Adaptive software
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Adaptive software is a general term that refers to any computer software that uses user input to change its behavior. In education, this is done with the intent to enhance learning software to better benefit students and educators. Constantly shifting requirements and standards in the education field necessitate a way to gauge effectiveness of learning strategies and assessments. Adaptive software is an attempt at doing so by tracing mouse movements, time spent on certain questions or activities, and what students get right or wrong in assessments. There are as many different types of software as there are software design companies, and so there are many different approaches. Some software may present information, followed by a test, and then only make adjustments to the learning tasks after analyzing the student's test results. Some may offer hints when a question is answered incorrectly, and use the number of hints given to determine whether or not a student needs more help. When discussing how "adaptive" a specific piece of software is, it is important to know how often, and in what ways the software assesses a student's learning. This information then serves to improve future software and understanding of the educational process.[1]
Ideally, adaptive software would learn to adapt to individual students, delivering information in ways that work best depending on the student using the program. In this way, educational data would be presented to students much more efficiently. Currently, although analyzing learning data is almost unanimously viewed as helpful, it is unclear whether current adaptive software is fulfilling the goals set forth by its designers.[2][3]
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