2514. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2514.
5
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0